Rethinking Religion and World Affairs

ISBN-13: 9780199827978 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 336 str.

Timothy Samuel Shah;Alfred Stepan;Monica Duffy Toft

Opis

In recent years, the role of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has become increasingly important. The essays in this volume seek to question and remedy the problematic neglect of religion in extant scholarship, grappling with puzzles, issues, and questions concerning religion and world affairs in six major areas. Contributors critically revisit the "secularization thesis," which proclaimed the steady erosion of religion's public presence as an effect of modernization; explore the relationship between religion, democracy, and the juridico-political discourse of human rights; assess the role of religion in fomenting, ameliorating, and redressing violent conflict; and consider the value of religious beliefs, actors, and institutions to the delivery of humanitarian aid and the fostering of socio-economic development. Finally, the volume addresses the representation of religion in the expanding global media landscape, the unique place of religion in American foreign policy, and the dilemmas it presents. Drawing on the work of leading scholars as well as policy makers and analysts, Rethinking Religion and World Affairs is the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to the interconnections of religion and global politics.

Recenzje

There is an increasing recognition across the social sciences that the dominance of an epiphenomenal approach to the study of religion in world affairs has produced inadequate research and scholarship. This volume speaks creatively to that lack, exploring the key themes that arise when discussing religion in international affairs, focusing its six sections thematically on secularization, human rights, conflict and peace-making, civil society, media, and foreign policy

O autorze

Timothy Samuel Shah is Associate Director of the Religious Freedom Project, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Alfed Stepan is Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government, Columbia University; Monica Duffy Toft is Associate Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University