Suchergebnisse

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Northern Ireland 'Troubles', Ulster's once dominant unionists are an increasingly alienated people. In this timely assessment of the prospects for peace, Steve Bruce examines the embittered world-view of two key sections of Ulster unionism: the loyalist terrorists and the evangelical supporters of Ian Paisley. To get to the heart of the unionist position he asks how they see the last twenty-five years, what they want from the future, what they think they will get, what they will accept, and what they will fight to oppose. Professor Bruce describes the Troubles as a deeply entrenched ethnic conflict. He argues that a failure to appreciate the strength of loyalist identity has prevented a proper understanding of the Troubles and that continued neglect of the majority makes strategies for peace pointless or counter-productive

Este artigo defende que a tese moderna da secularização é, acima de tudo, uma explicação do passado das sociedades europeias e de seus territórios coloniais e que, contrariamente a seus críticos, não foi concebida como um modelo universal. Tais mudanças históricas relevantes não podem ser simplesmente repetidas porque, embora a secularização da Europa não tenha tido precedentes, atualmente existem sociedades amplamente seculares que podem atrair emulação ou rejeição. O que se pode esperar e por quê, é detalhado antes de se considerar o caso brasileiro. O artigo conclui que, não obstante seja cedo para garantir que as mutações brasileiras se encaixam na expetativa de que a modernização enfraquece a religião, provavelmente podemos concluir que são minimamente consistentes com essa expetativa.

Abstract
This article examines the evidence that largely secular societies are experiencing a process of re-sacralisation. It first dismisses four diversions: taking examples from societies that have never been secular; exaggerating the demographics and religiosity of migrant minorities; missing the fact that religious institutions can only hope to have public influence if they can make a secular case for their preferences; and mistaking notoriety for popularity. It then shows that adherence to Christianity continues to decline apace as does specifically Christian belief. None of the candidates for replacement-non-Christian religions, new religious movements and alternative spirituality-has come at all close to filling the gap left by the Christian churches. Furthermore there is no evidence that governments wish to reverse the standard accommodation to religious diversity and secularity: anything in private; little or nothing in the public sphere. There is no evidence that the population at large wishes it were otherwise. On the contrary. As religion has become more controversial, religion enjoying public influence has, like religion itself, become less, not more popular. Finally, the article argues that the current scarcity of religious people, and the unusual characteristics of those who remain religious, make it ever less likely that there will be a religious revival. So that sufficient detail can be presented, the argument concentrates on the United Kingdom.

Scottish local authorities have been accused of sectarianism in hiring policies because the proportion of workers who declare their religion as Catholic falls below the Catholic proportion of the population as a whole. This rejoinder points out the methodological flaw of drawing conclusions from such incomplete data and presents an alternative way of interpreting the partial statistics. It also notes that, with the high proportion of Labour councillors who are Catholic and the Labour party's history of council control, such discrimination is highly unlikely. Finally, it draws on classic liberalism to defend workers' refusal to declare their religion.

AbstractThe absence from Britain of anything like the United States New Christian Right of the 1980s could be explained by differences in the popularity of religion or in features of the respective party and political structures. Devolution and electoral reform have encouraged British Christians to form political parties and contest elections. Examination of their performance, agendas, and candidate profiles, coupled with survey data on British attitudes to mixing religion and politics, suggests that the major difference between the United States and Britain lies in the degree of secularization rather than in political opportunity structures.