Suchergebnisse

In an overview manner the authors keep a close watch on the general socio-political conditions in Serbia in their long-term perspective, incorporating into this framework the results of research on the relationship of people with religion and the Church - in other words, their religiosity. They use two methodological approaches: historical and sociological analysis, and experimental results on indicators of religiosity, or people's attachment to the Eastern Orthodox religion and the Eastern Orthodox Church in Serbia. Composition of the article: after introducing and choosing a methodological approach, the authors analyze people's attachment to religion and the Church in various social systems over time, describing the religious structure. In the first phase, before World War II, the religious structure is described as stable with a Pro-Orthodox consensus and without problematic issues. In the second phase, after World War II - as a destabilized religious structure with an emphasis on the process of atheization. In the third phase, in the early 90s of the last century - as a (re)stabilized religious structure in the process of desecularization of Serbian society. Finally, at the present time - as a restored religious structure, established during the 90s. The article promotes a sociological approach to spiritual and socio-psychological phenomena, with all the disadvantages of this approach in relation to the study of the phenomena of religion and religiosity.

Examined are recent church-state developments within three broad patterns of interaction. One pattern, involving religious attempts to dominate or eliminate secular authority, is illustrated in the case of Iran's Islamic republic; other Muslim nations also contain the possibility of an "Islamic resurgence." A second pattern in church-state development involves disagreement over specific public policies. Recent examples include educational, divorce, & abortion reforms in traditionally conservative Italy & Spain, religious opposition to the status quo politics of some Latin American regimes, & disagreements over racial policy in white-dominated southern Africa. In the third pattern, the state tries to eliminate or seriously restrict religious activity, eg, communist regime policies in the USSR, Eastern Europe, & Southeast Asia. Modified HA.

To conform to the constitutional provisions separating church and state, public officials must be able to distinguish between churches and other types of institu tions. They must also be able to distinguish between beliefs, activities, and organizations that are religious and those that are not. Before 1969 there was very little disagreement be tween the American churches and the federal and state govern ments about the legal meanings of church and religion. Since 1969, however, Congress and some federal agencies (notably the Internal Revenue Service) have adopted some legal phraseology that is extremely offensive to the churches be cause it divorces the charitable, educational and social wel fare activities of the churches from their religious mission. The resulting discord, tension and threat to the proper legal understanding of religion and church can be resolved only through changes in the terminology that the government has created. To bring about these changes, the churches must engage in greater collaboration with each other, and in more frequent and cordial discussions with government officials.

Religious organizations participate in urban redevelopment in various ways including redeveloping their churches. While the literature has attempted to explain church redevelopment from different perspectives, what has often been forgotten is the fundamental characteristic of churches as property in cities. Drawing on the established scholarship of legal geography, this article argues that the lens of property relations offers an insightful framework to examine church redevelopment. By presenting a case study in Hong Kong, this article unpacks the property struggles of church redevelopment to examine how that resulted from the conflicting property claims and why these claims emerged. This article contrasts and analyzes the religious and market-driven values underlying these claims in the context of a property-led society like Hong Kong. To understand how urban churches transform from God's home to people's house, it is necessary to recognize the diverse readings of property. In so doing, this article invites scholars to re-conceptualize urban struggles from the property lens.

In 1999 I wrote an article 'on leaving the church' (Craske and Marsh 1999). In this article I revisit this theme having recently returned to church. I explore the themes that led to me leaving (the Christian contribution to the history of misogyny and the desire for liberation, coupled with the desire to have the freedom to think); themes which, paradoxically, are not dissimilar to the reasons behind my return. The paper engages with the reductionist functionalism of the dominant social and political paradigm of neoliberal consumerism, and engages with Michèle Le Doeuff's claim that the framework provided by religion for life is attractive, precisely because it allows for uncertainty and a deep engagement with the realities of being human.

"Protest and Religion: Christianity in the People's Republic of China" published on by Oxford University Press.

Anlaß der Aufsatzsammlung war eine Diskussion über die Zielsetzung kirchlicher Entwicklungspolitik in Afrika; Beiträge sind Fallbeispiele aus den Ländern Äthiopien, Sierra Leone, Kenia, Liberia und Nigeria

The article explores the relationship between religion & violence -- both in the role religion has played in overcoming violence & in sometimes being at the heart of violence -- using a case study of the recent Indian history of religiously fuelled violence. The history of Christianity is also dotted with violence, & imperialism & colonialism have been justified by some historians. This should be the basis for a challenge to the imperial & implicitly 'Christian' designs that accompany the present war against Iraq. The Bible & Christian theology contain violent images. There is ambiguity in defining violence, because sometimes it is difficult to name the more subtle forms of violence. The authority of the Church is questioned as it has sometimes been silent about the violence within its own life. The Churches need to engage in intra-Christian dialogue so as to mutually focus on the ministry of reconciliation & healing. The Churches need also to engage in inter-religious dialogue, recognizing a common spirituality of nonviolence present in all religions. Adapted from the source document.

This volume widens the scope of research into the relation between religion and Enlightenment. The contributions demonstrate the impact of changing worldviews in a variety of intellectual disciplines and cultural milieus. Readership: Cultural historians, historians of ideas, of philosophy, and of religion, interested in the debate over the place of religion in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Dutch Republic. Keywords: controversy literature, epistolary culture, early modern knowledge cultures, Enlightenment encyclopedias, intellectual history, pietism, political theory, Romeijn de Hooghe, theology

The response of Amer religions to the Vietnam war is discussed. Opinion leaders of US churches have since 1965 succeeded in making opposition to the war respectable. But many clergymen still feel restrained from communicating their sympathies for the peace movement to their congregations & communities. It is estimated that something under 5% of Amer religious leaders has any aggressive public connection with war protest. The influence of these 5% vs those who support gov policy is explored. Religious instit's largely adhere to a conservative creed of pol'al disengagement. The protest of the 5%, together with other factors, prevented religious bodies from giving uncritical support to the gov's war policies. The Vietnam debate has caused a reshuffling of alliances among activist clergy & laymen. There is an increased disillusionment about the signif of denominational alignments, a tendency to form primary religious ties to issue-oriented groups. In the Vietnam debate, organized religion chiefly supported & strengthened the traditional lines of Amer civil religion which were clearly violated by the gov. The debate has now moved to larger questions of the role of the US in the world, esp in the Third World. The US needs a new understanding of itself in a historical dispensation in which its power can be an instrument for creative change. The Amer civil religion needs to be updated & given a new articulation. In the symbolic relationship between Amer civil religion & explicit biblical religion, the churches have a bigger public service to perform than has been undertaken to date in the religious protest against the war in Vietnam. Modified HA.

This dissertation serves as a contribution to the larger ongoing debate on the role of religion in development in an effort to move beyond an instrumental approach. The aim is to study the role of religious agents in development through the prism of contractual partnerships between church organisations and the Tanzanian state in healthcare delivery. Three Christian denominations are included in the study: the Roman Catholic Church in Tanzania (Tanzania Episcopal Conference), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania. Three theoretical perspectives are applied to the study of religion and development: (1) an instrumental perspective; (2) a bottom-up perspective and (3) an integral perspective. In order to operationalise the three theoretical perspectives to function adequately for health sector development research, three analytical concepts are included in the framework, namely resource dependency, linking social capital and intangible religious health assets. The methodology is based on an abductive qualitative approach with the use of case studies on the three church organisations (Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal). Three key methods have been used for collecting data: policy analysis, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Each organisation is analysed in terms of their Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreements and collaborative models, their relation towards the state, their internal health policies and their motives for delivering health services. Moreover, by including one local hospital per organisation (Turiani, Selian and Mchukwi), it is also possible to integrate the local implementation level into the study. In order to capture the views of public authorities, interviewees from the national Ministry of Health and local Council Health Management Teams have also been included. By entering into PPP health agreements, church organisations have moved to centre stage and gained more influence following the latest political and economic reforms. Their attraction as service providers follows from their existing infrastructure and previous experience and capacity in the health sector. The analysis shows that faith is a key motivator and a central factor in the running of church health services. However, the fact that church organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on the state has implications in terms of their role as a critical voice in the public debate and could potentially threaten their independence as faith-driven civil society actors. Church organisations are also becoming more vulnerable financially, as they are not compensated according to the PPP contracts. The current situation where church organisations are dominating the PPPs in health has implications on both the Tanzanian model of secularism, with its emphasis on Muslim and Christians being treated equally, and the local governments' strive towards national ownership with their favouring of public healthcare over private alternatives. It is therefore necessary to further study the role of religion beyond an instrumental approach in order to get a deeper understanding of the religious dynamics in the PPPs in health in Tanzania. ; The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy