Religion among Scientists in International Context Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Johnson, David R.; Scheitle, Christopher P. ...
Socius : sociological research for a dynamic world,
2016, Letnik:
2
Journal Article
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Scientists have long been associated with religion’s decline around the world. But little data permit analysis of the religiosity of scientists or their perceptions of the science-faith interface. ...Here we present the first ever survey data from biologists and physicists in eight regions around the world—France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries and regions selected because they exhibit differing degrees of religiosity, varying levels of scientific infrastructure, and unique relationships between religious and state institutions (N = 9,422). The data collection includes biologists and physicists at all career stages from elite and non-elite universities and research institutes. We uncovered that in most of the national contexts studied, scientists are indeed more secular—in terms of beliefs and practices—than those in their respective general populations, although in four of the regional contexts, over half of scientists see themselves as religious. And surprisingly, scientists do not think science is in conflict with religion. Instead, most see religion and science as operating in separate spheres.
When stressing how ‘Christian pastoral power’ defined the specificity of ‘governmental power’, Foucault never explicitly acknowledged the German debate on modernity or theological-political issues. ...My hypothesis is that – whatever the actual reasons for this omission might be – this oversight is symptomatic of Foucault’s unique interpretation of the role of Christianity in Western culture and of his different approach to the theme of power. After analysing the positions of two of the leading exponents of the German debate, Karl Löwith and Carl Schmitt, the essay substantiates this hypothesis by looking at Foucault’s investigations of pastoral power. In particular, the essay aims to demonstrate how the latter’s apparent omissions are linked to Foucault’s challenge to two central questions in the 20th-century debate on modernity, namely: (1) the possibility of interpreting modern political revolutions as expressions of a linear and secularized vision of history; and (2) the centrality of the category of sovereignty in the definition of Western power.
The dynamic relationship that exists between a religious rite and its territory is interpreted and analysed by religious anthropology as a form of protection, offered by the sacred to the place in ...which it resides. According to this interpretation, passage through the territory of what is reputed to be sacred or even its very presence as a sanctuary, drives evil away and is believed to perform a generally stable protective function. Within such a dynamic, the rite that actually creates this sacred passage, i.e., the procession of relics, lays the foundations for an analysis of the two specific variables that are, in actual fact, intwined: on the one side is the rite, and on the other, the territory. Such a relationship appears all the more problematic due to the progressive rationalisation of the religious dimension, extensively dealt with by Max Weber (Weber 1920) and accepted by contemporary sociology on religion, as it is now a supernatural phenomenon that is only considered to have a representational dimension. The internal secularization at the festival of Saint Rosalia happened in 2023, with the landing of the triumphal cart in New York. The rite moves to another new territory and transforms it. The cart of Saint Rosalia, preserved in the Columbus Citizens Foundation in New York, represents the identity of Sicilian immigrants but also a new form of ritualization on a new territory through an “ancient” ritual. When the sacred is located within the institutional dimension of a salvation religion presided over by an institution, it appears separate from any purely mechanical (and therefore magical) dimension, while the territory becomes a variable in which a multiplicity of factors are contained. These factors not only give importance to the very aspects of the ritual itself, boosting its civil and secular parts, but also to the religious programme, which undergoes unexpected transformations introduced by the presiding institution. The main object of this analysis is, therefore, to establish an interactive path whereby, on the one hand, the territory, through its various cultural components (both secular and religious), shapes the religious rite and how it places restrictions on those protective functions, while on the other, how the rite places its own constraints on the cultural transformations that take place in the fabric of society.
Cet article se penche sur le développement de l’enseignement dit moderne dans la ville sainte chiite de Najaf (Iraq) en examinant la manière dont l’expansion du réseau éducatif permet l’intégration ...de la jeunesse locale au sein de l’État-nation. Une étude de mémoires de Najafites récemment parus permet de montrer que l’école joue un rôle éminemment politique en développant une culture militariste et patriotique par le biais du sport, de l’histoire ou encore du théâtre. Malgré un chômage endémique, l’école offre une voie de progression sociale au sein des institutions du nouvel État iraquien. Si le développement de l’instruction moderne et de ses symboles, comme le pantalon, rencontre une forte résistance à Najaf, des oulémas sont malgré tout associés à ces écoles et participent à la sécularisation des savoirs.
1 July 1523, Hendrik Vos and Johan van den Esschen died by burning at the stake on the Grand-Place in Brussels. They were the first martyrs of the Reformation. Following this event, the Faculty of ...Protestant Theology and Religious Studies (FPTR) in Brussels organized a colloquium to discuss what has changed in the 500 years since the first martyrs of the Reformation. After an historical introduction to set the scene regarding 1 July 1523, this colloquium dealt with the consequences of the Reformation on various and diverse topics that include secularization, the role of women, democracy, virtue ethics, interreligious dialogue, ending with a proposal on how to move forward. This book can be a starting point for further scientific research, especially in the area of secularization, women’s emancipation, and the beginning of the Jewish-Christian dialogue. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Reformation and its consequences.
Contemporary conflicts about secularity in 'the West' tend to focus on public space. Although collective Christian heritage means that public space is rarely exclusively neutral, conflicts continue ...to arise over the relationship between secularity and religious symbolism, and especially over those symbols which derive from religious minorities. This contribution critically considers the designation of space as either sacred or secular in political imaginaries, approaching processes of secularisation as part of a fragmentation of the sacred and of sacred space. We introduce the concept of trans-liminal space: spaces which can contain multiple and potentially conflicting ascriptions of meaning. Conceptualising public space as trans-liminal allows for contemporaneous and competing ascriptions of the secular, the sacred, the secular-sacred, the sacred-secular, without being exclusively grounded in either. Trans-liminality does not preclude public space to be predominantly secular, but it does problematise the phenomenon of normative exclusions of religious symbols from public spaces.
Recent research argues that the United States is secularizing, that this religious change is consistent with the secularization thesis, and that American religion is not exceptional. But we show that ...rather than religion fading into irrelevance as the secularization thesis would suggest, intense religion—strong affiliation, very frequent practice, literalism, and evangelicalism—is persistent and, in fact, only moderate religion is on the decline in the United States. We also show that in comparable countries, intense religion is on the decline or already at very low levels. Therefore, the intensity of American religion is actually becoming more exceptional over time. We conclude that intense religion in the United States is persistent and exceptional in ways that do not fit the secularization thesis.
Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze which concept describes the central theme in Max Weber’s works — the rationalization processes — best: disenchantment, alienation, or anomie. I first ...describe how Weber’s rationalization processes were understood in the past. Most scholars have interpreted these processes as disenchantment, although some have seen a stronger affinity to the Marxist concept of alienation. Since the majority have regarded disenchantment as the central theme of Weber’s legacy, I discuss Weber’s rare statements about the disenchantment process, most of which appear in a speech that was published later as Science as a Vocation . I then introduce definitions of key concepts (Hegelian alienation, Marxist alienation, Durkheimian anomie, and de-magification) to provide a more varied and precise vocabulary. This will aid in describing at least two different rationalization processes that can be derived from Weber’s theoretical framework ( Economy and Society ) and his historical studies. The first, in the economic and political sphere, can be characterized as Marxist alienation, whereas the second, in the religious sphere, can be interpreted as de-magification and Hegelian alienation. It is possible to regard Weber’s statement in Science as a Vocation as a third rationalization process, in the sphere of knowledge production, which would suggest the concepts of de-magification and anomie. However, such a reading would seem to contradict the greater body of Weber’s methodological writings. Finally, it is concluded that the term disenchantment is not a very useful concept for portraying Weber’s intended view.
Secularism is one of the world's warnings regarding religious matters. In the context of secularism education, which can be interpreted as the wrong information between general education and ...religious education. This understanding seeks to eliminate Islamic religious values in education. The practice can be started from the design of an educational curriculum that is dry from religious values, as happened in the Western world. This text aims to explore the secularization of thought that exists in the world of education, especially in Indonesia. By using descriptive analytical methods, this study found several important conclusions. Secularism has entered and has a major influence on the dynamics of life, especially in education. Secular educational institutions have indoctrinated students, further away from religious values. The implication is that students no longer consider religious teachings to be important, the worse impact is that students are allergic to religious teachings. Transcendental values in religion are lost, moral decency occurs everywhere, manners are no longer visible, respect for parents, teachers are absent, students tend to be anti-helping, bullying occurs at anyone and ages. In addition, the impact of education secularization gives birth to students who are lazy, undisciplined, easy to complain, and like to commit criminal acts. More than that, when they have finished their studies, they will grow up to be dignified and arrogant figures, irresponsible politicians, capitalist economists, and so on.
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