Download or read book Religion and Political Power written by Gustavo Benavides and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1989-07-28 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the interaction between two of the most charged topics in the modern world, religion and politics. It shows the inextricable connection between religious attitudes and representations, and political activities. After an introductory chapter explores theoretically the religious articulations of political power, the authors examine the role played by religion in the current political situation in several countries. Approaching these cases as anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, the authors make visible the dialectical relationship between religion and the pursuit of political poweron the one hand, the political significance of religious choices, and on the other, the almost unavoidable need to articulate in religious terms a groups attempt to acquire, maintain, or expand political power.
Download or read book Faith and Power written by Bernard Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Lewis is recognized around the globe as one of the leading authorities on Islam. Hailed as "the world's foremost Islamic scholar" (Wall Street Journal ), as "a towering figure among experts on the culture and religion of the Muslim world" (Baltimore Sun ), and as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies" (New York Times ), Lewis is nothing less than a national treasure, a trusted voice that politicians, journalists, historians, and the general public have all turned to for insight into the Middle East. Now, Lewis has brought together writings on religion and government in the Middle East, so different than in the Western world. The collection includes previously unpublished writings, English originals of articles published before only in foreign languages, and an introduction to the book by Lewis. Acclaim for What Went Wrong? A New York Times Bestseller "Replete with the exceptional historical insight that one has come to expect from the world's foremost Islamic scholar." --Karen Elliott House, Wall Street Journal Lewis has done us all--Muslim and non-Muslim alike--a remarkable service.... The book's great strength, and its claim upon our attention, [is that] it offers a long view in the midst of so much short-term and confusing punditry on television, in the op-ed pages, on campuses and in strategic studies think tanks." --Paul Kennedy, The New York Times Book Review Acclaim for From Babel to Dragomans "Lewis has long been considered the West's leading interpreter of Mideast culture and history, and this collection only solidifies his reputation."--National Review "For more than four decades, Lewis has been one of the most respected scholars and prolific writers on the history and politics of the Middle East. In this compilation of more than 50 journal articles and essays, he displays the full range of his eloquence, knowledge, and insight regarding this pivotal and volatile region."--Booklist
Download or read book Climate Politics and the Power of Religion written by Evan Berry and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does our faith affect how we think about and respond to climate change? Climate Politics and the Power of Religion is an edited collection that explores the diverse ways that religion shapes climate politics at the local, national, and international levels. Drawing on case studies from across the globe, it stands at the intersection of religious studies, environment policy, and global politics. From small island nations confronting sea-level rise and intensifying tropical storms to high-elevation communities in the Andes and Himalayas wrestling with accelerating glacial melt, there is tremendous variation in the ways that societies draw on religion to understand and contend with climate change. Climate Politics and the Power of Religion offers 10 timely case studies that demonstrate how different communities render climate change within their own moral vocabularies and how such moral claims find purchase in activism and public debates about climate policy. Whether it be Hindutva policymakers in India, curanderos in Peru, or working-class people's concerns about the transgressions of petroleum extraction in Trinidad—religion affects how they all are making sense of and responding to this escalating global catastrophe.
Download or read book Why Politics Can t Be Freed From Religion written by Ivan Strenski and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Politics Can't be Freed From Religion is an original,erudite, and timely new book from Ivan Strenski. Itinterrogates thecentral ideas and contexts behind religion, politics, and power,proposing an alternative way in which we should think about theseissues in the twenty-first century. A timely and highly original contribution to debates aboutreligion, politics and power – and how historic and socialinfluences have prejudiced our understanding of these concepts Proposes a new theoretical framework to think about what theseideas and institutions mean in today&'s society Applies this new perspective to a variety of real-world issues,including insights into suicide bombers in the Middle East Includes radical critiques of the religious and politicalperspectives of thinkers such as Talal Asad and MichelFoucault Dislodges our conventional thinking about politics andreligion, and in doing so, helps make sense of the complexities ofour twenty-first century world
Download or read book Political Science of Religion written by Maciej Potz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-08-14 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces political science of religion – a coherent approach to the study of the political role of religion grounded in political science. In this framework, religion is viewed as a political ideology providing legitimation for power and motivating political attitudes and behaviors of the public. Religious organizations are political actors negotiating the political system in the pursuit of their faith-based objectives. Religion is thus interpreted as a power resource and religious groups as political players. The theoretical framework developed in the first part is applied to the study of theocracies and contemporary democracies, based on the case studies of Poland and the USA. The empirical analysis of resources, strategies and opportunities of religious actors demonstrates their ability to influence the politics of democracies and non-democracies alike. Using a multilevel approach, the book seeks to explain this tremendous political potential of religion.
Download or read book City of Man written by Michael Gerson and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An era has ended. The political expression that most galvanized evangelicals during the past quarter-century, the Religious Right, is fading. What's ahead is unclear. Millions of faith-based voters still exist, and they continue to care deeply about hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage, but the shape of their future political engagement remains to be formed. Into this uncertainty, former White House insiders Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner seek to call evangelicals toward a new kind of political engagement -- a kind that is better both for the church and the country, a kind that cannot be co-opted by either political party, a kind that avoids the historic mistakes of both the Religious Left and the Religious Right. Incisive, bold, and marked equally by pragmatism and idealism, Gerson and Wehner's new book has the potential to chart a new political future not just for values voters, but for the nation as a whole.
Download or read book Religion Power Politics written by Konrad Raiser and published by World Council of Churches. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The expectations that economic leaders and politicians have of religions and their leaders as guardians of the moral and ethical traditions of humanity, and of their ability to mediate in the current situations of conflict, requires religions, and not least Christian churches, to engage in critical self-reflection about their action in the public space. -- Konrad Raiser *** Religion pervades today's headlines, yet not always in a positive way. Is there a positive role for religion in the future? Focusing on the global picture and on all religions, not the least Christianity, in this book author Konrad Raiser closely probes the relationship between religion and politics in all its rich, promising, and sometimes deadly combinations. As a Christian theologian with decades of international and interreligious experience, Raiser's enlightening book wrestles with: the most contentious questions posed by the ambiguous status of religion in a post-secular world * the advent of a global economic order that leaves whole regions behind * the rise of fundamentalism in religious traditions * religion and violence * religiously-motivated terrorism. Anchored in fundamental considerations about how religion and politics relate to each other in both practice and in theory, Raiser searches for a positive cultural role for religion in today's emerging global culture and in the path to peace and justice.
Download or read book Catholics and Politics written by Kristin E. Heyer and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-29 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic political identity and engagement defy categorization. The complexities of political realities and the human nature of such institutions as church and government often produce a more fractured reality than the pure unity depicted in doctrine. Yet, in 2003 under the leadership of then-prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a "Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life." The note explicitly asserts, "The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine. A political commitment to a single isolated aspect of the Church's social doctrine does not exhaust one's responsibility toward the common good." Catholics and Politics takes up the political and theological significance of this "integral unity," the universal scope of Catholic concern that can make for strange political bedfellows, confound predictable voting patterns, and leave the church poised to critique narrowly partisan agendas across the spectrum. Catholics and Politics depicts the ambivalent character of Catholics' mainstream "arrival" in the U.S. over the past forty years, integrating social scientific, historical and moral accounts of persistent tensions between faith and power. Divided into four parts—Catholic Leaders in U.S. Politics; The Catholic Public; Catholics and the Federal Government; and International Policy and the Vatican—it describes the implications of Catholic universalism for voting patterns, international policymaking, and partisan alliances. The book reveals complex intersections of Catholicism and politics and the new opportunities for influence and risks of cooptation of political power produced by these shifts. Contributors include political scientists, ethicists, and theologians. The book will be of interest to scholars in political science, religious studies, and Christian ethics and all lay Catholics interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the tensions that can exist between church doctrine and partisan politics.
Download or read book The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere written by Judith Butler and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does or should religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.
Download or read book Faith and Power written by Felipe Hinojosa and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Faith and Power is framed within the larger processes of immigration, refugee policies, deindustrialization, the rise of the religious left and right, the human rights revolution, and the Chicana/ o, Puerto Rican, and Immigrant freedom movements. The book explores religion and religious politics as part of the larger ecosystem that has shaped Latina/o communities specifically and American politics in general"--
Download or read book Religion and Politics in Contemporary Russia written by Tobias Köllner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive original research at the local level, this book explores the relationship between Russian Orthodoxy and politics in contemporary Russia. It reveals close personal links between politicians at the local, regional and national levels and their counterparts at the equivalent level in the Russian Orthodox Church – priests and monks, bishops and archbishops – who are extensively consulted about political decisions. It outlines a convergence of conservative ideology between politicians and clerics and also highlights that, despite working closely together, there are nevertheless many tensions. The book examines in detail particular areas of cooperation and tension: reform to religious education and a growing emphasis on traditional moral values, the restitution of former church property and the introduction of new festive days. Overall, the book concludes that there is much uncertainty, ambiguity and great local variation.
Download or read book God s Rule written by Suzanne Neusner and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-06 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resisting the tendency to separate the study of religion and politics, editor Jacob Neusner pulls together a collection of ten essays in which various authors explain and explore the relationship between the world's major religions and political power. As William Scott Green writes in the introduction, "Because religion is so comprehensive, it is fundamentally about power; it therefore cannot avoid politics." Beginning with the classical sources and texts of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism and Hinduism, God's Rule begins to explore the complex nature of how each religion shapes political power, and how religion shapes itself in relation to that power. The corresponding attention to differing theories of politics and views towards non-believers are important not only to studies in comparative religion, but to foreign policy, history and governance as well. From early Christianity's relationship to the Roman Empire to Hinduism's relationship to Gandhi and the caste system, God's Rule provides a basis of understanding from which undergraduates, seminarians and others can begin asking questions of relationships "both unavoidable and systematically uneasy."
Download or read book Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany written by David M. Luebke and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2012-05-30 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Protestant and Catholic Reformations thrust the nature of conversion into the center of debate and politicking over religion as authorities and subjects imbued religious confession with novel meanings during the early modern era. The volume offers insights into the historicity of the very concept of "conversion." One widely accepted modern notion of the phenomenon simply expresses denominational change. Yet this concept had no bearing at the outset of the Reformation. Instead, a variety of processes, such as the consolidation of territories along confessional lines, attempts to ensure civic concord, and diplomatic quarrels helped to usher in new ideas about the nature of religious boundaries and, therefore, conversion. However conceptualized, religious change- conversion-had deep social and political implications for early modern German states and societies.
Download or read book Unearthly Powers written by Alan Strathern and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ground-breaking study sets out a new understanding of transformations in the interaction between religion and political authority throughout history.
Download or read book The Relevance of Religion written by John Danforth and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former United States senator and ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth offers a fascinating, thoughtful, and deeply personal look at the state of American politics today—and how religion can be a bridge over our bitter partisan divide. In an era of extreme partisanship, when running for office has become a zero-sum game in which candidates play exclusively to their ideological bases, Americans on both sides of the political aisle hunger for the return of a commitment to the common good. Too often, it seems, religion has been used as a wedge to divide us in these battles. But is it also the key to restoring our civic virtue? For more than a decade, John Danforth, who is also an ordained Episcopal priest, has written extensively on the negative use of religion as a divisive force in American politics. Now he turns to the positive, constructive impact faithful religious believers have and can have on our public life. The Relevance of Religion is the product of that period of reflection. In the calm and wise voice of the pastor he once aspired to be, Senator Danforth argues that our shared religious values can lead us out of the embittered, entrenched state of politics today. A lifelong Republican, he calls his own party to task for its part in creating a political system in which the loudest opinions and the most polarizing personalities hold sway. And he suggests that such a system is not only unsustainable but unfaithful to our essential nature. We are built to care about other people, and this inherent altruism—which science says we crave because of our neurobiological wiring, and the Bible says is part of our created nature—is a crucial aspect of good government. Our willingness to serve more than our self-interest is religion’s gift to politics, John Danforth asserts. In an era when 75 percent of Americans say they cannot trust their elected leaders, The Relevance of Religion is a heartfelt plea for more compassionate government—and a rousing call to arms for those wishing to follow the better angels of our nature. Praise for The Relevance of Religion “Using well-supported arguments deriving from his ministerial as well as legal background, Danforth asserts that traditional religious values of sacrifice, selflessness and a commitment to the greater good can and should have prominent roles in America’s politics. . . . Danforth’s arguments are staunchly supported and clearly explained. . . . For anyone who is faithful as well as political, he provides much food for thought.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “John Danforth does his country another service after many. His book is both a serious critique of politicized religion and a strong defense of religion’s indispensable role in our common life. He talks of faith as an antidote to egotism, as a force for reconciliation, and as a source of public virtue. His case is illustrated through autobiography, in an honest, winsome, and sometimes self-critical tone. Danforth speaks for civility, collegiality, and useful compromise—and is compelling because he has demonstrated all those commitments himself over the decades.”—Michael Gerson, columnist, The Washington Post “In this wise and urgent book, John Danforth stands in the company of our great public theologians—Paul Tillich, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the brothers Niebuhr—as he envisions both religious and political practices that enable our better selves. Political participation, pursued well, cultivates generosity and patience, and is good for the soul. What better remedy for mending our broken politics?”—Charles Marsh, Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
Download or read book Representations of Political Power written by Marlies Heinz and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 2007 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Representation of political power seems to have been necessary at all times in all complex urban societies. To secure order - to construct a certain social, ideological, religious, economic, and cultural stability - seems to be one of the main intentions of representation. When order breaks down or is threatened, political power comes under threat, and the cohesion of the community is also in jeopardy." "In times of impending change, crisis, or disorder, special effort is required to reassure the community of the rulers' ability to maintain stability. What those in power did to convince the affected communities of their qualities as rulers, that is, their representational strategies - especially in times of change - is the subject of this book, explored through examination of case studies drawn from the ancient Near East. The volume is divided into three thematic parts: "Reestablishment of Order after Major Disruption," "Changing Order from Within," and "Perceptions of New Order.""--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Politicization of Religion the Power of Symbolism written by G. Ognjenovic and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the role religion played in the dismantling of Yugoslavia; addressing practical concerns of inter-ethnic fighting, religiously-motivated warfare, and the role religion played within the dissolution of the nation.
