“The idea that modernity leads to a lessening religious belief is being abandoned by theorists in America and Europe. Figures like Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling argue that increasingly religion seeks to impinge on science, and now the first systematic study of European cultural groups predicts that fundamentalists of all religions are out-breeding moderates and atheists, and will eclipse them quite soon. In Israel the Ultra Orthodox will form the majority as soon as 2050. Since the birth rate of secular people in the West is way below replacement level (2.1), and the birth rate of religious fundamentalists of practically any stripe is far above (roughly between 5 and 7.7 children per mother), through the sheer force of demography, academic Eric Kaufmann claims they will become a much bigger force in the Western World. Is that inevitable? Should people be worried?

Laurie Taylor discusses the anxieties of atheists and the predictions of demography with three theorists of different perspectives.: The Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, Tariq Ramadan; Eric Kaufmann, Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College and author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? and Rebecca Goldstein, philosopher and author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God; A Work of Fiction.

REBECCA GOLDSTEIN
Rebecca Goldstein, American novelist and professor of philosophy

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction
Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN-10: 1848871546
ISBN-13: 978-1848871540
”

Follow the link to listen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rtbg8

Tony Blair as representative of the Middle East Quartet recently argued that understanding Islam is key to dealing with the Arab revolution that keeps rocking not only the ruling elites in the Middle East but also their relations to the West.1 We might add that lack of religion in the West and Israel is also an issue to the extent that religion is incapable of transcending the obsolete Right-Left divide in politics. However this might be achieved by the post-secular discourse between East and West. As will become clear in the following paragraphs there are good reasons for reviewing secularism and religion and trying to get rid of political messianism that has corrupted the Enlightenment. It might also set the stage for the recovery of a souvereign human soul – the God-send arrangement that had been uprooted by the French Revolution and ever since been eclipsed by rationalist enlightenment philosophy.

For more: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4723

For more: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4723

Exploring the Post-Secular
April 3-4, 2009
Yale University

There has been a great deal of talk in recent years suggesting that we
have entered a “post-secular” age. Much of this is a response to the
resurgence of politicized religion on the world scene. But what, if anything,
does the term “post-secular” even mean? Have we really entered into a
post-secular age? And if so, what implications, if any, does this have for
the social sciences? Do these developments imply a new approach to the
study of religion? A wholesale reconstruction of social science? A shift
towards social philosophy? Is there such a thing as “post-secular social
science”?

This conference brings together a number of analysts of religion and its
entanglements with the world in an attempt to assess these questions. We
will address the possible meanings of religion and of the various terms with
roots in the term “secular”: secularism, secularity, secularization. Without
some grappling with the question of what religion is, it is very difficult to say
what secularity or secularization might entail. We will explore the extent to
which the “return of religion” is a product of an actual upsurge of
religiosity around the world as opposed to greater scholarly attention to
religion. We will also examine the ways in which the global religious
situation may compel us to reconsider how we think about both religion
and social science.

For an outline of the conference go here:

http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/rps/exploring_post-secular.pdf

“Is this a godless age? No, say ‘post-secularist’ academics, who argue that the world outside the liberal West is ‘furiously religious’. But such scholars overstate the number of believers, contends Alastair Bonnett, and ignore support for secularism worldwide

Some words seem to be made for each other: “strawberries” and “cream”; “spending” and “cuts”. Should we add “secular” and “elite” to the list? A new wave of academic critics is working hard to shackle them together.

The Indian social scientist Ashis Nandy was one of the first. In “An anti-secularist manifesto”, published in 1985, he accused secularism of being “ethnocidal”, “authoritarian” and “middle class”. Nandy’s argument is that secularism is the creature of an uprooted elite who have abandoned the instinctively religious cultural world of the masses. It is a provocative distinction. After all, secularism is usually defined as the idea that governance should be separate from religion. It is a divorce that is commonly understood to create the conditions for religious plurality and tolerance.”.

For more go to: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416915&c=2

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=416915&c=2

Location: Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road campus, Canterbury

Fee: £25 per delegate (only £5 for BERA SIG members, members of the Philosophy of Education society of Great Britain and students)

Come to this conference to explore the meaning, relevance and implications of a post secular society for education with people from a range of disciplines including education, philosophy, theology and religious studies.

The idea of a post secular society raises a number of challenges for all those engaged in understanding the relationship between the sacred and the secular, liberal notions of the secular and the nature of contemporary spirituality in the context of educational practice and theory.

Proposals for papers on the following themes are welcomed:

• Post secular philosophies and theologies of education
• Pedagogies and curricula for post secular society
• Reframing/defending liberal education in a post secular context
• The nature of objectivity and truth in education
• The relationship between faith and a secular academy
• The secularisation and re-sacralisation of knowledge and learning
• Faith schools and universities in a post secular society
• The interplay between post modernism and the post secular
• The relevance of the post secular as a discourse in education

Abstract Proposals of (approx) 200 words   1st December 2010

Confirmation of abstract acceptance  15th December 2010

Conference booking deadline 5th January 2011

conference-flyer abstract-submission

Book your place online: www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/conferences

Telephone: 01227 782744

Email: gill.harrison@canterbury.ac.uk

“Religion in the public sphere” by J. Habermas, in European Journal of Philosophy 14: 1, 1-25 .

“The core of that essay is that secular citizens in Europe must learn to live, the sooner the better, in a post-secular society and in so doing they will be following the example of religious citizens, who have already come to terms with the ethical expectations of democratic citizenship. So far secular citizens have not been expected to make a similar effort.” For more discussion by Emanuel L. Paparella see here: http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/4126

“We must not be misled into drawing the wrong conclusions from this selflimitation of political theory. As philosophers and as citizens, we can well be convinced that a strong reading of the liberal and republican foundations of the constitutional state should and can be successfully defended both intra muros and in the political arena. However, this discourse on whether a liberal constitution and an ethics of democratic citizenship is correct and we have the right understanding of it inevitably leads us into a terrain where the normative arguments no longer suffice. The controversy also extends to the epistemological question of the relationship between faith and knowledge, which itself touches on key elements of Modernity’s background understanding of itself. Interestingly enough both the philosophical and the theological efforts to define the relationship between faith and knowledge generate far-reaching questions as to the genealogy of Modernity.” (Habermas, 2006, 19)

And here is the article itself:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118574289/PDFSTART

]]> http://rsweb.org.uk/postsecular/?feed=rss2&p=114 0 http://rsweb.org.uk/postsecular/?p=111 http://rsweb.org.uk/postsecular/?p=111#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:39:39 +0000 admin http://rsweb.org.uk/postsecular/?p=111 Reich,Johannes. “Switzerland: Freedom of Creed and Conscience, immigration and Public Schools in the Postsecular  State – Compulsory Coeducational Swimming instruction Revisited.” International Journal  of  Constitutional  Law  7.4  (2009):  754-­‐67.

“The question of whether Muslim students should be obliged to attend compulsory swimming lessons in public primary schools has been widely discussed in both the legal and political arena after a decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in 1993 found such an obligation to be unconstitutional” (p.754)

Go here for more http://icon.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/754

” T.S.Eliot defined a good kind of religious poetry as “poetry that treats the whole subject of poetry in a religious spirit”, rather than confining itself to particular themes and avoiding others. This doesn’t mean that all poetry is religious poetry, but it does mean that no subject or approach is off limits, as poets continue to struggle, to explore what we used to call ‘religious’ ideas, beliefs and experiences. These are indeed interesting times to be thinking about poetry and religion. After all, they have a lot in common. As Les Murray says: “You can’t pray a lie, said Huckleberry Finn; / you can’t poe one

either.” (p.75)

Download the article from here:

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/lib/tmp/cmsfiles/File/review/Volume%2098/984s-roberts(1).pdf

Religion and the Academy

Jacobsen, Douglas (Editor), Dr, Distinguished Professor of church History and Theology

Jacobsen, Rhonda Hustedt (Editor), Dr, Director of Faculty Development and Professor of Psychology

“Academics across America are rethinking the place of religion on college and university campuses, and religion has become a hot topic of conversation. Some conversations focus on religious literacy, while others contrast religion with spirituality; some understand religion in light of specific traditions or communities of faith, while others focus attention on concerns such as personal meaning and civic engagement. The American University in a Postsecular Age brings together these divergent conversations.”

See Googlebooks:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Hh1DUdH-cH8C&pg=PP1&dq=The+American+University+in+a+Postsecular+Age&ei=e9zJS46VJI6KNuX97McG&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

For more go here: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/religion/9780195323443/toc.html

Author:Neuhaus, Richard John

Article ID:3226-1982-077-03-000006

Journal Section(s):”Theme: Issues in Religion and Public Education”

Journal:Religious Education

Issue:77:3 (1982:May/June) p.309