Suchergebnisse

This book provides an account and explanation of a fundamental dilemma facing secular states: the "legitimacy gap" left by the withdrawal of religion as a source of legitimacy. Legitimacy represents a particular problem for the secular state. The "secular" in all its manifestations is very much linked to the historical rise of the modern state. It should not be seen as a category that separates culture and religion from politics, but rather as one that links these different dimensions. In the first part of the book, Depaigne explains how modern constitutional law has moved away from a "substantive" legitimacy, based in particular on natural law, towards a 'procedural' legitimacy based on popular sovereignty and human rights. Depaigne examines three case studies of constitutional responses to legitimacy challenges which articulate the three main sources of "procedural" legitimacy (people, rights, and culture) in different ways: the "neutral model" (constitutions based on the "displacement of culture"); the "multicultural model" (constitutions based on diversity and pluralism); and the "asymmetric model" (constitutions based on tradition). Even if secularization can be considered European in its origin, it is best seen today as a global phenomenon, which needs to be approached by taking into account the particular cultural dimension in which it is rooted. Depaigne's detailed study shows how secularization has moved either towards "nationalization" linked to a particular national identity (as in France and, to some extent, in India)-or towards "de-secularization", whereby secularism is displaced by particular cultural norms, as in Malaysia --Front flap of book

Modern British intellectual history has been a particularly flourishing field of enquiry in recent years, and these two tightly integrated volumes contain major new essays by almost all of its leading proponents. The contributors examine the history of British ideas over the past two centuries from a number of perspectives that together constitute a major new overview of the subject. History, Religion, and Culture begins with eighteenth-century historiography, especially Gibbon's Decline and Fall. It takes up different aspects of the place of religion in nineteenth-century cultural and political life, such as attitudes towards the native religions of India, the Victorian perception of Oliver Cromwell, and the religious sensibility of John Ruskin. Finally, in discussions which range up to the middle of the twentieth century, the volume explores relations between scientific ideas about change or development and assumptions about the nature and growth of the national community.

This book provides a multidisciplinary examination of the age old issue of Jewish blood in all its various manifestations, both real and imagined. It provides historical, religious and cultural examples ranging from the "Blood Libel" through to the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg

Machine generated contents note: Introduction Judith R. Baskin and Kenneth Seeskin; 1. The Hebrew Bible and the early history of Israel Marc Zvi Brettler; 2. The Second Temple Period Alan F. Segal; 3. The rabbinic movement Hayim Lapin; 4. The Jewish experience in the Muslim world Norman A. Stillman; 5. Jewish life in Western Christendom Robert Chazan; 6. Jews and Judaism in early modern Europe Adam Shear; 7. European Jewry: 1800-1933 Marsha L. Rozenblit; 8. Jews and Judaism in the United States Pamela S. Nadell; 9. The Shoah and its legacies Peter Hayes; 10. The founding of modern Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict Bernard Reich; 11. The centrality of Talmud Michael S. Berger; 12. Judaism as a religious system Harvey E. Goldberg; 13. Jewish worship and liturgy Ruth Langer; 14. Jewish private life: gender, marriage, and the lives of women Judith R. Baskin; 15. Jewish philosophy Kenneth Seeskin; 16. Jewish mysticism Hava Tirosh-Samuelson; 17. Modern Jewish thought Leora Batnitzky; 18. Contemporary forms of Judaism Dana Evan Kaplan; 19. Jewish popular culture Jeffrey Shandler; 20. Aspects of Israeli society Judith R Baskin; 21. The futures of world Jewish communities Calvin Goldscheider; Glossary; Time line