Suchergebnisse

"Religion" has retaken a front seat in the news. Its presence in the media is echoed in the concerns of policymakers, whence it is more strongly felt again in the thinking and writing of social scientists. Concerning religion, "resurgence" is a word that shows up in many a social science title of late. For scholars such as sociologist Rodney Stark, this language is merely further evidence of a deep-seated secularist inattention in the social sciences: religion has never been absent from human affairs, it just hasn't been of interest to prejudiced scholars. "Pluralism, not secularism, is the dominant trend in an 'age of explosive, pervasive religiosity,'" argues former secularization theorist Peter Berger in the title words of his 2006 article. The three books under consideration here do not share directly in either of these arguments. Nor do any make a claim for "resurgence," though each author acknowledges some version of the secularization myth and its dismantling in developments and events of the recent past, and each knowingly writes in that context (Benne, 2–6; Buruma, 1–3; Beiner, xiv n11, 4–5, 312).

Neorealism and some versions of realism seek to furnish nomothetic theories of the international system at the same time that they also strive to prescribe policy for political leaders. Insofar as practical advice is insufficiently articulated by means of either nomothesis or the structural theoretical framework that (neo-)realist paradigms supply, these two aspirations seem contradictory. This essay is an examination of what contemporary realism and, especially, neorealism require to make practical wisdom available for practitioners. It argues that narrative, which is exemplified in the so-called classical realism of Thucydides, remains a crucial component of practical realism and neorealism.

Heilke reviews 'Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Transition to Postmodernity' by Gregory Bruce Smith.

Heilke reviews 'Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives' by Michael J. Perry.