Materialism, Spirituality, & Democracy

Materialism, Spirituality, & Democracy PDF Author: Stephen V. Riley
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1463406878
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
The purpose of this book is about the quest for spiritual maturity as it applies to the Catholic faith and American democracy. It is meant to engage the imagination of small church faith communities and bible study groups in light of Vatican II and what it means to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the Holy Spirit. Vatican II encourages the Church to be a more prophetic and contemplative faith that leads to greater spiritual discernment. Discernment of the Spirits is more important than ever to overcome an imbalance between specialized human activity and a comprehensive view of reality that directs the mind to solutions which are fully human. This was the mind of Christ. In summary, small church faith communities and Bible study groups are encouraged to consider scrutinizing the signs of the time by way of critical social analysis, spiritual discernment, and the work of the Holy Spirit. We the faithful are Cathedral Builders, never to see the end of our work. This is an evolutionary movement. As followers of Christ, we can learn to see ourselves as ongoing co-creators with God for the goodness of the entire human race.

Materialism, Spirituality, & Democracy

Materialism, Spirituality, & Democracy PDF Author: Stephen V. Riley
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1463406878
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 147

Get Book

Book Description
The purpose of this book is about the quest for spiritual maturity as it applies to the Catholic faith and American democracy. It is meant to engage the imagination of small church faith communities and bible study groups in light of Vatican II and what it means to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the Holy Spirit. Vatican II encourages the Church to be a more prophetic and contemplative faith that leads to greater spiritual discernment. Discernment of the Spirits is more important than ever to overcome an imbalance between specialized human activity and a comprehensive view of reality that directs the mind to solutions which are fully human. This was the mind of Christ. In summary, small church faith communities and Bible study groups are encouraged to consider scrutinizing the signs of the time by way of critical social analysis, spiritual discernment, and the work of the Holy Spirit. We the faithful are Cathedral Builders, never to see the end of our work. This is an evolutionary movement. As followers of Christ, we can learn to see ourselves as ongoing co-creators with God for the goodness of the entire human race.

Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion

Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion PDF Author: Alan S. Kahan
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191503142
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The relationship between democracy and religion is as important today as it was in Alexis de Tocqueville's time. Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion is a ground-breaking study of the views of the greatest theorist of democracy writing about one of today's most crucial problems. Alan S. Kahan, one of today's foremost Tocqueville scholars, shows how Tocqueville's analysis of religion is simultaneously deeply rooted in his thoughts on nineteenth-century France and America and pertinent to us today. Tocqueville thought that the role of religion was to provide checks and balances for democracy in the spiritual realm, just as secular forces should provide them in the political realm. He believed that in the long run secular checks and balances were dependent on the success of spiritual ones. Kahan examines how Tocqueville thought religion had succeeded in checking and balancing democracy in America, and failed in France, as well as observing Tocqueville's less well-known analyses of religion in Ireland and England, and his perspective on Islam and Hinduism. He shows how Tocqueville's 'post-secular' account of religion can help us come to terms with religion today. More than a study of Tocqueville on religion in democratic society, this volume offers us a re-interpretation of Tocqueville as a moralist and a student of human nature in democratic society; a thinker whose new political science was in the service of a new moral science aimed at encouraging democratic people to attain greatness as human beings. Tocqueville, Democracy, and Religion gives us a new Tocqueville for the twenty-first century.

Democracy After Communism

Democracy After Communism PDF Author: Larry Diamond
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780801870767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The last quarter of the twentieth century was marked by two dramatic political trends that altered many of the world's regimes: the global resurgence of democracy and the collapse of communism. Was the process that brought down communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union fundamentally different from the process that gave birth to new democracies in other regions of the world? Were the transitions away from communism mostly like or mostly unlike the transitions away from authoritarianism that took place elsewhere? Is the challenge of building and consolidating democracy under postcommunist conditions unique, or can one apply lessons learned from other new democracies? The essays collected in this volume explore these questions, while tracing how the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have fared in the decade following the fall of communism. Contributors: Anders Åslund, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.; Leszek Balcerowicz, Warsaw School of Economics; Archie Brown, Oxford University and St. Antony's College; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Johns Hopkins University, a former U.S. national security advisor; Valerie Bunce, Cornell University; Nadia Diuk, National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C.; M. Steven Fish, University of California–Berkeley; Charles H. Fairbanks Jr., the Johns Hopkins University; Bronislaw Geremek, former foreign minister of Poland; John Higley, University of Texas at Austin; Judith Kullberg, University of Michigan–Ann Arbor; Mart Laar, prime minister of Estonia; Michael McFaul, Stanford University; Ghia Nodia, Tbilisi State University; Jan Pakulski, University of Tasmania in Australia; Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow; Jacques Rupnik, College of Europe in Bruges; Lilia Shevtsova, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.; Aleksander Smolar, Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris; G.M. Tamás formerly of Georgetown University; Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland at College Park; Grigory Yavlinsky, member of the Russian State Duma (parliament).

Reclaiming Education for Democracy

Reclaiming Education for Democracy PDF Author: Paul Shaker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135597057
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Reclaiming Education for Democracy subjects the prophets and doctrines of educational neoliberalism to scrutiny in order to provide a rationale and vision for public education beyond the limits of No Child Left Behind. The authors combine a history of recent education policy with an in- depth analysis of the origins of such policy and its impact on professional educators. The public face of these policies is separated from motives rooted in politics, profit, and ideology. The book also searches for new insights in understanding the neoliberal and managerialist assault on education by examining the psychology of advocates who demonstrate a special animus toward universal public education. The manipulation of public education by No Child Left Behind is a case study in the general approach to public institutions taken by the politicians and theorists in these camps. K-12 education has been subjected to deceptive descriptive analyses, marginalization of its professional leadership, manipulation of its goals, the imposition of illegitimate quality markers, a grab on its resources by corporate profiteers, and a demoralization of its rank and file. This book helps us think beyond this new commonsense of education. Recipient: 2009 AERA Division K Award for Exemplary Research in Teaching and Teacher Education

What is Christian Democracy?

What is Christian Democracy? PDF Author: Carlo Invernizzi Accetti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108386156
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.

Christian

Christian PDF Author: Matthew Bowman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674985737
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
A Publishers Weekly Best Religion Book of the Year A Choice Outstanding Academic Title For many Americans, being Christian is central to their political outlook. Political Christianity is most often associated with the Religious Right, but the Christian faith has actually been a source of deep disagreement about what American society and government should look like. While some identify Christianity with Western civilization and unfettered individualism, others have maintained that Christian principles call for racial equality, international cooperation, and social justice. At once incisive and timely, Christian delves into the intersection of faith and political identity and offers an essential reconsideration of what it means to be Christian in America today. “Bowman is fast establishing a reputation as a significant commentator on the culture and politics of the United States.” —Church Times “Bowman looks to tease out how religious groups in American history have defined, used, and even wielded the word Christian as a means of understanding themselves and pressing for their own idiosyncratic visions of genuine faith and healthy democracy.” —Christian Century “A fascinating examination of the twists and turns in American Christianity, showing that the current state of political/religious alignment was not necessarily inevitable, nor even probable.” —Deseret News

Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia

Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia PDF Author: Maria Falina
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350282049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia explores the interaction between religion, nationalism, and political modernity in the first half of the 20th century, taking the case of the Serbian Orthodox Church as an example. This book historicizes the widely held assumption that the bond between religion and nationalism in the Balkans is a natural one or that this bond has been historically inevitable. It tells a complex story of how East Orthodox Christianity came to be at the core of one version of Serbian nationalism by bringing together the themes of religion, nationalism, politics, state-building, secularization, and modernity. Maria Falina reconstructs how the ideological fusion between Serbian nationalism and East Orthodox Christianity was forged. The analysis emphasizes ideas and ideologies through a close reading of public discourses and historical narratives while paying attention to individual actors and their personal histories. The book argues that the particular political vision of the Serbian Orthodox Church emerged in reaction to and in interaction with the challenges posed by political modernity that were not unique to Yugoslavia. These included establishing the modern multinational and multi-religious state, the fear of secularization, and the rise of communism and fascism. Religion and Politics in Interwar Yugoslavia makes an important contribution to understanding the history of interwar Yugoslavia, 20th-century Europe, and the ties between religion and nationalism.

Tocqueville and the Frontiers of Democracy

Tocqueville and the Frontiers of Democracy PDF Author: Richard Boyd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107009634
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
"This collection of essays uses Alexis de Tocqueville's writings as a jumping-off point to explore the dilemmas of democratization in the twenty-first century"--

Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions

Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions PDF Author: Joanna Innes
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019164661X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions charts a transformation in the way people thought about democracy in the North Atlantic region in the years between the American Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. In the mid-eighteenth century, 'democracy' was a word known only to the literate. It was associated primarily with the ancient world and had negative connotations: democracies were conceived to be unstable, warlike, and prone to mutate into despotisms. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the word had passed into general use, although it was still not necessarily an approving term. In fact, there was much debate about whether democracy could achieve robust institutional form in advanced societies. In this volume, a cast of internationally-renowned contributors shows how common trends developed throughout the United States, France, Britain, and Ireland, particularly focussing on the era of the American, French, and subsequent European revolutions. Re-imagining Democracy in the Age of Revolutions argues that 'modern democracy' was not invented in one place and then diffused elsewhere, but instead was the subject of parallel re-imaginings, as ancient ideas and examples were selectively invoked and reworked for modern use. The contributions significantly enhance our understanding of the diversity and complexity of our democratic inheritance.

Educating Democracy

Educating Democracy PDF Author: Brian Danoff
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438429630
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Revisionist analysis of the role of strong leadership in democracies, drawing primarily upon the work of Alexis de Tocqueville.