Religion and governance

Upcoming at American University, the Sixth North American Baha’i Conference on Law: “Exploring the Intersections of Religion and Governance: Past, Present and Future” (October 9-11, 2008):

This conference explores what positive role, if any, can religion (broadly defined to include all moral and religious traditions) make to governance (also broadly defined as traditions, institutions and processes by which authority is exercised in a given society). Under what conditions may religion or faith be relevant to questions of “good governance”? Since the mid-1990s good governance has been seen as a condition for development aid judged by the following criteria: accountability, responsiveness, transparency, participation and responsibility. This conference aims to probe the religious underpinnings of these concepts. In turn, this may shed light on whether such characterizations of “good governance” are uniquely Western, either in origin or present applicability. What is the role of “faith” in identifying and developing criteria for good governance?

More details and full agenda here.

Jonathan VanAntwerpen is program director for theology at the Henry Luce Foundation. Originally trained as a philosopher, he received his doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is co-editor of a series of books on secularism, religion, and public life, including Habermas and Religion (Polity, 2013), Rethinking Secularism (Oxford University Press, 2011), The Post-Secular in Question (NYU Press, 2012), The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (Columbia University Press, 2011), and Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age (Harvard University Press, 2010). VanAntwerpen was the founding director of the SSRC's program on religion and the public sphere, and in 2007 he worked with others to launch The Immanent Frame, serving for several years as editor-in-chief.

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