Discourse on Civility and Barbarity

Discourse on Civility and Barbarity PDF Author: Timothy Fitzgerald
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199754608
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
This book analyses the development of different meanings of the term 'religion' in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro-American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralised category of religions and world religions. Throughout the period under consideration discourses on religion have overlapped significantly with discourses on 'our' civility as opposed to 'their' barbarity, underpinning the superior rationality of the literate male elite of western societies.

Discourse on Civility and Barbarity

Discourse on Civility and Barbarity PDF Author: Timothy Fitzgerald
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199754608
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book

Book Description
This book analyses the development of different meanings of the term 'religion' in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro-American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralised category of religions and world religions. Throughout the period under consideration discourses on religion have overlapped significantly with discourses on 'our' civility as opposed to 'their' barbarity, underpinning the superior rationality of the literate male elite of western societies.

Religion and Politics in International Relations

Religion and Politics in International Relations PDF Author: Timothy Fitzgerald
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441121595
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Scholars in International Relations concerned with religion and its relations to world politics are rhetorically constructing a powerful modern myth. A component of this myth is that religion is inherently violent and irrational unless controlled by the secular state, which is inherently rational and only reluctantly violent. Timothy Fitzgerald discusses how, in this modern myth, "religion" appears as a force of nature which either assists or threatens the sacred secular order of things, and how religion is portrayed as a kind of universal essence which takes many forms, its recent most dangerous manifestation being "Islamic terrorism". This book illustrates that the essential distinction between irrational religion and rational secular politics appears as an unquestioned preconception on the basis of which policy is conducted, countries invaded and wars fought. Arguing that this rhetorical construction of religion provides the foundation for faith in the rationality of modern liberal capitalism, Fitzgerald demonstrates how a historically contingent discourse has been transformed into a powerful set of global assumptions.

Religion, Theory, Critique

Religion, Theory, Critique PDF Author: Richard King
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231518242
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
Religion, Theory, Critique is an essential tool for learning about theory and method in the study of religion. Leading experts engage with contemporary and classical theories as well as non-Western cultural contexts. Unlike other collections, this anthology emphasizes the dynamic relationship between "religion" as an object of study and different methodological approaches and openly addresses the question of the manifold ways in which "religion," "secular," and "culture" are imagined within different disciplinary horizons. This volume is the first textbook which seeks to engage discussion of classical approaches with contemporary cultural and critical theories. Contributors write on the influence of the natural sciences in the study of religion; the role of European Christianity in modeling theories of religion; religious experience and the interface with cognitive science; the structure and function of religious language; the social-scientific study of religion; ritual in religion; the phenomenology of religion; critical theory and religion; embodiment and religion; the impact of colonialism and modernity; theorizing religion in terms of race and ethnicity; links among religion, nationalism, and globalization; the interplay of gender, sex, and religion; and religion and the environment. Each chapter introduces the topic, identifies key theorists and issues, and respects the pluralistic nature of the scholarship in the field. Altogether, this collection scrutinizes the explicit and implicit assumptions theorists make about religion as an object of analysis.

The Postcolonial World

The Postcolonial World PDF Author: Jyotsna G. Singh
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 131529768X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
The Postcolonial World presents an overview of the field and extends critical debate in exciting new directions. It provides an important and timely reappraisal of postcolonialism as an aesthetic, political, and historical movement, and of postcolonial studies as a multidisciplinary, transcultural field. Essays map the terrain of the postcolonial as a global phenomenon at the intersection of several disciplinary inquiries. Framed by an introductory chapter and a concluding essay, the eight sections examine: Affective, Postcolonial Histories Postcolonial Desires Religious Imaginings Postcolonial Geographies and Spatial Practices Human Rights and Postcolonial Conflicts Postcolonial Cultures and Digital Humanities Ecocritical Inquiries in Postcolonial Studies Postcolonialism versus Neoliberalism The Postcolonial World looks afresh at re-emerging conditions of postcoloniality in the twenty-first century and draws on a wide range of representational strategies, cultural practices, material forms, and affective affiliations. The volume is an essential reading for scholars and students of postcolonialism.

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion: Working Papers from Hannover

Method and Theory in the Study of Religion: Working Papers from Hannover PDF Author: Steffen Führding
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004347879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This collection of essays provides an insight into the theoretical and methodological debates within the academic study of religion in Hanover and beyond over the last years.

Religion, Discourse, and Society

Religion, Discourse, and Society PDF Author: Marcus Moberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000530469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
This book focuses on the utility and application of discourse theory and discourse analysis in the sociological study of religious change. It presents an outline of what a ‘discursive sociology of religion’ looks like and brings scholarly attention to the role of language and discourse as a significant component in contemporary processes of religious change. Marcus Moberg addresses the concept of discourse and its main meta-theoretical underpinnings and discusses the relationship between discourse and ‘religion’ in light of previous research. The chapters explore key notions such as secularism and public religion as well as the ideational and discursive impact of individualism and market society on the contemporary Western religious field. In addition to providing scholars with a thorough understanding and appreciation of the analytic utility of discourse theory and analysis in the sociological study of religious change, the book offers a cohesive and systematized framework for actual empirical analysis.

The Limits of Orientalism

The Limits of Orientalism PDF Author: Rahul Sapra
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1644531437
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The Limits of Orientalism: Seventeenth-Century Representations of India challenges the recent postcolonial readings of European, predominantly English, representations of India in the seventeenth century. Following Edward Said’s discourse of “Orientalism,” most postcolonial analyses of the seventeenth-century representations of India argue that the natives are represented as barbaric or exotic “others,” imagining these representations as products of colonial ideology. Such approaches tend to offer a homogeneous idea of the “native” and usually equate it with the term “Indian.” Sapra, however, argues that instead of representing all natives as barbaric “others,” the English drew parallels, especially between themselves and the Mughal aristocracy, associating with them as partners in trade and potential allies in war. While the Muslims are from the outset largely portrayed as highly civilized and cultured, early European writers tended to be more conflicted with Hindus, their first highly negative views undergoing a transformation that brings into question any straightforward Orientalist reading of the texts and anticipates the complexity of later representations of the indigenous peoples of the sub-continent. Sapra’s theoretical and methodological approach is influenced by such writers as Aijaz Ahmad and Denis Porter, who have highlighted powerful alternatives to Said’s discourse of “Orientalism.” Sapra historicizes European representations of the indigenous to draw attention to the contrasting approaches of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English in relation to seventeenth-century India, effectively undermining comfortable notions of a homogenous “West.” Unlike the Portuguese, for whom the idea of a dynasty and the conversion of heathens went hand in hand with the idea of trade, for the Dutch and the English the primary consideration was commercial. In keeping with the commercial approach of the English East India Company, most English travelers, instead of representing the Muslims as barbaric “others,” highlight the compatibility between the two cultures and consistently praise the Mughal empire for its religious tolerance. In the representations of the Hindus, Sapra demonstrates that most writers, even while denigrating the Hindu religion, appreciate the civilized society of the Hindus. Moreover, in the representations of sati or widow-burning, a distinction needs to be made between the patriarchal and the Orientalist points of views, which are at variance with each other. The tension between the patriarchal and the Orientalist positions challenges Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s analysis of sati in “Can the Subaltern Speak?” which has become the standard model for most postcolonial appraisals of European representations of sati. The book highlights the lacuna in postcolonial readings by providing access to selections of commonly unavailable early-modern writings by Thomas Roe, Edward Terry, Henry Lord, Thomas Coryate, Alexander Hamilton and other the records of the East India Company, which makes the book vital for students of theory, European and South-Asian history, and Renaissance literatures. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

The Critical Study of Non-Religion

The Critical Study of Non-Religion PDF Author: Christopher R. Cotter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350095265
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This book acts as a bridge between the critical study of 'religion' and empirical studies of 'religion in the real world'. Chris Cotter presents a concise and up-to-date critical survey of research on non-religion in the UK and beyond, before presenting the results of extensive research in Edinburgh's Southside which blurs the boundary between 'religion' and 'non-religion'. In doing so, Cotter demonstrates that these are dynamic subject positions, and phenomena can occupy both at the same time, or neither, depending on who is doing the positioning, and what issues are at stake. This book details an approach that avoids constructing 'religion' as in some way unique, whilst also fully incorporating 'non-religious' subject positions into religious studies. It provides a rich engagement with a wide variety of theoretical material, rooted in empirical data, which will be essential reading for those interested in critical, sociological and anthropological study of the contemporary non-/religious landscape.

French Populism and Discourses on Secularism

French Populism and Discourses on Secularism PDF Author: Per-Erik Nilsson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350055832
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Per-Erik Nilsson takes a religious studies approach to analyse the intersections of secularism, nationhood and populism in contemporary France. This book provides insight into the French and European radical-nationalist ideology and activism, and contributes to our understanding of the complex relationship between religion and the state in contemporary Europe and beyond. When Marine Le Pen became the leader of the radical nationalist and populist party National Front in 2011, she made clear that secularism was a core value of party. This signalled a significant shift in the party's rhetorical strategies and previous reluctance to embrace secularism. Nilsson argues that this conspicuous appropriation first came about as a logical result of the obsession of the established mainstream political parties and news media with questions of secularism, national identity and Islam. He shows that a key player in understanding the National Front's change is the web-based journal Riposte Laïque, which has become a central actor in French radical-nationalist and anti-Muslim web and street-based activism. For the first time, this source is examined in order to understand French radical nationalists' recent appropriation of secularism, as well as debates on secularism, national identity and Islam in France more broadly.

Classifying Christians

Classifying Christians PDF Author: Todd S. Berzon
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520383176
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Classifying Christians investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, Todd S. Berzon argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, Classifying Christians embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial forms of knowledge that have shaped western culture from antiquity to the present.