Suchergebnisse

This paper presents elements of a work in progress on the question of multiculturalism in France. A central concept for elucidating this question is the republican principle of secularity (laïcité). After a brief presentation of this principle to get a sense of the grid of interpretation it provides, we will use this grid to analyse the use of statistics in political discourse in relation to multicultural issues. As we will see, this principle along with other constitutional dispositions, do not allow for official statistics to use categories related to ethnicity or race. This lack of data on ethnic minorities in France partly explains the "French exception" in its policy towards what is usually termed in France, cultural diversity. Since 2006, the term multiculturalism has been appropriated by government officials as well as the media to describe the traditional identity and diversity politics in France. We will see how the recurrent use of elements similar to ethnic statistics in speeches by ministers in recent governments are in fact introducing the very tools associated with communitarian multiculturalism.

This paper presents elements of a work in progress on the question of multiculturalism in France. A central concept for elucidating this question is the republican principle of secularity (laïcité). After a brief presentation of this principle to get a sense of the grid of interpretation it provides, we will use this grid to analyse the use of statistics in political discourse in relation to multicultural issues. As we will see, this principle along with other constitutional dispositions, do not allow for official statistics to use categories related to ethnicity or race. This lack of data on ethnic minorities in France partly explains the "French exception" in its policy towards what is usually termed in France, cultural diversity. Since 2006, the term multiculturalism has been appropriated by government officials as well as the media to describe the traditional identity and diversity politics in France. We will see how the recurrent use of elements similar to ethnic statistics in speeches by ministers in recent governments are in fact introducing the very tools associated with communitarian multiculturalism.

This paper presents elements of a work in progress on the question of multiculturalism in France. A central concept for elucidating this question is the republican principle of secularity (laïcité). After a brief presentation of this principle to get a sense of the grid of interpretation it provides, we will use this grid to analyse the use of statistics in political discourse in relation to multicultural issues. As we will see, this principle along with other constitutional dispositions, do not allow for official statistics to use categories related to ethnicity or race. This lack of data on ethnic minorities in France partly explains the "French exception" in its policy towards what is usually termed in France, cultural diversity. Since 2006, the term multiculturalism has been appropriated by government officials as well as the media to describe the traditional identity and diversity politics in France. We will see how the recurrent use of elements similar to ethnic statistics in speeches by ministers in recent governments are in fact introducing the very tools associated with communitarian multiculturalism.

Debates about the usability of the concept of 'secularity' in academic research are not merely theoretical. Standpoints are also politically informed and arguments are sometimes emotionally charged. To some, merely using the term 'secularity' seems to inflict violence upon certain objects of research or even upon themselves. Others object to applying the concept beyond a particular arrangement of secularity, lest that defense-worthy arrangement be undermined. Taking a step back, however, the actual hermeneutical problem and historical question still seems rather clearly to be this: is it possible to uncouple the link between secularism as a political regime and secularity as an analytical concept with broader historical purchase? In this paper, I argue that the basic approach of Multiple Secularities is indeed the commendable way forward, but could be refined and improved, also by learning from the valid points of its critical alternatives. Thus, this paper aspires to shed light on two basic questions, namely, how to take 'secularity' beyond the modern West, and, as a logical prior, why take 'secularity' beyond the modern West in the first place?

This essay examines the relationship between the processes of urban change and the politically and commercially constructed nature of Buddhism since 1978 in Shanghai. After examining data from 120 temples together with ethnographic research in two downtown temples, the author finds two key changes in urban Buddhism: First, political constructions cause an increasing divide between the city center and suburban areas in the religious spaces of Buddhism. The mainstreaming of Buddhism in the downtown areas has emerged with the new trend of economic and cultural gentrification that has generated different physical and social neighborhoods. Second, not confined to being iconized as tourist sites, Buddhist temples led by powerful abbots are engaged in "niche-switching" between attracting commuters and visitors and attending to temple-based devotees. With new spatial strategies, such as the development of cultural philanthropy and interprovincial pilgrimages, temple-based clergy have to negotiate their social positions in the commercial zones. The results indicate how the neighborhood has become less important once temples extend their members' nongeographic ties.

In the public sphere of contemporary Western society, its post-Enlightenment culture is secular at large. Encouraged by the principle of equality upon which the United States of America was founded, the current culture promotes a subjective and individual mindset, which demands that everyone, regardless of gender, race, or class, possess equal representation in all fields of duty. Against this individualistic egalitarianism, the Church can seem to lag behind the times because she operates from a different model than that of modern society. While most societies in the West espouse a democratic culture and representative participation at every level of governance, the Church seems to continue the hierarchical model of the past in its operation. Yet, is it true to state that the Church is "hierarchical?" If so, what does that entail? With an ongoing tension between the Church and secularity, a genuine discussion is necessary to mend the challenges and misunderstandings. While the secular society, at times, promotes ideologies that contradict church teachings, there also is a secular dimension to the Church. In this sense, church and society are not against each another; rather, she is found within society carrying out her tasks in the temporal order. As such, the lay people who share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly offices by the virtue of their baptism have a particular vocation to evangelize secularity. More precisely, they are secular and they encounter secularity in their daily life. With the authority that they hold in the Church, they bring Christ to those who they encounter daily. The Church, in this light, is within the culture at large. The secular dimension of the Church can flourish if the authorities within the Church work in a collegial manner. In other words, the lay people must have a genuine dialogue with the magisterium and theologians so that the truths of the faith will influence secularity. Collegiality, however, should not be mistaken for democracy. While it is understandable that Americans, who are used to democratic structures, may push for more participation by disregarding her teachings, the nature of the Church is more complex than a mere political system. This thesis acknowledges the proper authority which is given to each group within the Church, both in the sacraments and in jurisdiction. The ongoing conversation in the thesis treats the nature, leadership, and authority of the Church that is scriptural and traditional. The ideas contained in the works of Yves Congar will ultimately help in resolving the challenges that the Church face today. By speaking about his perception of authority that is given to every individual in the Church, this thesis clarifies for the readers the proper function of priests, bishops, and laity, functions which, in the past, have been overly confused and even abused. As a result, the resolution of current challenges will encourage the entire People of God to live out pastorally the sacramental and juridical functions that they hold.

In this paper, the authors deal with the analysis of new antidiscrimination legal solutions proposed by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which would redefine the relations between the state and the church. The focus of the research will be especially on those solutions that could threaten, on the one hand, the principle of secularity, and on the other hand, some of the fundamental human rights, such as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The solutions proposed by the amendments to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, it seems, could be problematic from the standpoint of guaranteeing certain fundamental human rights and freedoms, but also the autonomy of churches and religious communities. Some of the proposals made by the Ministry could be seen as an attempt to return the verbal offence to the Serbian legal system. Accordingly, the authors will try to re-examine the possible impact of changes in antidiscrimination legislation on the relationship between the state and the church, but also on the possible suppression of religious rights and freedoms in the Republic of Serbia in the coming period.

Este artículo analiza cómo las democracias europeas están tolerando –cuando no promoviendo– la proliferación de mensajes denigrantes hacia aquellos ciudadanos que viven su religión, especialmente la católica, y reclaman la presencia de esta experiencia en el ámbito público; sufriendo por todo ello una discriminación que es amparada sistemáticamente por las instituciones políticas, alcanzando niveles de delitos de odio que en ningún caso serían admisibles en relación al género, la raza, la discapacidad o la orientación sexual. Los delitos de odio por motivos religiosos hacia el catolicismo se han convertido en norma, legitimando las afrentas hacia una religión que se caricaturiza como colonialista y a unos seguidores a los que se etiqueta como privilegiados explotadores, siendo todo ello producto de una confusión interesada entre el fenómeno de la secularización y el del laicismo. Así, desde la premisa jurídico-político de la laicidad del Estado, se demoniza como fundamentalista cualquier manifestación de un creyente católico que, desde el respeto absoluto a los valores democráticos, proponga sus principios como valores propositivos para la sociedad y la vida pública; aptitud que, en aras de la paz social y como manifestación de un laicismo que se ha convertido en una ideología que busca erradicar del ámbito púbico cualquier vinculación de Dios en las vidas humanas y en sus estructuras, es tole-rada paradójicamente en relación a religiones objetivamente fundamentalistas o respecto a posiciones visceralmente hostiles hacia la religión. Consideramos que este trato es aplicado al catolicismo con el fin de acallar su influencia moral, ya que, además de agente fundamental en el proceso histórico de institucionalización del poder temporal, constituye un baluarte frente a cualquier abuso de intromisión política en la vida de las personas. En definitiva, en aras de instaurar el pensamiento único del Estado, se trataría de deslegitimar el mensaje evangélico de la Iglesia en su denuncia a todo tipo intervencionismo, dependencia y control estatal que vulnere el pleno desarrollo de la libertad y la dignidad humana. ; This article analyses how European democracies are tolerating - if not promoting -the proliferation of denigrating messages towards those citizens who live their religion, especially Catholicism, and demand the presence of this experience in the public sphere; suffering discrimination that is systematically protected by political institutions, reaching levels of hate crimes that would never be admissible in relation to gender, race, disability or sexual orientation. Religiously motivated hate crimes against Catholicism have become the norm, legitimising affronts towards a religion that is caricatured as colonialist and followers who are labelled as privileged exploiters, all of this being the product of a self-interested confusion between the phenomenon of secularisation and that of secularism. Thus, from the legal-political premise of the secularity of the State, any manifestation of a Catholic believer who, with absolute respect for democratic values, proposes his or her principles as propositional values for society and public life, is demonised as fundamentalist; An attitude that, for the sake of social peace and as a manifestation of a secularism that has become an ideology that seeks to eradicate from the public sphere any link to God in human lives and their structures, is paradoxically tolerated in relation to objectively fundamentalist religions or in relation to positions that are viscerally hostile to religion. We consider that this treatment is applied to Catholicism in order to silence its moral influence, since, in addition to being a fundamental agent in the historical process of institutionalisation of temporal power, it constitutes a bulwark against any abuse of political meddling in people's lives. In short, in order to establish the State's single way of thinking, the aim would be to delegitimise the Church's evangelical message in its denunciation of any kind of state interventionism, dependence and control that violates the full development of freedom and human dignity. ; peerReviewed

The secularization thesis is a prominent paradigm within the sociology of religion. It holds that modernity has made religion increasingly obsolete. This paper refutes the secularization thesis, arguing that religion was essential to modernity (particularly in its pertinence to the development of capitalism and democracy). Yet if religion is embedded within modern civic and political life, then what do we mean when we speak of "the secular"? I argue that secularity is a set of orientations and sensibilities towards religion that have evolved through their own repeated iteration within academia on religion. The discourse of the secular is crucial to the modern political project of governance; it creates and reifies power relations not only between the populace and the elite, but also between the west and the less modernized regions of the middle east. However, the discourses of religion and secularity are entirely subject to changing cultural conditions. I posit that postmodernity-- an era characterized by rampant consumerism and mobility – has engendered a new form of religiosity in which the individual is able to combine tenets and traditions from a multitude of traditions without experiencing cultural or cognitive dissonance in so doing. Because of religion's reflexivity to societal change and the consistent impact it has made on the fruition of such development, the secularization thesis must be replaced by a more robust paradigm built upon the interconnectedness of the postmodern world and the longstanding interaction between religion, secularity and structures of power.

"Secular Societies, Spiritual Selves brings together ethnographic research to address how the overlaps and differentiations between spirituality, secularity and religion are gendered. The book examines how 'spirituality' has emerged as a relatively 'silent' category with which people signal that they are looking for a way to navigate between the categories of the religious and the secular, and considers how this is related to, explicitly or implicitly, gendered ways of being and self-constitution. The contributors discuss the intersections between spirituality, religion and secularism in different geographical areas, ranging from the Netherlands, Portugal and Lithuania to Canada, the United States and Mexico. Exploring the spiritual experiences of women and their struggle for a more gender equal way of approaching the divine, the chapters also examine the experience of men and of those who challenge binary sexual identities advocating for a queer spirituality. This volume will be of interest to scholars of the anthropology and sociology of religion as well as religious studies and gender studies"--

Based on over 600 interviews and surveys of over 20,000 scientists worldwide, Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion tells the story of the relationship between science and religion in the lives of scientists. The book makes four key claims: there are more religious scientists then we might think; religion and science overlap in scientific work; scientists - even atheist scientists - see spirituality in science; and finally, the idea that religion and science must conflict is primarily an invention of the West.