At last November's AAR meeting in Montreal, a plenary session presided over by AAR President and SSRC Working Group Chair Mark Juergensmeyer featured a discussion between Craig Calhoun, José Casanova, Saba Mahmood, and Charles Taylor on the need to rethink the category of 'secularism' given religion's enduring significance in the modern world. Watch the video
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Announcements, events, and opportunities related to topics of interest to TIF readers are posted here. Additionally you may find round-ups of news items and brief commentary on current events.
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Syrian secularism, a model?
by John D. BoyFollowing up on a recent interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on a special edition of the Charlie Rose Show, a Syrian embassy official contributed an op-ed piece in the Christian Science Monitor earlier this week extolling Syrian secularism as a model for the Middle East region. Buttressing the Syrian variety of secularism is the best defense against extremism in the region, the diplomat concludes.
July 16, 2010
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“Who is a Jew?”
by Jake AlterA controversial bill passed the Israeli Knesset's (Parliament) law committee this week. The Rotem Bill, as it is known (named after its sponsor, David Rotem, a member of the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party), would give ultimate control of the conversion process to the ultra-orthodox, Haredi, rabbinate. This bill has caused both concern and indignation in the diasporic Jewish community. See Alana Newhouse's recent op-ed in The New York Times.
July 19, 2010
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Controversy over crimes against the Church
by Aaron WeinsteinA day after the Vatican issued a new document revising the types of crimes one can commit against the Catholic Church---crimes against morality, the sacraments, and faith---the Church is once again on the defensive. As Philip Pullella reports for Reuters, the decision to include both pedophilia and the ordination of women as threats to the Church in the same document has sparked a furious debate over whether Vatican leadership has equated the two.
July 19, 2010
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Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond
by Charles GelmanThe Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is currently exhibiting the work of nine contemporary Tibetan artists who incisively and imaginatively reinterpret the highly formalized tradition of Tibetan Buddhist art.
July 19, 2010
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Au contraire, Mr. Beck
by Kathryn ReklisOn July 13, 2010, Glenn Beck made liberation theology---and especially Black Theology---the subject of his televised program. The real subject of his complaint was twofold: liberation theology is "a perversion of God" that mistakes Marxism for the plain meaning of the Gospels, which, for Beck, are self-evidently about individual salvation, and liberation theology does away with the language of merit, convincing the down-and-out that they are victims deserving of a handout instead of hard work. The inconsistencies of this message, along with Beck's misreading and simplification of the various complex traditions of Christian liberation theology have not gone unnoticed in rebuttals and reprisals.
July 20, 2010
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Germany offers rehab for Islamic radicals
by Amanda KaplanUSA Today reported yesterday on a novel tactic for combating Islamic radicalism now being implemented in Germany.
July 20, 2010
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Joan Wallach Scott on notions of French citizenship
by Amanda KaplanAt Big Think, Joan Wallach Scott discusses French citizenship and laïcité in light of the current controversy over the burqa.
July 20, 2010
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“Can you do counterterrorism without theology?”
by Jake Alter"Can you do counterterrorism without theology?" Increasingly, critics are calling into question the Western strategy of supporting moderate and more "acceptable" forms of Islam throughout the world. In response to the question above, posted at The Guardian, Mehdi Hasan, a senior editor at the New Statesman, argues that "it is not the business of the state to back one or other interpretation of Islam – or any other faith."
July 21, 2010
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Should one pray for an atheist?
by Jake AlterThe health of Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken atheist and critic of religion, has become a major news story. Hitchens is in treatment for esophageal cancer and his debilitating health has caused many to ask: should one pray for an atheist? Courtney Bender, professor of religion at Columbia University, discusses the question and whether "atheists have joined a religiously plural grid as another 'religious' minority, taking up a place alongside the Muslims and Sikhs and Zoroastrians."
July 21, 2010