Download or read book Between Relativism and Fundamentalism written by Peter L. Berger and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our contemporary culture is dominated by two extremes relativism and fundamentalism. Neither is desirable: relativism claims that all questions of truth are irrelevant, whereas fundamentalism insists on sole possession of absolute truth. Internationally renowned sociologist of religion Peter Berger has gathered a group of scholars to consider how, from out of different traditions, one can define a middle position between both extremes. / After an extensive introductory overview by Berger, three essays ( sociological descriptions ) give an objective picture of how relativism and fundamentalism play out in today s world. In the second part ( theological directions ) authors from several different Christian traditions and one conservative Jewish tradition flesh out a normative middle ground that is neither relativist they affirm specific truth claims nor fundamentalist their affirmations include tolerance of the claims of others.
Download or read book Fundamentalism vs Relativism in a Modern Society written by Julien Appler and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - Religion, grade: 1,7, University of Heidelberg (IUED), course: Übersetzen als kulturwissenschaftliches Handeln I, language: English, abstract: At first glance we seem to know what fundamentalism really means. We hear it on the radio, watch it on TV and read about it in the newspaper. Fundamentalism is nowadays often connected to Islam or religion in general, often to terrorism. Nonetheless, the question remains: where does this word come from and what exactly does it mean? Relativism is another big word often connected to philosophy and great thinkers of the past like Nietzsche. The problem with relativism is the same as with fundamentalism. It seems that there is no real answer to what fundamentalism or relativism actually refers. Therefore, both of them are divided into several subcategories, and because of that, it is not possible to throw light on every little detail. For an example, one can visit the German Wikipedia entry about ‘Fundamentalismus’ (English: fundamentalism). The authors of that entry started a discussion about how it should be written to make absolutely clear that it gets the true sense of fundamentalism. Even the English Wikipedia entry is not to everyone’s satisfaction and lacks improvement. On the other hand, relativism at first sounds easy to understand, but it is hard to grasp. Mainly because it is rarely used and for that reason, there are fewer sources for definitions than for fundamentalism. In the modern times we are living in now, both of these movements, one could almost say, developed rapidly. This is another reason for setting those two words in direct comparison, but the outcome also depends on the sources available.
Download or read book Postmodernism Reason and Religion written by Ernest Gellner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1992. On questions of faith, Ernest Gellner believes, three ideological options are available to us today. One is the return to a genuine and firm faith in a religious tradition. The other is a form of relativism which abandons the notion of unique truth altogether and resigns itself to treating truth as relative to the society or culture in question. The third, which Gellner calls enlightenment rationalism, upholds the idea that there is a unique truth, but denies that any society can ever possess it definitively. Learned and stimulating, Professor Gellner’s book is an important contribution to our understanding of postmodernism and the relations between Islam and the West. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the ideological condition of contemporary society.
Download or read book Judge and be Judged written by Eric Bain-Selbo and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Judge and Be Judged offers insights into moral life and moral judgment that aim to help in understanding our society's tendency toward either fundamentalism or relativism. Framing his argument with an exegesis of Jesus' teaching "Judge not, that you be not judged," Eric Bain-Selbo provides some helpful conceptual tools for thinking about that predicament, and finding a way past it. By examining the social function of shame, the possibility of cross-cultural understanding, and obstacles to moral judgment in the college classroom, this book charts a path that helps us to avoid both fundamentalism and relativism."--BOOK JACKET
Download or read book What are They Saying about Fundamentalisms written by Peter A. Huff and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the age of fundamentalism. An axis of sacred rebellion cuts through modern experience, challenging all who would accommodate religion to secular culture and a ?dictatorship of relativism.' Sometimes violent, always militant, fundamentalists have profoundly transformed the religious landscape of modern society.This book offers a critical and empathetic survey of the world's major fundamentalist movements and the innovative scholars who study them. Peter Huff, an advocate for interfaith dialogue with fundamentalists, covers the full range of the cross-cultural fundamentalist phenomenon'from the American Protestant prototype to ?muscular? protest movements transfiguring every religion around the globe. Examining the pioneers of interdisciplinary fundamentalism studies, he provides an insider's view of the academic debates driving the rapidly expanding field.Highlight:? The book explores fundamentalist trends within all major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
Download or read book Two Different Worlds written by Charles E. Garrison and published by University of Delaware Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the assumption that the biblical text is absolutist, this study renders the wall of division between Christian absolutism and cultural relativism indefensible. Its encouraging argument draws upon sociology, anthropology, and analysis of the biblical text.
Download or read book Fidelity Without Fundamentalism written by Gerard J. Hughes and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As religious believers feel themselves more threatened by the modern world, they increasingly often turn to fundamentalism. The fundamentalist insists that engaging with contemporary culture ends in the watering down of Christianity to suit the passing whims of the age. Yet Gerard J. Hughes argues in Fidelity without Fundamentalism that in fact being a faithful Christian involves avoiding fundamentalism. Believers are sometimes encouraged to sweep under the carpet issues which it is thought they should be protected from for fear they might undermine their faith. The longer-term effect of this is not to preserve their faith, but to corrode it."--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women written by C. Howland and published by Springer. This book was released on 1999-09-03 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogue on the conflict between religious fundamentalism and women's rights is often stymied by an 'all or nothing' approach: fundamentalists claim of absolute religious freedom, while some feminists dismiss religion entirely as being so imbued with patriarchy as to be eternally opposed to women's rights. This ignores, though, the experiences of religious women who suffer under fundamentalism and fight to resist it, perceiving themselves to be at once religious and feminist. In Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women , Howland provides a forum for these different scholars, both religious and nonreligious, to meet and seek common ground in their fight against fundamentalism. Through an examination of international human rights, national law, grass roots activism, and theology, this volume explores the acute problems that contemporary fundamentalist movements pose for women's equality and liberty rights.
Download or read book Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism written by Nancey Murphy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1996-10-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of the so-called two-party system of liberals and conservatives in American Protestant Christianity. Nancey Murphy advances the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought. A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. This, then, presents the opportunity to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right. The book concludes by speculating on the future and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.
Download or read book Fundamentalism and the Word of God written by J. I. Packer and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1958-12-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This modern classic by the author of Knowing God provides a comprehensive statement of the doctrine of Scripture from an evangelical perspective. J. I. Packer explores the meaning of the word "fundamentalism" and offers a clear and well-reasoned argument for the authority of the Bible and its proper role in the Christian life.
Download or read book The Many Altars of Modernity written by Peter L. Berger and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the summation of many decades of work by Peter L. Berger, an internationally renowned sociologist of religion. Secularization theory—which saw modernity as leading to a decline of religion—has been empirically falsified. It should be replaced by a nuanced theory of pluralism. In this new book, Berger outlines the possible foundations for such a theory, addressing a wide range of issues spanning individual faith, interreligious societies, and the political order. He proposes a conversation around a new paradigm for religion and pluralism in an age of multiple modernities. The book also includes responses from three eminent scholars of religion: Nancy Ammerman, Detlef Pollack, and Fenggang Yang.
Download or read book Religion and Human Rights written by Project on Religion and Human Rights and published by Human Rights Watch. This book was released on 1994 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In Praise of Doubt written by Peter Berger and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-07-23 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A book of great practical wisdom by authors who have profound insight into the intellectual dynamics governing contemporary life.” —Dallas Willard, author of Knowing Christ Today In In Praise of Doubt, two world-renowned social scientists, Peter L. Berger (The Homeless Mind, Questions of Faith) and Anton C. Zijderveld (The Abstract Society, On Clichés), map out how we can survive the political, moral, and religious challenges raised by the extreme poles of relativism and fundamentalism. A book that asks and answers Big Questions, In Praise of Doubt offers invaluable guidance on how to have convictions without becoming a fanatic.
Download or read book Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist written by James C. Alexander and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2008-04-30 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been said that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Drawing on this notion, Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist: Understanding and Responding to Christian Absolutism recounts the author’s journey as a member of the fundamentalist subculture as a child and his life among the Jesus Freaks (Jesus Movement)-- a congregation of deserters from the hippie drug culture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. This movement, though of great importance in the culture of the times, now largely goes unrecognized--although the Jesus Movement provided the cover stories for many prominent secular magazines chronicling the youth culture of the late 60's and early 70's. While, not devoted to a history of the Jesus Movement, the book does a service in bringing a discussion of the Jesus Freak phenomenon to the attention of today's readers. The book goes on to recount the author's eventual abandonment of fundamentalism. As the story unfolds, critical research related to the psychology, sociology, and history of the subculture provides a framework for understanding Christian fundamentalism. Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist recounts a gripping personal pilgrimage—at times both humorous and painful— that is rooted in honest reflection and informed by theory and research. It offers worthwhile reading for mainline Christians, curious evangelicals, recovering fundamentalists or anyone wanting to understand this timely topic.
Download or read book Fundamentalism and American Culture written by George M. Marsden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-02-09 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many American's today are taking note of the surprisingly strong political force that is the religious right. Controversial decisions by the government are met with hundreds of lobbyists, millions of dollars of advertising spending, and a powerful grassroots response. How has the fundamentalist movement managed to resist the pressures of the scientific community and the draw of modern popular culture to hold on to their ultra-conservative Christian views? Understanding the movement's history is key to answering this question. Fundamentalism and American Culture has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements. For Marsden, fundamentalists are not just religious conservatives; they are conservatives who are willing to take a stand and to fight. In Marsden's words (borrowed by Jerry Falwell), "a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is angry about something." In the late nineteenth century American Protestantism was gradually dividing between liberals who were accepting new scientific and higher critical views that contradicted the Bible and defenders of the more traditional evangelicalism. By the 1920s a full-fledged "fundamentalist" movement had developed in protest against theological changes in the churches and changing mores in the culture. Building on networks of evangelists, Bible conferences, Bible institutes, and missions agencies, fundamentalists coalesced into a major protest movement that proved to have remarkable staying power. For this new edition, a major new chapter compares fundamentalism since the 1970s to the fundamentalism of the 1920s, looking particularly at the extraordinary growth in political emphasis and power of the more recent movement. Never has it been more important to understand the history of fundamentalism in our rapidly polarizing nation. Marsen's carefully researched and engrossing work remains the best way to do just that.
Download or read book Relativism and Post Truth in Contemporary Society written by Mikael Stenmark and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book approaches post-truth and relativism in a multidisciplinary fashion. Researchers from astrophysics, philosophy, psychology, media studies, religious studies, anthropology, social epistemology and sociology discuss and analyse the impact of relativism and post-truth both within the academy and in society at large. The motivation for this multidisciplinary approach is that relativism and post-truth are multifaceted phenomena with complex histories that have played out differently in different areas of society and different academic disciplines. There is hence a multitude of ways in which to use and understand the concepts and the phenomena to which they refer, and a multitude of critiques and defenses as well. No single volume can capture the ongoing discussions in different areas in all their complexity, but the different chapters of the book can function as exemplifications of the ramifications these phenomena have had.
Download or read book Pragmatic Fashions written by John J. Stuhr and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John J. Stuhr, a leading voice in American philosophy, sets forth a view of pragmatism as a personal work of art or fashion. Stuhr develops his pragmatism by putting pluralism forward, setting aside absolutism and nihilism, opening new perspectives on democracy, and focusing on love. He creates a space for a philosophy that is liable to failure and that is experimental, pluralist, relativist, radically empirical, radically democratic, and absurd. Full color illustrations enhance this lyrical commitment to a new version of pragmatism.
