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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Interfaith relations
Encounters between people of diverse religious faiths and
worldviews are becoming more common in an increasingly globalized
and mobile world. Research has not, however, kept pace by
investigating how people talk about their faith with others who
believe differently. This monograph addresses that deficit by
taking an emergent path, combining qualitative and quantitative
analysis to investigate and understand multilingual speakers'
discursive behaviors in multiparty interreligious dialogues. Using
33 hours of recordings from conversations across seven research
sites, Sauer Bredvik investigates how speakers' multilanguaging
practices interact with other indexical and referential signs
(unfilled pauses, disfluency, pragmatic markers) to affect how
constitute messages are understood. By combining corpus-assisted
discourse analysis with emic data taken from observation and 11
hours of participant interviews, one is able to identify distinct
patterns of use between these metalinguistic indicators and a
dialogue outcome. Readers will gain an understanding of how people
of various linguistic and faith backgrounds use all their semiotic
resources to display hospitality and respect for the Other in
multilingual, multifaith settings.
For centuries Christians and Muslims have engaged with each other
in manifold ways, peaceful and otherwise, be it in scholarly study,
or in war and colonization. Today, Christians represent an
influential body of opinion that largely perceives Islam, post
9/11, as a threat. Yet Muslims represent approximately one third of
the world's population. Improved understanding between Christians
and Muslims is therefore crucial and a prerequisite for universal
peace and justice. This book aims to investigate Islam's place in
the world, Muslim aspirations vis-a-vis non-Muslims and the
realities of how Muslims are perceived and how they perceive
others. Each chapter analyses accessible texts from central
thinkers and commentators, broadly split into two camps:
confrontational or conciliatory. Christian-Muslim relations are set
in the wider context of civilizational, geo-political and economic
interaction between the Muslim world and the historically Christian
West.
This book engages thinkers from different religious and humanist
traditions in response to Pope Francis's pronouncements on
interreligious dialogue. The contributors write from the
perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism,
Buddhism, and Humanism. Each author elaborates on how the pope's
openness to dialogue and invitation to practical collaboration on
global concerns represents a significant achievement as the world
faces an uncertain future. The theological tension within the
Catholic double commitment to evangelization on the one hand, and
dialogue on the other, remains unresolved for most writers, but
this does not prevent them from praising the strong invitation to
dialogue-especially with the focus on justice, peace, and
ecological sustainability.
Using the events surrounding "The Satanic Verses" controversy as a
starting point, Paul Weller offers an interesting examination of
the twenty-first century challenges posed by living with radical
difference, freedom of expression, and mutual respect.26th
September 2008 marks the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of
"The Satanic Verses" controversy - a controversy that in many ways
became paradigmatic for the following two decades.Taking as its
starting-point the opening two years of the controversy, Paul
Weller uses the events and arguments of those years as a lens
through which to view what later developed, both in relation to the
controversy itself, but also its wider entails, and the incidents
and issues through which aspects of the original controversy were
reprised. The anniversary of the controversy presents a good
opportunity to review the incidents, issues and debates of the time
in some historical perspective, while also connecting them with
subsequent incidents that have reprised some of the key themes,
such as the 'cartoons' controversy, the terror attacks of 9/11 and
7/7, and the killing of the Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh.The book
holds up a mirror for our times that will be of interest to
academics, politicians, students, and religious believers, as well
as to all who are engaged with the twenty-first century challenges
posed by living with radical difference, freedom of expression, and
mutual respect, with exploring the relationship between religion
and secularity, and with overcoming the threats posed by
religiously informed violence. Paul Weller is Professor of
Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby and Visiting
Fellow in the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at
Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, UK. He is editor of
"Religions in the UK: Directory 2007-10", the 2001 edition of which
won the Shap Working Party on World Religions in Education prize
for 'an outstanding contribution to the teaching of world
religions'.
"This is an excellent and rare exploration of a sensitive religious
issue from many perspectives - legal, cultural and political. The
case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand
portray the important and exciting, yet very difficult, negotiation
of Islamic teachings in the changing realities of Southeast Asia,
home to the majority of Muslims in the world. Interreligious
marriage is an important indicator of good relations between
communities in religiously diverse countries. This book will also
be of great interest to students and scholars of religious
pluralism in a Southeast Asian context, which has not been studied
adequately." - Zainal Abidin Bagir, Executive Director, Center for
Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Gadjah Mada
University, Indonesia "The issue of Muslim-non-Muslim marriages has
different connotations in the different Southeast Asian states. For
example, in Thailand it is more a fluid cultural issue but in
Malaysia it reflects great racial schisms with severe legal
implications. This book is a welcome one as it examines the issue
not only from the perspectives of various Southeast Asian nations
but also from so many angles; the legal, historical, social,
cultural, anthropological and philosophical. The work is scholarly,
yet accessible. Underlying it, there is a vital streak of
humanism." - Azmi Sharom, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law,
University of Malaya
Contemporary Muslim-Christian Encounters: Developments, Diversity
and Dialogues addresses the key issues in the present day global
encounter between Christians and Muslims. Divided into two parts,
the first examines theoretical issues and concerns which affect
dialogue between the two traditions. The second part highlights
case studies from around the world. Chapters come from established
scholars including Reuven Firestone, Douglas Pratt and Clinton
Bennett, emerging scholars, as well as practitioner perspectives.
Highlighting the diversity within the field of "Christian-Muslim"
encounter, case studies cover examples from the US and globally,
and include dialogue in the US post 9/11, Nigerian Muslims and
Christians, and Christian responses to Islamophobia in the UK.
Covering unique areas and those not explored in detail elsewhere,
Contemporary Muslim-Christian Encounters: Developments, Diversity
and Dialogues will be of interest to advanced students,
researchers, and interfaith professionals.
Christian-Jewish relations have had changing fortunes throughout
the centuries. Occasionally there has been peace and even mutual
understanding, but usually these relations have been ones of
tension, often involving recrimination and even violence. This
volume addresses a number of the major questions that have been at
the heart and the periphery of these tenuous relations through the
years. The volume begins with a number of papers discussing
relations as Christianity emerged from and defined itself in terms
of Judaism. Other papers trace the relations through the
intervening years. And a number of papers confront issues that have
been at the heart of the troubled twentieth century. In all, these
papers address a sensitive yet vital set of issues from a variety
of approaches and perspectives, becoming in their own way a part of
the ongoing dialogue.>
This book inquires as to whether theological dialogue between
Christians and Jews is possible, not only in itself but also as
regards the emergence of communities of Messianic Judaism. In light
of David Novak's insights, Matthew Levering proposes that Christian
theological responses to supersessionism need to preserve both the
Church's development of doctrine and Rabbinic Judaism's ability to
define its own boundaries.
The book undertakes constructive philosophical theology in dialogue
with Novak. Exploring the interrelated doctrines of divine
providence/theonomy, the image of God, and natural law, Levering
places Novak's work in conversation especially with Thomas Aquinas,
whose approach fosters a rich dialogue with Novak's broadly
Maimonidean perspective. It focuses upon the relationship of human
beings to the Creator, with attention to the philosophical
entailments of Jewish and Christian covenantal commitments, aiming
to spell out what true freedom involves.
It concludes by asking whether Christians and Jews would do better
to bracket our covenantal commitments in pursuing such wisdom.
Drawing upon Novak's work, the author argues that in the face of
suffering and death, God's covenantal election makes possible hope,
lacking which the quest for wisdom runs aground.
This groundbreaking book investigates the religious issues that
businesses confront as they expand their global activity and
proposes that corporations can become instruments of peace. Timothy
Fort discusses the newly emerging idea of "peace through commerce,"
and he argues powerfully that today's businesses have the capacity
to foster both peace and religious harmony. Fort asks and answers
important questions: How might businesses integrate spirituality
into corporate affairs? How can spirituality contribute to the
production of high-quality goods and services? What can be done to
promote a spiritual connection between employees and their work?
Can this be done without provoking religious animosities? What
business practices might encourage an atmosphere in which
constructive dialogue among spiritual traditions could proceed? The
author concludes that by implementing the peaceful practices
advocated by religions at their best, businesses can both nurture
religious harmony and strengthen their communities.
This book is open access and available on
www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the Religious
Matters in an Entangled World program, Utrecht University, the
Netherlands. Public manifestations of Islam remain fiercely
contested across the Global West. Studies to date have focused on
the visual presence of Islam - the construction of mosques or the
veiling of Muslim women. Amplifying Islam in the European
Soundscape is the first book to add a sonic dimension to analyses
of the politics of Islamic aesthetics in Europe. Sound does not
respect public/private boundaries, and people experience sound
viscerally. As such, the public amplification of the azan, the call
to prayer, offers a unique opportunity to understand what is at
stake in debates over religious toleration and secularism. The
Netherlands were among the first European countries to allow the
amplification of the azan in the 1980s, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab
explores this as a case study embedded in a broader history of
Dutch religious pluralism. The book offers a pointed critique of
social theories that regard secularism as all-encompassing. While
cultural forms of secularism exclude Muslim rights to public
worship, Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape argues that
political and constitutional secularism also enables Muslim demands
for amplifying calls to prayer. It traces how these exclusions and
inclusions are effected through proposals for mosques, media
debates, law and policy, but also in negotiations on the ground
between residents, municipalities and mosques.
This edited volume offers solutions on the challenges of religious
pluralisation from a European perspective. It gives special
attention to interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations as
specific means of dealing with plurality. In particular, the
contributors describe innovative scientific approaches and broad
political and social scopes of action for addressing the diversity
of beliefs, practices, and traditions. In total, more than 25
essays bring together interdisciplinary and international research
perspectives. The papers cover a wide thematic range. They
highlight how religious pluralisation effects such fields as
theology, politics, civil society, education, and
communication/media. The contributors not only illustrate academic
debates about religious diversity but they also look at the
political and social scope for dealing with such. Coverage spans
numerous countries, and beliefs, from Buddhism to Judaism. This
book features presentations from the Herrenhausen Conference on
"Religious Pluralisation - A Challenge for Modern Societies," held
in Hanover, Germany, October 2016. This insightful collection will
benefit students and researchers with an interest in religion and
laicism, interreligious dialogue, governance of religious
diversity, and religion in the public sphere.
The notion of Interreligious Studies signals a new academic
perspective on the study of religion, characterized by a relational
approach. Interreligious Studies defines the essential features of
interreligious studies compared with alternative conceptions of
religious studies and theology. The book discusses pressing and
salient challenges in interreligious relations, including
interreligious dialogue in practice and theory, interfaith dialogue
and secularity, confrontational identity politics, faith-based
diplomacy, the question of interfaith learning in school, and
interreligious responses to extremism. Interreligious Studies is a
cutting-edge study from one of the most important voices in Europe
in the field, Oddbjorn Leirvik, and includes case study material
from his native Norway including interreligious responses to the
bomb attack in Norway on 22nd July 2011, as well as examples from a
number of other national and global contexts Expanding discussions
on interreligious dialogue and the relationship between religions
in new and interesting ways, this book is a much-needed addition to
the growing literature on interreligious studies.
Using the 1893 and the 1993 World's Parliament of Religions as a
focus for probing intercultural religious communication, this study
describes more than a century's preoccupation with a provocative
phenomenon called universal religion. It presents 12 enduringly
significant speakers whose rhetorical effectiveness, combined with
their concepts of universal religion, forge an intercultural
synthesis combining Eastern religions and Western thought. This
volume will interest scholars and students of both religion and
rhetoric as well as the general public. It provides a deeper
appreciation of such well-known communicators as Emerson and
Thoreau, as well as an introduction to the significant
contributions of thinkers such as Roy, Sen, Besant, Vivekananda,
Tagore, Radhakrishnan, Gandhi, Jenkins Lloyd Jones, John Haynes
Holmes, and Preston Bradley. The 1893 Parliament of The World's
Religions and the 1993 World's Parliament of Religions are
described by contemporary historians as watersheds in human history
and turning points in humanity's spiritual progress. These
parliaments are the two occasions when the world's religious
leaders have gathered, and the events symbolize a growing
preoccupation with an emerging universal religion evolving through
interreligious communication. The 1893 Parliament is recognized for
commencing interreligious dialogue and encouraging comparative
religion; the 1993 Parliament is remembered for networking the
worldwide religious and spiritual communities. This volume
describes a little-known but highly important minority movement in
which a comparatively few communicators in India and the United
States have progessively synthesized Eastern religion and Western
thought. The work examines these speakers and their speeches by
placing this distinctive rhetorical discourse within their
historical times and cultural contexts; specifying the concepts
about universal religion proposed by each speaker; and indicating
their contributions to an emerging and evolving religion that is
universal.
At the heart of American studies is the idea of America itself.
Here, Buck looks at the religious significance of America by
examining those religions that have attached some kind of spiritual
meaning to America. The author explores how American
Protestantism-and nine minority faiths-have projected America into
the mainstream of world history by defining-and by
redefining-America's world role. Surveying the religious myths and
visions of America of ten religions, Buck shows how minority faiths
have redefined America's sense of national purpose. This book
invites serious reflection on what it means to be an American,
particularly from a religious perspective.
Religious myths of America are thought-orienting narratives that
serve as vehicles of spiritual and social truths about the United
States itself. Religious visions of America are action-oriented
agendas that articulate the goals to which America should aspire
and the role it should play in the community of nations. Buck
examines the distinctive perspectives held by ten religious
traditions that inform and expand on the notion of America, and its
place in the world. He covers Native American, Protestant,
Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Christian Identity, Black Muslim,
Islamic, Buddhist, and Baha'i beliefs and invites serious
reflection on what it means to be an American, particularly from a
religious perspective.
What could Roman Catholicism and Mormonism possibly have to learn
from each other? On the surface, they seem to diverge on nearly
every point, from their liturgical forms to their understanding of
history. With its ancient roots, Catholicism is a continuous
tradition, committed to the conservation of the creeds, while
Mormonism teaches that the landscape of Christian history is
riddled with sin and apostasy and is in need of radical revision
and spiritual healing. Moreover, successful proselyting efforts by
Mormons in formerly Catholic strongholds have increased
opportunities for misunderstanding, polemic, and prejudice.
However, in this book a Mormon theologian and a Catholic theologian
in conversation address some of the most significant issues that
impact Christian identity, including such central doctrines as
authority, grace, Jesus, Mary, and revelation, demonstrating that
these traditions are much closer to each other than many assume.
Both Catholicism and Mormonism have ambitiously universal views of
the Christian faith, and readers will be surprised by how close
Catholics and Mormons are on a number of topics and how these
traditions, probed to their depths, shed light on each other in
fascinating and unexpected ways. Catholic-Mormon Dialogue is an
invitation to the reader to engage in a discussion that makes
understanding the goal, and marks a beginning for a dialogue that
will become increasingly important in the years to come.
This challenging and provocative book reimagines the justification,
substance, process, and study of education in open, pluralistic,
liberal democratic societies. Hanan Alexander argues that educators
need to enable students to embark on a quest for intelligent
spirituality, while paying heed to a pedagogy of difference.
Through close analysis of the work of such thinkers as William
James, Charles Taylor, Elliot Eisner, Michael Oakeshott, Isaiah
Berlin, Martin Buber, Michael Apple and Terrence McLaughlin,
Reimagining Liberal Education offers an account of school
curriculum and moral and religious instruction that throws new
light on the possibilities of a nuanced, rounded education for
citizenship. Divided into three parts - Transcendental Pragmatism
in Educational Research, Pedagogy of Difference and the Other Face
of Liberalism, and Intelligent Spirituality in the Curriculum, this
is a thrilling work of philosophy that builds upon the author's
award-winning text Reclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual
Quest.
Humanity's long history of intermittent conflicts and contemporary
violence undermines Christian's (and their Jewish and Muslim fellow
believers) religious confidence in and moral commitment to world
peace. The principal issue is the ambiguity of God's presence and
action in the world as we experience it. In A Contemporary Theology
for Ecumenical Peace, this problem is addressed by relating
biblical theology to contemporary philosophical and theological
perspectives to motivate and sustain the practice of love and
justice in the context of civil religion.
Muthuraj Swamy provides a fresh perspective on the world religions
paradigm and 'interreligious dialogue'. By challenging the
assumption that 'world religions' operate as essential entities
separate from the lived experiences of practitioners, he shows that
interreligious dialogue is in turn problematic as it is built on
this very paradigm, and on the myth of religious conflict. Offering
a critique of the idea of 'dialogue' as it has been advanced by its
proponents such as religious leaders and theologians whose aims are
to promote inter-religious conversation and understanding, the
author argues that this approach is 'elitist' and that in reality,
people do not make sharp distinctions between religions, nor do
they separate political, economic, social and cultural beliefs and
practices from their religious traditions. Case studies from
villages in southern India explore how Hindu, Muslim and Christian
communities interact in numerous ways that break the neat
categories often used to describe each religion. Swamy argues that
those who promote dialogue are ostensibly attempting to overcome
the separate identities of religious practitioners through
understanding, but in fact, they re-enforce them by encouraging a
false sense of separation. The Problem with Interreligious
Dialogue: Plurality, Conflict and Elitism in Hindu-Christian-Muslim
Relations provides an innovative approach to a central issue
confronting Religious Studies, combining both theory and
ethnography.
Kenneth Cragg was one of the West's most gifted interpreters of
Islam and one of the most well-known figures of the Middle Eastern
Church. During his 45 years in the Middle East, Cragg was an
assistant Bishop of Jerusalem and scholar, he focussed on the
Christian understanding of other faiths, particularly Islam. A
major figure in Christian-Muslim conversations he was a prolific
writer whose books became a forum of intellectual debate about
Islam and Christian-Muslim relations. This set re-issues two of his
lesser-known but no less important books, which illustrate his deep
knowledge of the Qur'an and his lifelong interest in Islamic and
Christian theology.
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