Civil Religion

Explores definitions, distinctions, and contexts key to understanding the concept of moral injury, and provides abstracts of the other essays in the book. I've decided to upload the full version as it is already available via Google Books' preview.

The article is an attempt to analyze the relation between religion and politics in the American culture of last few decades. Liberals of western civilization very often look on the religion as an anachronism – something connected with a personal wishful thinking or with the prayers of monks closed in a congregation than with the modern political life. But the religion is an important component of the present-day culture in America. A good example of this is the modern use of prayer as a form of political action. The research concentrates on two different forms of religious prayer - 'the civil prayer’ and 'the imprecatory prayer’. As we will see, these two forms of confessional practice differ almost everything, but they share a common political context.

ВЕСТНИК Ленинградского государственного университета имени А. С. Пушкина. Научный журнал № 4, Том 2. ФИЛОСОФИЯ. Санкт-Петербург, 2015

Понятие гражданcкой религии предполагает набор общих символов, идей, ритуалов, принимаемых большинством граждан страны как священные, имею-щие надмирный характер и являющиеся консолидирующими для нации. В статье рассматривается разработка темы гражданской религии в работах современных отечественных исследователей.

The concept of civil religion implies a set of common symbols, ideas, rituals, that are taken by the majority of citizens as sacred, having a transcendent character and are consolidating for the nation. The article discusses the development of the theme of civ-il religion in the works of modern Russian researchers.

Ключевые слова: гражданская религия, символы, религия и общество, ис-следования религии.

Key words: civil religion, symbols, religion and society, study of religion.

From the Publisher:

In this provocative volume, the authors argue that public
education is a central part of American civil religion and, thus, gives us an unquestioning faith in the capacity of education to solve all of our social, economic, and political problems. The book traces the development of America’s faith in public education from before the Civil War up to the present, exploring recent educational developments such as the No Child Left Behind legislation. The authors discuss how this faith in education often makes it difficult for Americans to think realistically about the capacities and limitations of public schooling.

Bringing together history, politics, religion, sociology, and educational theory, this in-depth examination:

Raises fundamental questions about what education can accomplish for the citizens of the United States.
Points out that many supposedly opposing viewpoints on public education actually arise from the same root assumptions.
Exposes the gaps between our pursuit of equity in schools and what we really accomplish with students.
Looks at ways in which education can be organized to serve a diverse population.

This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the political dimensions of civil religion in the United States. By employing an original social-psychological theory rooted in semiotics, it offers a qualitative and quantitative empirical examination of more than fifty years of political rhetoric. Further, it presents two in-depth case studies that examine how the cultural, totemic sign of ‘the Founding Fathers’ and the signs of America’s sacred texts (the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) are used in attempts to link partisan policy positions with  notions that the country collectively holds sacred. The book’s overarching thesis is that America’ s civil religion serves as a discursive framework for the country’s politics of the sacred, mediating the
demands of particularistic interests and social solidarity through the interaction of social belief and institutional politics like elections and the Supreme Court. The book penetrates America’s unique political religiosity to reveal and unravel the intricate ways in which politics, political institutions, religion and culture intertwine in the United States.

El presente escrito tiene como objetivo presentar el concepto de religión en Rousseau desde las obras el Emilio y El contrato social. Para ello, se comenzará con una introducción que da cuenta de la crítica de Rousseau a la religión del ciudadano, para luego pasar a la definición de Religión natural desde el Emilio, el concepto de religión civil en el contrato. Posteriormente se evidencia la articulación del Origen de las desigualdades en las definiciones de este concepto. Aunando a lo anterior, se mostrará cómo el concepto de religión de Rousseau se aleja de una definición metafísica y se centra en argumentos empíricos, producto de la observación de la naturaleza.

Praca podejmuje temat antyklerykalizmu Richarda Rorty’ego. Swój postulat prywatyzacji religii filozof ten uzasadnia interesem politycznym wspólnoty. W jego przekonaniu religia stanowi zagrożenie dla demokracji, ponieważ opiera się na wytwarzaniu zobowiązania jedynie wobec czegoś transcendentnego. Amerykański neopragmatysta przypisuje osobom religijnym skłonność do przerywania dyskusji, nietolerancji i zaniedbywania dobra wspólnego w imię posłuszeństwa wobec woli Boga. Zarzuty te zostają poddane krytycznej analizie. Ponadto omówiona zostaje Rortiańska utopia społeczna, nosząca znamiona religii obywatelskiej. Celem pracy jest ukazanie idiosynkratycznego wymiaru antyklerykalnej postawy Rorty’ego. Ponadto, rozprawa przedstawia możliwą wizję religii, która byłaby zgodna z pragmatystycznymi założeniami.

***

The dissertation concentrates on Richard Rorty’s anticlericalism. Rorty justifies his postulate to privatize religion by pointing out that religion may work against the political interest of the community. He claims that religion poses a threat to democracy, because it generates responsibilities only towards transcendence. The American neopragmatist calls religion a conversation-stopper. He claims that religious people are inclined to intolerance and negligence of the common good in the name of God’s will. These accusations are critically analysed. The master’s thesis discusses also Rortian social utopia which bears the marks of civil religion. The aim of the dissertation is to picture Rorty’s anticlerical attitude as to some extent idiosyncratic. Furthermore, the master’s thesis sketches the possible vision of religion that may be compatible with the pragmatic standpoint.

Set atop the highest point in the nation's capital, The Washington National Cathedral is the sixth largest cathedral in the world. It has become a central site for the high holy rituals of American civil religion, hosting presidential funerals, National Day of Prayer services, and the tombs of national luminaries. Drawing on archival research, this essay situates the cathedral within a history of religious competition and national tension. The essay concludes that the cathedral's roots lie largely in the fecund rhetorical soil of nineteenth-century nativism, the cultural prejudice that emerged in reaction to Roman Catholicism's remarkable growth during that period. The essay further argues that nativism is an oft-overlooked yet defining type of civil-religious rhetoric.

This review discusses Rousseau's concepts of social contract and general will in his work "The Social Contract" and contrasts those views with the constitutional principles of representation and individual rights found in the United States and other democratic republics.

The author offers a critical commentary on Rousseau’s chapter on civil religion in the “Social Contract”, book 4, chapter 8. It investigates Rousseau’s attempt to overcome the conflict between politics and religion by merging a civil religion that creates an emotional bond to the particular state without fostering superstition and intolerance, and it shows that this attempt fails. It is demonstrated that Rousseau’s concept of civil religion neither offers any doctrine of salvation transcending this life nor prescribes any content going beyond moral norms. Civil religion for Rousseau is in service to politics and its instrumental character is desired by the citizens who are supposed autonomously to agree on the need of a secularized civil ethic.

* Desidero ringraziare Carlo Borghero e gli amici del Groupe Rousseau, in particolare Bruno Bernardi, Andre Charrak, Gabriefle Radica e Celine Spector, per i commenti e le critiche a una prima versione di questo lavoro. 1 R. N. Sellali, Al di là delle fedi. Le religioni in un mondo post-tradizionale, Morcelliana, Brescia 1975 [ 197 0], in particolare iLcapitolo VII, La religione civile in America (pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1966 sulla rivista "Daedalus"),'pp. 185-209; su Rousseau cfr. p. 191 e p. 272.

And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.-The Book of Mormon prophet Nephi, recording a revelation from the Lord (circa 600 BCE; 1 Nephi 2:20) M embers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)-the Mormons-have long harbored the notion that America is a special place. 1 The specialness of this place, populated by a chosen people for a singular destiny, is a controlling premise and motif of the Book of Mormon. Following the perspective of their founding prophet, Joseph Smith, contemporary Mormons tend to construe the United States Constitution as an inspired document. For the past three-quarters of a century, American Saints have been viewed as dependably patriotic and are often recruited for sensitive government work, such as within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). American exceptionalism seems a feature of Mormonism's DNA. The role the United States plays in Mormon thought and culture, however, is more complex than at first appears. Coming to terms with this still-unfolding role requires pairing "American

2013, Rola religii w okresie kształtowania się społeczeństwa amerykańskiego. Geneza wprowadzenia rozdziału państwa od Kościoła, [w:] Stany Zjednoczone wczoraj i dziś. Wybrane zagadnienia społeczno-polityczne, red. Agnieszka Małek, Paulina Napierała, Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, ss. 13-38.

В статье рассматривается концепция «гражданской религии» предложенной Жан-Жаком Руссо в «Общественном договоре» как возможная модель государственного устройства, при которой религиозный выбор граждан является не делом суверена, а личным выбором. Идея «гражданской религии» Руссо была подхвачена американским социологом Робертом Белла, который в своей работе «Гражданская религия в Америке» разработал эту идею и обозначил ее как действующую модель применимую не только к Америке, но и к другим странам, в т. ч. и к России.


Civil religion in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s national thoughtt

Egorov V.A.


The article discusses the concept of «civil religion» proposed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s «Social contract» as a possible model of the state in which the religious choice of citizens is not a matter of the sovereign, and is a personal choice. The idea of «civil religion» Rousseau was picked up by the American sociologist Robert Bella, who in his «Civil Religion in America» has developed this idea and designated it as a working model is applicable not only to America, but other countries, including Russia.

In the summer of 1895 convicted murderer Thomas Smith, popularly known as "Bad Tom," was hanged in Jackson, KY in front of a crowd estimated at five thousand or more. Smith had been accused in past years of at least five murders, most at the behest of a ruthless businessman named Fulton French. Due to French's interdiction, Smith had withstood acquittals and mistrials without punishment over the first half of the 1890s. Smith had been Fulton French's primary assassin in a neighboring county, and he exemplified a growing population that wealthy warlords like French could easily exploit: rootless, profligate men under forty, victimized by recent economic developments that pushed them away from yeomanry and toward drunkenness, gambling and venereal disease. 1 Branded a "feudist" in Kentucky's press, Smith could more accurately be termed a n'er-do-well willing to kill for money in a time and place where local mercenary labor was in high demand.

The author first discusses research dilemmas in studying continental Freemasonries. He lists the pro-Yugoslav activities of Serbian and Croatian freemasons during the Great War but dismisses as a myth the claims that Yugoslavia was created due to the influence of freemasons. In the main part of the paper, he discusses the content of the narrative of Yugoslavism, identifying two periods in the history of royalist Yugoslavism: Vidovdan Yugoslavism (1918–1929) and integral Yugoslavism (1929–1939/41). Yugoslavism is seen within the concept of civil religion, and the contribution of Yugoslav freemasons to the development of the concept is analysed.
Among Yugoslav freemasons, Viktor Novak, Vladimir Ćorović, Ferdo Šišić, Milan Marjanović and Niko Bartulović are singled out as the main codifiers of the Yugoslav civil religion. Special attention is given to the four main components of the concept of the Yugoslav civil religion as seen by leading Yugoslav intellectuals who were freemasons: 1) Vidovdan (St. Vitus Day) as the main holiday of Yugoslavism; 2) the construction and sacralisation of the “Yugoslav spirit” and “Yugoslav thought” in art (Rudolf Valdec and Ivan Meštrović) and in narratives (V. Novak, V. Ćorović, M. Marjanović); 3) the role of King Alexander as the archpriest of the Yugoslav civil religion; and 4) the efforts to build a temple of the Yugoslav civil religion – the Vidovdan (Kosovo) Temple designed by Ivan Meštrović. The question of the relationship between national and cosmopolitan elements in Yugoslav Freemasonry is also discussed. Finally, the paper explains the reasons why the Yugoslav civil religion was not able to be more successful in contributing to its overall aim: the creation of the “Yugoslav spirit”.

Keywords: Freemasonry, Yugoslavism, Yugoslav Civil Religion, Vidovdan, “Yugoslav Thought”, “Yugoslav Spirit”, Rudolf Valdec, Ivan Meštrović, Viktor Novak, Vladimir Ćorović, Milan Marjanović.

God & Apple Pie: Religious Myths and Visions of America
by Christopher Buck
Kingston, NY: Educator's International Press, 2015

Contents
Introduction, by J. Gordon Melton
Chapter 1: America: Nation and Notion
Chapter 2: Native American Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 3: Protestant Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 4: The Christian Right’s Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 5: Catholic Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 6: Jewish Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 7: Mormon Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 8: Christian Identity Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 9: Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 10: Contemporary Muslim Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 11: Buddhist Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 12: Baha’i Myths and Visions of America
Chapter 13: Conclusion: How Minority Faiths Redefined America’s World Role

Two sample chapters (by publisher's permission):
1.  Native American Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 2)
2.  Black Muslim Myths and Visions of America (Chapter 9)

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/God-Apple-Pie-Religious-Visions/dp/1891928155/

Introduction by J. Gordon Melton,
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History, Baylor University

Far from being an interesting additional topic for the religious dilettante, the discussion around the theological reality that is America, periodically bursts forth as an important item on the nation's agenda, from the place of prayer services in the White House, to the issuance of an annual government report on religious persecution, to the rise of contemporary terrorism. As one traces radical Islam, for example, one arrives at the writings of one Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian who spent some of his younger years in America, and came away with his own vision of a country mired in sin and decadence. He would posit America as the image of everything he hoped to escape in promoting the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, in all honesty, I must admit that over the years as I encountered all of the intriguing, even fascinating, ideas about America in the great cosmic scheme of things, I never got around to systematically gathering the different visions and trying to make sense of them in any detailed fashion. Thus, I have been more than happy to receive, and now with this modest introduction, pass along to my scholarly colleagues and the reading public the work of Christopher Buck.

During his years of observation and research, Buck has surveyed the spectrum of visions of America that have energized and motivated the America's religious community, and has selected from among them a sample that both (1) represents the spectrum of opinion about America and its importance, and (2) highlights the more important visions of America that have shaped and are continuing to shape the way we understand this country we call home. His work calls us to become self-conscious about the assumptions we use in our day-to-day movements that massage the ways we approach our neighbors, our colleagues at work, and the politicians for whom we vote.

Buck begins with the visions of America present at the founding of the nation, aspects of which still strongly permeate the culture today, and have found a new home among conservative Protestants in their innovative idea of Christian America. Amid the Protestant context, we often forget the role of the Roman Catholic Church, which became the largest religious body in America in the 1840s and is now three times larger than its nearest competitor. At the end of the nineteenth century, a controversy on Americanism would erupt around Catholic visions of their place in a changing world that would drive it from participation in the nation's public square for a half-century, and molded its reentrance after World War II.

And then there are all the other-than-Christian religions, from Ahmadiyya Muslims to Zoroastrians, all of which possess their its own vision of America that shapes their appropriation of life in the United States and guides their development as their place in the nation was challenged, then accepted, and most recently affirmed and even celebrated by the nation as a whole. We have watched as Buddhists have carved out a place as cultural peacemakers, Muslims have struggled with separation of religion and government, and Baha'is have tried to understand the communication of their founder, Baha'u'llah, with the presidents of the Americas collectively, and with 'Abdu'l-Baha's statements about the destiny of America in particular. All of this occurs in the ebb and flow of religious life. One day we envision the possible unity of America's religions only to be thrown up against the many harsh divisions, which motivates us once more to seek realms of agreement, which again highlights the array of issues that can drive wedges between those who accept the label "American" as part of their self-identity.

In conclusion, I can, as a scholar, reflect on the contribution that this book, Religious Myths and Visions of America: God and Apple Pie, is making to our understanding of the American mosaic and how various segments of the religious community have found their way to being American. As an informed citizen I welcome its information that allows me to empathize with and make informed decisions relative to those with whom I might align (or oppose) as I sally forth in the public square. And on a personal level, I welcome the author's invitation for me to meet anew the residents of my neighborhood, those who shop in the same stores I do, send their children to the same schools my grandchildren attend, and diligently work toward their own appropriation of the American dream.

J. Gordon Melton
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
Baylor University

January 2015 — This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Building upon the work that Robert D. Linder and Richard V. Pierard started in Civil Religion and the Presidency, this book begins with examinations of how Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton employed civil religion during their presidencies. Convinced that the influence of civil religion expands beyond the White House, the contributing scholars of this volume also explore the broader effects of civil religion upon Christian denominations and American social development.                                                                                                               

This thought-provoking work analyzes the effects of American civil religion upon American politics and Christian denominations. Focusing upon particular presidencies and specific denominations, these essays examine how civil religion has helped to define religio-political discourse, revise the way certain Christians--most notably, Baptists, Mennonites, and Pentecostals--related to American life, and frame elements of debates about controversial issues such as gender, nationalism, and civic duty.

Presentation at the conference "Political Orthodoxy and Totalitarianism in a Post-Communist Era" - Helsinki, 28th May 2015

The presentation suggests a taxonomy of the political orthodoxies:
nationalism
orientalism
‘orthodox civilisation’
etatism
militarism
conservatism
fundamentalism

Main points:
"Political Orthodoxy" can be interpreted as heresy, because from the soteriological perspective, it appears to incur substantial limitations to the salvific effect of the Incarnation

The challenges that the Orthodox Church faces in our days, do not come from the philosophical doctrines, as it was in the past, but from the social and political doctrines. Sociology in our days plays the same role as philosophy played in the period of the Late Antiquity. As we study Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Proclus to understand Orthodoxy and deviations from it in the early Christian centuries, so we need to study Weber, Troeltsch, and Niebuhr to navigate through the modern aberrations of the canon of faith.

The ‘political orthodoxy’ can be interpreted as a civil religion.

‘Political orthodoxy’ is a form of secularisation of the Orthodox Church. In its rhetoric, it may condemn secularisation and can build its capital on promoting religion in the society. The irony, however, is that it drags the Church to secularity.

Fra il 1934 e il 1936, Ernesto de Martino redige, in due versione, uno scritto rimasto sinora inedito e intitolato "Saggio sulla religione civile" dove si individua nel fascismo il modello più compiuto di superamento della religione cristiana, e più in generale di qualsiasi sistema religioso esistente. Nel 1997, Eugenio Maria Capocasale rende noto questo materiale nella sua tesi di dottorato, che resta però anch’essa inedita. Il presente saggio intende riproporre ampi stralci del Saggio sulla religione civile e collocarlo all’interno della complessiva produzione demartiniana. Lo scopo principale è mostrare come il saggio, lungi dall’essere il frutto di una fugace adesione dell’autore al fascismo, rappresenta un momento importante nella definizione demartiniana della religione e del suo valore nella società contemporanea.
Dagli anni Trenta in poi, la sua idea di religione (anche se non più fascista) resta sempre la stessa.

Between 1934 and 1936, Ernesto de Martino wrote, in two versions, a text, which is still unpublished: "Essay on Civil Religion". In this work De Martino identified Fascism as the best model to overcome Christian religion, and more generally any existing religious system. In 1997, Eugenio Maria Capocasale published this material in his doctoral thesis; however, this dissertation remains unpublished. The present paper aims at providing ample excerpts from the Essay on Civil Religion, in order to place it within the overall De Martino’s scientific production. The main aim is to show how this essay, far from being the result of a fleeting adherence of the author to Fascism, represents an important stage in his process of defining religion and its value in contemporary society. From the 1930s onwards, De Martino’s idea of religion (although no longer fascist) remained the same.

The political salience of religious issues and identities has been rising in Thailand, and this is increasingly reflected in electoral politics. Thai political parties seek to position themselves in relation to struggles over the location of the ideological centre of gravity, which has pitted defenders of the religio-political status quo—a monarchy-centred civil-religious nationalism—against Buddhist nationalists, on the one hand, and proponents of greater secularization, on the other. In the 2019 general election, political entrepreneurs ‘particized’ these religio-political differences, which has far-reaching implications for majority-minority relations, to an extent that appears unprecedented in recent Thai political history. This argument is developed through an analysis of the platforms, policies, and rhetoric put forward by political parties contesting the election, which concluded an almost five-year period of direct military rule. This analysis suggests we need to pay greater attention to the role of political parties and electoral competition in maintaining and contesting the secular settlement in Thailand.

Este libro es como una de esas composiciones musicales donde se discurre un tema a través de contrapuntos en diferentes tonos. Se conforma de ensayos ocioantropológicos sobre la identidad religiosa del cubano y las dinámicas del campo religioso en Cuba desde los años noventa del siglo pasado hasta la contemporaneidad. La figura del encantamiento guía una sintética exploración de la emergencia de las identidades religiosas y de las experiencias de lealtades y adhesiones a sistemas religiosos que han ganado en centralidad y notoriedad pública al nutrir certezas de cohesión, ampliar sus territorialidades, posicionarse socialmente e intercambiar legitimidades con el campo de la política. Evidencia las astucias cubanas para actualizar legados culturales y resolver, escapar, crear, resistir y liberarse de sus demonios en medio de peleas por la dignidad y conjuros re-encantadores de los vínculos sociales.

Indonesia merupakan negara yang paling disorot melalui sisi keberagamannya. Masyarakat Indonesia yang multi kultur juga menganut kepercayaan yang beragam, dimulai dari kepercayaan animisme, dinamisme, agama Hindu Budha, agama Islam, Kristen, Protestan, dan Konghucu. Hal ini menunjukkan adanya multikulturalisme beragama di Indonesia. Namun, apa sebenarnya pengaruh dari multikulturalisme bagi kehidupan beragama di Indonesia? Dan apa peran Pancasila sebagai dasar Negara dan ideologi yang seharusnya menjadi alat untuk mengatur dan mengikat keberagaman dalam kehidupan beragama di Indonesia?. Oleh karena itu, tulisan ini mengkaji tentang multikulturalisme dalam ideologi pancasila, yaitu pada sila pertama Pancasila yang berisi tentang kepercayaan dan konsep ketuhanan. Lebih tepatnya tentang bagaimana seharusnya umat beragama menjalankan kehidupan keagamaannya dalam masyarakat multikultural. Rakyat Indonesia yang beragama dan berpancasila lah yang bisa memahami caranya bersikap serta beperilaku layaknya umat beragama yang menghargai perbedaan, menjunjung persatuan, berperikemanusiaan, dan berkeadilan melalui prinsip Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa. Seperti itulah seharusnya wujud dari multikulturalisme dalam kehidupan beragama. A. Pendahuluan Indonesia tercipta sebagai Negara yang kaya akan keberagaman. Tak hanya kekayaan masyarakat dan budayanya yang menjadi sorotan keberagaman di Indonesia. Keberagaman yang dimiliki oleh negeri agraris ini termuat dalam banyak sektor kehidupan seperti ideologi, keberagaman hayati, keberagaman hewani, sumber daya alam, sumber daya manusia, politik, kondisi geografis, mata pencaharian yang beragam dan masih banyak lagi. Salah satu keberagaman yang sangat terlihat dalam sektor kehidupan masyarakatnya adalah kepercayaan. Kepercayaan yang dianut oleh masyarakat Indonesia sangat beragam dan berbeda-beda. Sejak zaman dahulu, sejarah menyebutkan bahwa masyarakat Indonesia menganut kepercayaan terhadap roh nenek moyang (animisme). Animisme adalah kepercayaan yang pertama kali dianut oleh masyarakat Indonesia.

This article concerns representations of popular Muslim belief and practice in modern Iran. Of primary interest here will be a horror film called Khvabgah-i dukhtaran/Girls' Dormitory, in which a young woman becomes the target of a crazed killer claiming to be under the command of jinn. I discuss how the film, which some have reported is of particular appeal to young girls and women, engages with elite discourses on the essentially female character of popular (religious) culture. I also examine what the “horror” of the film reveals about many people's understandings of cosmology and anthropology in Iran, especially with respect to the modern articulation of a “national theology.” Such understandings in turn problematize the film's place in horror cinema from a Western perspective and perhaps explain the genre's relative absence from Iranian screens over the years. Finally, I turn to the broader significance of this release in terms of filmmaking and filmgoing in Iran as well as its possible connections to female-centered horror film movements elsewhere.

From 2015 onwards, "sinicizing religions" has become the mantra of China's religious policy, inspiring new regulations and constraining the functioning of religious organizations. After summarizing the "sinicization" doctrine and policy, this paper examines how Chinese scholars in religious studies position themselves in such a context. It reviews the developments of the field after 1979; it appraises the complex interplay between the scholarly community and policy makers; it examines how scholars in religious studies now respond to the official policy, as they strive to balance descriptive and prescriptive assessments. It shows how the search for ideal-types as well as for 'sinicized' typologies and methodologies partly function as an adaptative tactic. The need to answer political imperatives revives older debates on religious forms and functions, and, to some extent, stirs theoretical imagination. However, political constraints make it difficult for scholars to focus on current religious trends, as they find it safer to debate on a somewhat atemporal model of "Chinese religion".

The toponimy of the Second Republic: Falcone and Borsellino, mafia victims. The author addresses the issue of place names, consecrated to the memory of the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, to observe the public impact of the Republican crisis (1989-1994) on local
communities. In particular he analyzes the mafia massacres of 1992 in order to understand how the medial nature of the «historical present» affected the composition of a civic territoriality in the second Republic. In the second part of the article the author, on the one hand, focuses on
public history practices and journalistic controversies regarding the choice of place names, on the other hand, he experiences an e-research exploiting the cybernetic infrastructure of public administration. From the comparison of data emerges the protagonism of the southern municipalities. Through the cult of the innocent victims of the mafia, they open the way to an all-Italian civilian anti-mafia religion.

As an insider to church politics and a scholar of contemporary Orthodoxy, Cyril Hovorun outlines forms of political orthodoxy in Orthodox churches, past and present.

Hovorun draws a big picture of religion being politicized and even weaponized. While Political Orthodoxies assesses phenomena such as nationalism and anti-Semitism, both widely associated with Eastern Christianity, Hovorun focuses on the theological underpinnings of the culture wars waged in eastern and southern Europe. The issues in these wars include monarchy and democracy, Orientalism and Occidentalism, canonical territory, and autocephaly. Wrought with peril, Orthodox culture wars have proven to turn toward bloody conflict, such as in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014.

Accordingly, this book explains the aggressive behavior of Russia toward its neighbors and the West from a religious standpoint. The spiritual revival of Orthodoxy after the collapse of Communism made the Orthodox church in Russia, among other things, an influential political protagonist, which in some cases goes ahead of the Kremlin. Following his identification and analysis, Hovorun suggests ways to bring political Orthodoxy back to the apostolic and patristic track.

This article interprets the metaphysical elan that marked the Jacobin Terror as a reply to the radical individualism that characterized the first phase of the French Revolution. Focuses are devoted to the regeneration idea and to the civil religion tradition.

The transcript published here for the first time is of Leo Strauss's 1963 lecture on, and discussion of, the relation of religion to the commonweal in the tradition of political philosophy. In this lecture, Strauss considers the question of the establishment of religion, the relation of freedom of religion to freedom from religion, and the question of the truth of religion. The lecture has implications for American constitutional jurisprudence, especially concerning the First Amendment, which Strauss situates within the development of modern political philosophy.

Christopher Buck, “Robert Hayden’s ‘[American Journal]’: A Multidimensional Analysis.” Online Journal of Baha’i Studies 2 (2008): 1–37. 

As America’s “Bicentennial poem,” poet-laureate Robert Hayden’s “American Journal” reveals much about the poet’s treatment of American identity, and of his tropical use of “America” as well. The artifice of “American Journal” is quite interesting: “American Journal” purports to be the field notes of a Martian observer who, by his shape-shifting powers, disguises himself in an array of human personas, and who then reports his findings to his superiors, “the Counselors.” "American Journal” introduces the unlikely figure of an alien observer from outer space, whose field-notes are reported in the poem itself. The alien‘s journal about America (hence the title, “American Journal”) is recorded in truncated form—largely by the poetic device known as brachylogy (condensed expression; laconic speech), as in “oceans deserts mountains grain fields canyons / forests variousness of landscapes weathers / sun light moon light as at home much here is / beautiful dream like vistas reminding me of / home.”

A close reading of “American Journal” assumes that these American social identities act as superegos that overarch and refract on individual identities, to which individual identities may be subaltern. In the opening lines of the poem, the poet describes “the americans this baffling / multi people.” Yet, at the end of the poem, the poet is at a loss to adequately account for “their variousness their ingenuity / their elan vital and that some thing essence / quiddity i cannot penetrate or name.” Nevertheless, internal evidence suggests that Hayden treats American identity in nine dimensions: (1) Landscape Identity; (2) Alien (Individual) Identity; (3) Racial Identity; (4) Political Identity; (5) Class Identity; (6) Material Identity; (7) Religious Identity; (8) American (National) Identity; (9) Human Identity.

Citation: Christopher Buck, "Robert Hayden's 'American Journal": A Multidimensional Analysis." Online Journal of Baha’i Studies 2 (2008): 1–37.

How is a legislator to harness the positive cohesive power of religion without falling prey to a charge of hypocrisy? As with so many theoretical puzzles, it was Plato who first recognized this paradox of civil religion. Consequently, the multi-tiered religion he proposes in the Laws should be understood as western thought's first attempt to solve this problem. At the centre of the Laws stands a single icon – the sun – that fits within both the Olympian schema of polis-religion and a naturalistic, rationalist account persuasive to the more philosophically minded. Using the language and imagery of solar worship, Plato designed a shared 'civil religion' (to use an anachronistic term), that can reasonably claim to link the social forms of political life to the higher truths of reason, even if not all the city's citizens will mean the same thing when they speak of the god and his rites. Keywords Plato – The Laws – Civil Religion – Greek Political Thought – Theology Over the course of modernity, political theory has remained more or less troubled by some version of 'the paradox of civil religion':1 Religion is an essential institution of social cohesion and political solidarity, and yet reason tells us that there is good cause to be sceptical of the tales, practices, and beliefs of traditional religious forms. How then, is a legislator to harness the positive

This research explores cult formation and sect-like worship in the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), around the figures of both the priest and guerrilla fighter Camilo Torres , and Fabio Vásquez, leader and founder of the group in 1963-1978. I examine the relationship between authority and obedience that shaped political leadership in Colombia since the late 19 th century. In particular, I consider how collective moral and individual values become ritualized in daily practices and moral discourses fostered by leaders that promoted drastic social change along Colombian history. This analysis of authority and obedience facilitates interpretations into how leaders create allegiances and legitimize violence as a strategy to bring about change in Colombian politics. I argue that the politics of magnicidio demonstrates how the formation of leadership is hampered by the use of selective violence, as a strategy to dismantle or deter political opponents from participation. This happens in both mainstream politics and within insurgent groups. In this vein, I argue that by approaching the figure of Camilo Torres and the reverence to his memory, it is possible to understand the importance of leadership and authority both in a guerrilla group, and in social mobilization, particularly the student movement, intellectual sectors, and the youth. I sustain that reverence to Camilo Torres has been fostered primarily outside the ELN. Although the ceremonies around his figure and the revolutionary project progressively furnished the group with a consistent pattern of belief for individual and group interaction, his leadership in the groups was not substantial. I demonstrate how Camilo Torres surrendered to the leadership of Fabio Vásquez in an attempt to become a suitable guerrillero. I argue that beyond claims for Camilo Torres' political legacy, guerrilla fighters in the ELN used his thought to challenge and undermine Fabio Vásquez' personalistic leadership in 1967-1974. Although the figure of Camilo Torres created internal cohesion, the ELN's re-conceptualization of the revolutionary project used his life only as a paradigm of commitment, sacrifice and revolutionary redemption, ignoring the priest's political ideals and assertions on social justice, charity and love. I conclude by exploring Camilo Torres' thought and actions in order to demonstrate how the ELN selectively interprets his legacy, and thereby justify the last months of his life to legitimize radical left leaning fighting.

김현준의 글 「개신교 우익청년대중운동의 형성: 극우정치에서 개신교의 효 용과 문화 구조」는 오늘날 우익 대중운동의 저변 확장에 큰 몫을 하고 있는 개 신교 청년대중에 시선을 맞춘다. 그동안 개신교의 정치화에 대해서는 교세 감 소나 사회적 신뢰 감소라는 위기에 대한 대응이라는 해석이 많았지만, 이 글은 우익대중의 행동주의를 이해하려면 그 이상으로 이해를 심화해야 한다고 주 장한다. 위기의식을 대중의 ‘사회적 상상’이나 박탈감, 혐오와 같은 정서로 변형 시키고 내재화하는 과정에 주목해야 한다는 것이다. 이 글은 그 계기로 반동성 애 담론과 종북척결 담론을 꼽고 있다. 동성애와 종북을 현재의 국가적ᆞ사회 적ᆞ종교문화적 위기를 초래하는 적으로 규정하는 문화전쟁 프레임이야말로 이들을 반지성주의적 행동주의로 몰아가고 있다는 것이다.

In Japan, it seems that people perform various religious behaviours in a space saturated with associated paraphernalia with what looks like religious reverence, but they do not identify themselves as religious. At the same time, religion in Japan is said to be unique along any number of dimensions. Yet, along none of these dimensions, separately or together, is religion in Japan actually unique. I argue the reasons for the first position lies in Japan's history and the management of a stigmatised relation between religion and national identity. This relation still functions today and is managed by a discourse that disassociates religion with identity and associates it with qualities like syncretism and pluralism. These associations are modernist and this is shown by reference to Kant's writings on religion. This also allows us to classify religion in Japan as a modern civil religion in opposition to Bellah. The reason for the second position is to reduce the modernist identity to an authentic Japanese identity. This, though, as we shall see, is problematic.

This Article seeks to explore the nature, function, source, and content of a constitutional civil religion (CCR) within Singapore's constitutional experiment in managing the diversity of race and religion and promoting solidarity. CCR is constructed as a strategy to secure social harmony within the world's most religiously diverse polity, through recognizing an irreducible plurality in ethnic and religious terms, while maintaining an indivisible unity through nurturing bonds of citizen solidarity. This dovetails with the function of the constitution as an instrument of social integration, involving the articulation and regular affirmation of shared community values and aspirations, as well as process and practices-or public rituals-which regulate dispute resolution or conflict management during instances or crises where racial and religious harmony is threatened. A functional approach is taken towards the idea of a civil religion, and the tasks of integration, legitimation, and inspiration it may play within a constitutional order. The nature of civil religion in general, and the sources of CCR in Singapore, as well as its expression as a public ritual in managing religious dis-harmony disputes is discussed.