Tag: Religion

Free Download Religion and Politics in the Middle East: Identity, Ideology, Institutions, and Attitudes By Robert D. Lee
2013 | 376 Pages | ISBN: 0813348730 | PDF | 2 MB
This innovative book analyzes the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East through a comparative study of five countries-Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Robert D. Lee examines each country in terms of four domains in which state and religion necessarily interact: national identity, ideology, institutions, and political culture. In each domain he considers contradictory hypotheses, some of them asserting that religion is a positive force for political development and others identifying it as an obstacle. Among the questions the book confronts: Is secularization a necessary prerequisite for democratic development? How is it and why is it that religion and politics are so deeply entangled in these five countries? And, why is it that all five countries differ so markedly in the way they identify themselves and use religion for political purposes? The book argues that the nature of religious organization and practice in the Middle East must be understood in the context of individual nation states. The second edition is updated throughout and includes an entirely new chapter discussing the political and religious climate in Saudi Arabia. Earlier introductory analysis has been condensed to make room for new material, and chronologies at the end of each chapter have been added to help students understand the broader context. The second edition of Religion and Politics in the Middle East is a robust addition to courses on the Middle East.

Free Download Michael Capek, "Religion and Free Speech (Special Reports)"
English | 2015 | ISBN: 1624039022 | PDF | pages: 115 | 23.5 mb
Religion and Free Speech covers events ranging from the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France to prayer in schools to denying service to gay customers, exploring how free speech and religious freedom overlap and sometimes conflict in modern society. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Free Download Religion after metaphysics By Wrathall, Mark A
2003 | 194 Pages | ISBN: 0521824982 | EPUB + PDF | 2 MB
How should we understand religion, and what place should it hold, in an age in which metaphysics has come into disrepute? In this volume, leading philosophers address the decline of metaphysics and the space which this decline has opened for non-theological understandings of religion.

Free Download Queering religion, religious queers By Yvette Taylor & Ria Snowdon
2014 | 296 Pages | ISBN: 041584388X | PDF | 2 MB
This collection considers how religious identity interplays with other forms and contexts of identity, specifically those related to sexual identity. It asks how these intersections are formed, negotiated and resisted across time and places, including the UK, Europe, North America, Australia, and the Global South. Questions around ‘queer’ engagements in same-sex marriages, civil partnerships and other practices (e.g. adoption) have created a number of provoking stances and policy provisions – but what remains unanswered is how people experience and situate themselves within sometimes competing, or ‘contradictory’, moments as ‘religious queers’ who may be tasked with ‘queering religion’. Additionally, the presumed paradoxes of ‘marriage’, queer sexuality, religion and youth combine to generate a noteworthy generational absence. This leads to questions about where ‘religious queers’ reside, resist and relate experiences of intersecting religious and sexual lives. In looking at interconnectedness, this collection offers international contributions which bridge the ‘contradictions’ in queering religion and in making visible ‘religious queers.’ It provides insight into older and younger people’s understandings of religiosity, queer cultures, and religious groups. A small but active religious minority in the US has received much attention for its anti-gay political activity; much less attention has been paid to the more positive, supportive role that religious-based groups play in e.g. providing housing, education and political advocacy for queer youth. Queer methodologies and intersectional approaches offer a lens both theoretically and methodologically to uncover the salience of related social divisions and identities. This collection is both innovative and sensitive to ‘blended’ identities and their various enactments.

Free Download Heinrich Meier, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, "Politik und Religion: Zur Diagnose der Gegenwart"
Deutsch | 2013 | pages: 224 | ISBN: 3406652972 | EPUB | 2,6 mb

Free Download Plutarch on Literature, Graeco-roman Religion, Jews and Christians (Brill’s Plutarch Studies) by Frederick E. Brenk, edited by Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta
English | May 4, 2023 | ISBN: 9004531955 | True PDF | 362 pages | 3 MB
Frederick Brenk has devoted a scholarly lifetime to explicating the complexities of Plutarch’s thought. Plutarch has been his intellectual interlocutor for over fifty years: in this time Brenk has produced a stream of brilliantly lucid, provocative and wise studies.

Free Download Pamela Sue Anderson, "New Topics in Feminist Philosophy of Religion: Contestations and Transcendence Incarnate"
English | 2010 | pages: 340 | ISBN: 1402068328, 940079097X | PDF | 2,7 mb
Having enjoyed more than a decade of lively critique and creativity, feminist philosophy of religion continues to be a vital field of inquiry. New Topics in Feminist Philosophy of Religion maintains this vitality with both women and men, from their own distinctive social and material locations, contributing critically to the rich traditions in philosophy of religion. The twenty contributors open up new possibilities for spiritual practice, while contesting the gender-bias of traditional concepts in the field: the old models of human and divine will no longer ‘simply do’! A lively current debate develops in re-imagining and revaluing transcendence in terms of body, space and self-other relations.

Free Download Rachael Shillitoe, "Negotiating Religion and Non-religion in Childhood: Experiences of Worship in School "
English | ISBN: 3031398599 | 2023 | 269 pages | PDF | 5 MB
This book explores how and if the mandate for children to worship in schools can be justified within the context of declining church attendance and increasing nonreligious identification in British society. Shillitoe asks what place compulsory worship has in an increasingly diverse and plural society, and what the answer means for the relationship between religion, the secular, and education more broadly. Through in-depth ethnographic fieldwork from across three schools in southwest England, the book reveals how examining the significance of children’s experiences expands our understanding of both collective worship in schooling and religion in social life more broadly and demonstrates that adult-centric anxieties and assumptions in this area do not always reflect the experiences of children.

Free Download Islam as Political Religion: The Future of an Imperial Faith By Shabbir Akhtar
2010 | 312 Pages | ISBN: 0415781469 | PDF | 2 MB
This comprehensive survey of contemporary Islam provides a philosophical and theological approach to the issues faced by Muslims and the question of global secularisation. Engaging with critics of modern Islam, Shabbir Akhtar sets out an agenda of what his religion is and could be as a political entity. Exploring the views and arguments of philosophical, religious and political thinkers, the author covers a raft of issues faced by Muslims in an increasingly secular society. Chapters are devoted to the Qur’an and Islamic literature; the history of Islam; Sharia law; political Islam; Islamic ethics; and political Islam’s evolving relationship with the West. Recommending changes which enable Muslims to move from their imperial past to a modest role in the power structures of today’s society, Akhtar offers a detailed assessment of the limitations and possibilities of Islam in the modern world. Providing a vision for an empowered yet rational Islam that distances itself from both Islamist factions and Western secularism, this book is an essential read for students and scholars of Islamic studies, religion, philosophy and politics.

Free Download Mrinal Miri, "Gandhi for the 21st Century: Religion, Morality and Politics"
English | ISBN: 9819937914 | 2023 | 207 pages | PDF | 3 MB
This book examines the centrality of ideas such as satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), humility, and respect for understanding moral life in the complex milieu of human existence. It provides a comprehensive view of how Gandhian ideas have both a temporal and spatial universality significantly different from Western modern philosophy’s universality claims. The chapters represent different styles of philosophy but with a common purpose, offering insights into how the global debates on religion, morality, and politics are assessed from Gandhi’s point of view. Written in language accessible to general readers with an interest in Gandhian thinking, the book will appeal to academics and philosophers.