Religious America, Secular Europe?

Religious America, Secular Europe? PDF Author: Peter Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351904728
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
Europe is a relatively secular part of the world in global terms. Why is this so? And why is the situation in Europe so different from that in the United States? The first chapter of this book - the theme - articulates this contrast. The remaining chapters - the variations - look in turn at the historical, philosophical, institutional and sociological dimensions of these differences. Key ideas are examined in detail, among them: constitutional issues; the Enlightenment; systems of law, education and welfare; questions of class, ethnicity, gender and generation. In each chapter both the similarities and differences between the European and the American cases are carefully scrutinized. The final chapter explores the ways in which these features translate into policy on both sides of the Atlantic. This book is highly topical and relates very directly to current misunderstandings between Europe and America.

Religious America, Secular Europe?

Religious America, Secular Europe? PDF Author: Peter Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351904728
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105

Get Book

Book Description
Europe is a relatively secular part of the world in global terms. Why is this so? And why is the situation in Europe so different from that in the United States? The first chapter of this book - the theme - articulates this contrast. The remaining chapters - the variations - look in turn at the historical, philosophical, institutional and sociological dimensions of these differences. Key ideas are examined in detail, among them: constitutional issues; the Enlightenment; systems of law, education and welfare; questions of class, ethnicity, gender and generation. In each chapter both the similarities and differences between the European and the American cases are carefully scrutinized. The final chapter explores the ways in which these features translate into policy on both sides of the Atlantic. This book is highly topical and relates very directly to current misunderstandings between Europe and America.

Religion in the New Europe

Religion in the New Europe PDF Author: Krzysztof Michalski
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 6155053901
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
The articles in this volume deal with the role of Christianity in the definition of European identity. Europeans often identify advanced civilizations with secularity. But religion is very much alive in other fast developing countries of the world. In Europe, nevertheless, the organized churches very much wanted to stress the Christian character of European identity, and this engendered a lively protest focusing on the perceived threat to the secular European tradition. Also, Europe is facing its greatest cultural challenge in the demand of Turkey to be admitted as a member, and in the demand of many Muslims in Europe, often citizens of the countries in which they live, to be recognized in their difference and at the same time integrated in the European national and supranational institutions.

The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century

The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century PDF Author: Owen Chadwick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521398299
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Owen Chadwick's acclaimed lectures on the secularisation of the European mind trace the declining hold of the Church and its doctrines on European society in the nineteenth century.

Is Europe Christian?

Is Europe Christian? PDF Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197513913
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
As Europe wrangles over questions of national identity, nativism and immigration, Olivier Roy interrogates the place of Christianity, foundation of Western identity. Do secularism and Islam really pose threats to the continent's 'Christian values'? What will be the fate of Christianity in Europe? Rather than repeating the familiar narrative of decline, Roy challenges the significance of secularized Western nations' reduction of Christianity to a purely cultural force- relegated to issues such as abortion, euthanasia and equal marriage. He illustrates that, globally, quite the opposite has occurred: Christianity is now universalized, and detached from national identity. Not only has it taken hold in the Global South, generally in a more socially conservative form than in the West, but it has also 'returned' to Europe, following immigration from former colonies. Despite attempts within Europe to nationalize or even racialize it, Christianity's future is global, non-European and immigrant-as the continent's Churches well know. This short but bracing book confirms Roy's reputation as one of the most acute observers of our times. It represents a persuasive and novel vision of religion's place in national life today.

Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848-1914

Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848-1914 PDF Author: Hugh Mcleod
Publisher: Palgrave
ISBN: 9780333597477
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Secularisation can mean many quite different things - rising unbelief, the privatisation of belief, weakening denominational identity, the development of a religiously neutral state. This book reveals both the many-sidedness of secularisation and the great unevenness with which it affected different areas of life. France is the classic example of the secularisation of society in the later nineteenth century. Church and school, then church and state, were separated. Town councils tore down crosses and banned processions. Teachers and doctors were seen as a new priesthood. Yet even in France things were not so simple. In the west, most people remained practising Catholics, and Lourdes demonstrated the continuing vitality of 'popular religion'. When we look at Germany and England, or compare Catholics with Protestants and Jews, the picture becomes even more complex. This book examines the nature and causes of religious change in the three countries, and the class, gender and regional differences within each.

Secularisation & Europe

Secularisation & Europe PDF Author: Jan M.F. van Reeth
Publisher: Uitgeverij Betsaida
ISBN: 9491991396
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
In 2015 vond aan het Sint-Janscentrum een wetenschappelijk colloquium plaats met internationale sprekers, naar aanleiding van de verjaardag van de val van de Berlijnse Muur. De teksten van de lezingen, die gehouden werden tijdens dit colloquium, zijn nu verzameld in de bundel Secularisation & Europe , een uitgave van uitgeverij Betsaida in samenwerking met de wetenschappelijke uitgeverij van de Pauselijke Universiteit Johannes Paulus II in Krakau.

Europe

Europe PDF Author: Hans-Georg Ziebertz
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3825815781
Category : Christian sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Religion is back on the agenda. Western societies are searching for an adequate understanding of religion. Media move religion into focus as a resource of significance in modern societies, but also as a source of tension and conflict. Politics is testing how to manage religious pluralism. Education is developing concepts of interreligious dialogue in order to promote a better intercultural understanding. The book discusses if the concept post-secularity allows a suitable understanding of the public presence of religion.

Urban Secularism

Urban Secularism PDF Author: Julia Martínez-Ariño
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000337731
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
While French laïcité is often considered something fixed, its daily deployment is rather messy. What might we learn if we study the governance of religion from a dynamic bottom-up perspective? Using an ethnographic approach, this book examines everyday secularism in the making. How do city actors understand, frame and govern religious diversity? Which local factors play a role in those processes? In Urban Secularism: Negotiating Religious Diversity in Europe, Julia Martínez-Ariño brings the reader closer to the entrails of laïcité. She provides detailed accounts of the ways religious groups, city officials, municipal employees, secularist actors and other civil-society organisations negotiate concrete public expressions of religion. Drawing on rich empirical material, the book demonstrates that urban actors draw and (re-)produce dichotomies of inclusion and exclusion, and challenge static conceptions of laïcité and the nation. Illustrating how urban, national and international contexts interact with one another, the book provides researchers with a deeper understanding of the multilevel governance of religious diversity.

The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe

The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe PDF Author: Olaf Müller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317015541
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Engaging with some of the central issues in the sociology of religion, this volume investigates the role and significance of churches and religion in contemporary Western and Eastern Europe. Based on an extensive international research project, it offers case studies of various countries (including Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia), as well as cross-country comparisons. Researching more precisely the present social relevance of church and religion at different levels, The Social Significance of Religion in the Enlarged Europe raises and responds to both descriptive and explanatory questions: Can we observe tendencies of religious decline in the various Western and Eastern European countries? Are we witnessing trends of religious individualization? To what extent has there been a religious upswing in the last few years? And what are the factors causing the observed processes of religious change? Marked by its broad range of data and a coherent conceptual framework, in accordance with which each chapter assesses the extent to which three important theoretical approaches in the sociology of religion - secularization theory, the market model of religion, and the individualization thesis - are applicable to the data, this book will be of interest to scholars of sociology, politics and religion exploring religious trends and attitudes in contemporary Europe.

Europe's Encounter with Islam

Europe's Encounter with Islam PDF Author: Luca Mavelli
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136448438
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
In the last few years, the Muslim presence in Europe has been increasingly perceived as ‘problematic’. Events such as the French ban on headscarves in public schools, the publication of the so-called ‘Danish cartoons’, and the speech of Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg have hit the front pages of newspapers the world over, and prompted a number of scholarly debates on Muslims’ capacity to comply with the seemingly neutral and pluralistic rules of European secularity. Luca Mavelli argues that this perspective has prevented an in-depth reflection on the limits of Europe’s secular tradition and its role in Europe’s conflictual encounter with Islam. Through an original reading of Michel Foucault’s spiritual notion of knowledge and an engagement with key thinkers, from Thomas Aquinas to Jurgën Habermas, Mavelli articulates a contending genealogy of European secularity. While not denying the latter’s achievements in terms of pluralism and autonomy, he suggests that Europe’s secular tradition has also contributed to forms of isolation, which translate into Europe’s incapacity to perceive its encounter with Islam as an opportunity rather than a threat. Drawing on this theoretical perspective, Mavelli offers a contending account of some of the most important recent controversies surrounding Islam in Europe and investigates the ‘postsecular’ as a normative model to engage with the tensions at the heart of European secularity. Finally, he advances the possibility of a Europe willing to reconsider its established secular narratives which may identify in the encounter with Islam an opportunity to flourish and cultivate its democratic qualities and postnational commitments. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of religion and international relations, social and political theory, and Islam in Europe.