This chapter questions our past ways of
understanding religion and suggests that in the
Possamai, A. (2018). There Is No Such Thing as a Religion. In The contemporary world, our sociological
i-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism (pp. understanding of religion needs to change and
67-79). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. adapt to reflect recent changes. The chapter
provides a social constructionist understanding
of religion—that it is defined according to a
context and a time period, rather than being
universal. Emile Durkheim’s functional
understanding of religion is then applied in the
neoliberal context. This chapter claims that,
increasingly, religion is no longer a tool for
collective consciousness but is mainly used as a
means of increasing individual consciousness
with regard to developing, healing, and
entertaining the self. Rather than being a social
glue for a collective, it is now a social (and
personal) glue for the self.
The main aim of this paper is to provide an
introductory discussion of the issue of the
human need for a cultural symbiosis in the
contemporary global community and of the
Bakar, O. (2018). Cultural symbiosis and the role of religion in the constructive role that religion could play in
contemporary world: an Islamic perspective. KATHA, 4(1), 31-58. delivering this global need. We will, however,
be examining the issue at hand mainly from the
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perspective of Islam, since it happens to be the
religion with which we are most familiar. But
our chosen theme of discussion here with an
emphasis on Islam is also influenced by other
considerations. We realize that the perspective
of Islam on the issue in question is little known
to many non-Muslims even though it is
important in its own right, thus meriting a
serious study by scholars. Today, Islam is the
second largest religion in the world after
Christianity and also the fastest growing.
Moreover for various reasons, Islam is
increasingly recognized even by its critics as
having the capacity to positively influence world
events and global affairs and the future direction
of world history.
Critical reaction to Black Atlantic Religion:
Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarchy in
Matory, J. L., Sansi, R., Pérez, E., & Iyanaga, M. (2018). J. Lorand
the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé (2005) has
Matory's Black Atlantic Religion: A Retrospective
recapitulated and, in some cases, generated
Discussion. Journal of Africana Religions, 6(1), 50-94.
several central debates in the comparative study
Chicago of diasporic cultures and their ostensible
homelands. Together, this historical ethnography
and these critical responses offer an important
case study in how scholars’ personal experiences
and social positionality can shape what
interpretations of society and history they are
willing to believe and what communities they
are able to imagine in a multi-sited field. Much
the same diversity of experience, positionality,
and imagination of community has shaped the
long and international history of scholarship
about Candomblé and other Afro-Atlantic
religions, scholarship that has, over time,
affected the practice of these religions
themselves.
Armed conflicts, particularly civil conflicts, are
frequently marked by episodic swings between
Fisher, S. (2018). Religious Leadership and the Forging of an violence and peace. Preventing a return to the
Enduring Narrative of Peace in the Aftermath of the Bougainville fighting poses one of the most significant
Crisis. In Reconciliation in Conflict-Affected Communities (pp. 151- challenges to restoring civil society in war
167). Springer, Singapore. zones. This chapter offers an overview of the
sustainable peacebuilding model; with an
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emphasis on the role reconciliation plays in
restoring relationships to achieve a lasting peace.
Emphasis is given to the role that various
religious leaders played in the case of the
Bougainville Crisis (1988–1997), particularly at
the level of grassroots leadership, which
emphasised relationship building as an antidote
to recurring instances of violence. Religious
leaders’ intimate knowledge of the socio-cultural
dynamics, combined with the trust they held
among a large constituency, allowed them to
play a critical role in forging an enduring peace.
The victims’ voices captured in the previous
three chapters are used in this chapter to develop
the conceptual argument about the nature, limits
and strengths of everyday life peacebuilding. A
Brewer, J. D., Hayes, B. C., Teeney, F., Dudgeon, K., Mueller-
review and critique is given of the concept of
Hirth, N., & Wijesinghe, S. L. (2018). Everyday Life
everyday life peacebuilding as it has developed
in International Relations Studies. The chapter
Peacebuilding. In The Sociology of Everyday Life
argues that sociology’s special understanding of
Peacebuilding (pp. 199-254). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
the nature of everyday life adds to discussions in
Chicago International Relations Studies and elaborates
the process in positive ways. Examples are given
from the empirical data to show how
sociologically, everyday life is not only a space
where certain forms of peacebuilding are done,
but a mode of reasoning, in which ‘getting
along’ with one another after conflict as a way
of thinking is made normal, routine and
everyday.
Interreligious dialogue involves religious
leaders in a hybrid function as diplomats trapped
Stensvold, A., & Vik, I. (2018). Religious Peacemakers on the between the secular and religious realms. Who
International Scene: Hopes and Motivations. The Review of Faith & are they and what are their motivations? In this
International Affairs, 16(3), 9-22. article, we distinguish between theological and
political peace dialogues, and trace the
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underlying concerns that motivate those who
initiate and moderate interreligious dialogues for
peace. We discuss underlying religious
sensibilities that inform their commitment,
which range from those who see interreligious
dialogue as a meaningful religious endeavour to
those who see it as an opportunity to tell the
Truth. Underlying each position, we find
personal motivations entangled with particular
religious worldviews.
This chapter offers readers background
information about the two case studies from a
Lee, S. (2019). Peacebuilding and Local Peacebuilders in Cambodia comparative perspective. All social
and Mindanao. In Local Ownership in Asian Peacebuilding (pp. 27-
developments are contextual and so is local
59). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. peacebuilding. The peacebuilding models
promoted by local actors are subject to the
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social, cultural and structural conditions of the
society and reflect the local actors’ views and
interests constructed within such contexts. The
local models of peacebuilding in Mindanao and
Cambodia, in this sense, present significant
discrepancies in terms of the identity of local
peacebuilders, the organisational structure of
these agencies, types of programmes, strategies
for ownership enhancement, and resources to be
mobilised and utilised for operation. The long
history of Khmer as a single political and
cultural entity, the total civil war that has little
relevance to local populations’ interests, and the
externally-led peacebuilding in the aftermath of
the civil war formed a more homogenous group
of local peacebuilders in Cambodia. In
Mindanao, in contrast, the coexistence of three
cultural and ethnic groups (Christian, Muslim,
and indigenous tribes), a complex series of
conflicts that reflect multiple-layers of tensions,
and multiple trends of peacebuilding supported
by varied actors who have distinct historical,
ideological and structural backgrounds,
developed a few distinct groups of local
peacebuilders who frequently have
contradictory views and interests.
Despite Americans’ commitment to religious
freedom, religious minorities have been
Braunstein, R. (2019). Muslims as outsiders, enemies, and others: marginalized and excluded since the country’s
The 2016 presidential election and the politics of religious founding. Focusing on the 2016 election, this
exclusion. In Politics of Meaning/Meaning of Politics(pp. 185-206). chapter analyzes the latest chapter in this
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. history, in which Republican candidates
constructed symbolic boundaries that defined
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Muslims as non-American (outsiders), anti-
American(enemies), and un-American (others).
It then draws parallels between contemporary
anti-Muslim rhetoric and the historic treatment
of Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and atheists. In
each case, these religious groups have troubled a
vision of American belonging that is tightly
linked to white Protestant identity, and more
subtly, to individualist and voluntaristic notions
of the good religious (and democratic) subject.
This recurrent pattern complicates the notion
that American nationhood is rooted in civic
rather than ethnic membership, instead revealing
a complex interplay between civic and ethnic
logics of exclusion. While efforts to purify the
“Christian nation” rest explicitly upon an ethno-
religious vision of American peoplehood, a
subtler civic logic is also at work in efforts to
frame religious minorities as uncivil threats to
American values and norms, including religious
freedom itself.