Avatarurile ateismului militant

Author(s): Boris Buzilă / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 08/2015

Ninety years ago, the propaganda apparatus of the still young „Soviet power” launched a signal meant to radicalize the fight against religion. The opportunity for this was the Congress of militant atheists (S’ezd Voinstvuiuscih bezbojnikov), deliberately and viciously scheduled for the first day of the Passover of 1925. Once the ideology of the militant atheism was launched, it will have a longlasting career in Soviet Russia and the satellite countries, overlapping the period with the worst religious constraints and persecutions of the modern era. The so-called „militant atheism” showed its true colors from its first moment of existence, as an extremist and exterminating one: it was not enough that religion had to be „fought against”, it also had to be rendered non-existent.

În preajma micii revoluţii culturale

Author(s): Dan Ciachir / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 08/2015

This article evokes the 70s in Romania, a period of moving from the time when the censorship of the state power went easy, allowing some cultural freedoms and an almost normal social and religious life – which the intellectuals call „the thaw” of the communist Romania – to Ceaușescu`s short „cultural revolution” inspired by one of his trips to Asia, by the ideological actions done by China and its satellites. Coming home after visiting these countries, Ceaușescu imediately called, on july 5 1971, for a working conference of the department of ideology and political and cultural educational activities resulting in a list of stipulations that suggested an appalling return to the 50s. Due to the strong opposition of the intellectuals, mostly writers, our culture and literature were not returned to the 50`, as Ceaușescu was hoping. After the initial ephemeral outrage to the cultural mini revolution of Romania, the West quickly forgot this episode. Ceaușescu`s attempted cultural revolution is one of his few failures, the result being a long conflict of mutual wearing with the artists and the intellectuals. The population of the country did not experience the cultural mini revolution, nor, even less, sensed it as a begining of the end.

Herausforderungen des säkularen Staates durch religiöse Transformationsprozesse

Author(s): Brigitte Schinkele / Language(s): German Issue: 01/2015

„Nepolitická politika“ politickej teológie J. B. Metza

Author(s): Gita Geremešová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2013

This study analyzes one of the aspects of J. B. Metz´s political theology, more precisely its anthropological aspect; it contrasts the means and objectives of the political theology with the "non-political politics". Political theology itself is one of the unofficial branches of the present-day Catholic theology; theology after the Second Vatican Council. It distinguishes itself critically from the neo-tomistic interpretation of the world – from the neo-tomistic metaphysics which depicts the world in the dichotomy of the good God and the evil human. Political theology at the background of Kant´s criticism of ontotheology emphasizes „sinful“, ordinary people and their world. It aims to construct a unified world without the superstructure of the religious supernatural; it treats man as a subject that thinks god and is his partner at the transformation of the world. According to J.B. Metz, the anamnetic reason, memoria passionis, is the tool for the transformation of the world = the uncompleted Enlightenment project.

Conclusions: “Faiths and Social cohesion”: political recommendations and “good practices”

Author(s): Altay Manço,Spyros Amoranitis,Dina Sensi,Ural Manco,Guillaume Logez / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2005

The “Faiths and Social cohesion” network research has made it possible to question both the idea of “social cohesion” and that of “good practices” that, together, are supposed to produce this harmonious communal life ­ with reference here to philosophical and religious diversities observed on the local and municipal field.

Párbeszéd a muzulmán világgal: miként és kivel?

Author(s): Judit Pethő-Szirmai / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2017

Etzioni, Amitai: Talking to the Muslim World: How and with Whom? = International Affairs, 92, 6, 1361-1379 p.

TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE STATE, RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE – AN ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP A NEW CLASSIFICATION

Author(s): Velizar A. Mirčov,Ivica Mladenović / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

Existing theoretical models of relationship between the state and religious organizations is under consideration in this article. European countries have implemented different legal/legislative solutions which are used for regulating the relationships between the state, religion and religious organizations. Many authors have classified these different types of regulations in a number of ideal types. Within the context of this paper a new type of classification which is based on two separate dimensions of the relationship towards religion and religious organizations is presented. The first dimension is intimately interlinked with the laicization of the state, whilst the second one is linked with its secularistion. These dimensions are measured by an in depth study of a number of variables. Data based on the analysis of legislations within 19 European countries are presented herein within our classificatory scheme. This article can be a starting point for further theoretical and empirical work within this particular subfield.

Din ile Devlet Arasında Simbiyotik Bir İlişki: Türkiye’de Zorunlu Din Derslerinde Siyasal Toplumsallaşma

Author(s): Bayramali Nazıroğlu / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2016

The adaptation of all students to the political values of the society occupies an important place in the courses of Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge. In this course, not only religion and ethics, but also the basic principles of the state and other social and political issues related to the main principles of the state are taught to students. From these topics, laicism and Kemalism are the main references of the Turkish national education system and these concepts constitute the most important components of religious education courses, too. Therefore, we encounter with these concepts in many subjects and learning areas of the curriculum. In this study, we discussed the political socialization factors in the religion and ethics programs in primary and secondary education. In this context, the learning areas of the curriculum were examined and evaluated with a critical perspective. As a result, it was concluded that religion and its training are used effectively for political socialization in the programs. It means programs perform an essential task in the political socialization of the students.

Praise of the Convert: Believe and Belong from the Catholicity of Latin America

Author(s): Felipe Gaytan Alcala / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

Latin America was considered for many years the main bastion of Catholi cism in the world by the number of parishioners and the influence of the church in the social and political life of the región, but in recent times there has been a decrease in the catholicity index. This paper explores three variables that have modified the identity of Catholicism in Latin American countries. The first one refers to the conversion processes that have expanded the presence of Chris tian denominations, by analyzing the reasons that revolve around the sense of belonging that these communities offer and that prop up their expansion and growth. The second variable accounts for those Catholics who still belong to the Catholic Church but who in their practices and beliefs have incorporated other magical or esoteric scheme in the form of religious syncretisms, modifying their sense of being Catholics in the world. The third factor has a political reference and has to do with the concept of laicism, a concept that sets its objective, not only in the separation of the State from the Church, but for historical reasons in catholicity restraint in the public space which has led to the confinement of the Catholic to the private, leaving other religious groups to occupy that space.

ПРОБЛЕМИ ВЗАЄМОВІДНОСИН ЦЕРКВИ І ДЕРЖАВИ

Author(s): Volodymyr Trofimenko,Maya Volchkova / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 3/2018

Problem setting. The society is a kind of rather complex, dynamically differentiated and social systems characterized by integrity, stability and ability of self-development, as well as the existence of special social norms and values that ensure its functioning. At the same time, the high importance for the regulation of social relations is played by law and religion, because particular these elements determine the normal state of functioning of society as a whole and a person in it. According to this, the special attention is paid to the issue of the relations between the law and the religion.After the Revolution of Dignity, our state is undergoing the process of national revival, a return to the implementation of the idea of ruining national, legal and ideological system, taking into account the traditional and religious origins of law. Thus, nowadays there are intensified efforts to determine the connection of law with religious norms, laws of spiri-tual development of society. This necessitates the need for comprehensive research, the characteristics of the relations between the church and the state, because the religious norms, through which the regulation of certain spheres of public life is carried out, have not become the subject of research by scholars in many areas: lawyers, sociologists, philosophers, etc. This study was especially relevant as a result of the conflict between the Ukrainian Orthodox churches of the Kyiv and Moscow Patriarchate, which gained much publicity in January 2018. That is why the problems of relationships between the church and the state are gaining the high importance.Recent research and publications analysis. Under the modern conditions, the problems of the relationship between the church and the state, in particular, its sociological, philosophical, moral and legal aspects, are the subject of a study by a number of scholars. Among them we can distinguish the following: O. M. Bandurka, D. O. Vovk, I. I. Dakhova,P. M. Rabinovich, I. V. Ryabko, G. L. Sergienko, Yu. I. Fisun, S. V. Shevchuk, L. V. Yarmol and others. Without diminishing the role and significance of these scholars’ achievements, we believe that the issue under study remains very relevant in nowadays’ conditions.The purpose of the article is to address the problematic sociological and philosophical and legal aspects of the relations between the church and the state.Paper main body. At the beginning of the article is emphasized that the state and religion are those institutions that have the same important influence on a person. But the relations between the church bears not a simple nature, therefore, the authors reveal the content of church-state relations. It should be mentioned that “the state-church relations” is a concept that was formed by combining two established concepts – the state and the church. And if the term “state” is agreed by the vast majority of scholars. Regarding the term “religion”, there is a number of constitutional terms that serve to define the term “religious organization.” These terms are proportional to the variety of names that they have acquired over a long process of development. In the bosom of Christian religion, for example, everywhere the name “Church” is adopted. Other religious communities use names such as “religious organization, association, society”.Today, the definition of the concept of the state-church relations is dominant – is a cer- tain system of ties and relations, in which various issues related to the activity of the authorities and the church, regulation of the legal status of the church are solved. Subsequently, the authors disclose the content of the basic principles and fundamental models of interaction between the state and society. The ideal model is called the model of “ideal neutrality” by the authors.In Ukraine, the cooperation of the state and the church is carried out on a constitutional basis and based on the norms of the current legislation, in particular the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”. The experience of Poland is interesting in the relations between the state and the church. Despite the communist past and forced atheism, Poland remains today a country with a strongly represented religious tradition, which, of course, affects the relations between the state and the church in the educational sphere. Teaching religion in schools is only with the consent of parents, and the process of teaching is controlled by the state itself, the church and public organizations.Conclusions of the research. Thus, after studying the problematic aspects of the relations between the church and the state, we came to the conclusion that the state-church relations are one of the types of social relations characterized by the level of interconnections of the church, associations, movements and other religious organizations with the state, the degree of their interrelation as well as universal human principles. In our opinion, the most perfect way of the relations between the church and the state is the model of liberal neutrality, which consists of the complete neutrality of the church, its elimination from the socio-political sphere of society and the complete separation of church and state. Although the example of Poland shows that, under modern conditions, the model of concordat is also relevant. Therefore, we can state that throughout the life this question will always be relevant, because the problems of relations between the state and the church are an eternal problems.

Şerif Mardin “RELIGION, SO-CALLED NEUTRAL CONCEPTION OF IDEOLOGY”

Author(s): Dilan Çiftçi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Şerif Mardin Book review“RELIGION, SO-CALLED NEUTRAL CONCEPTION OF IDEOLOGY”Din ve ideoloji, İletişim Yayınları, Ankara, p. 118, ISBN: 9789754700480

Recenzii

Author(s): Henrieta Anișoara Șerban / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3/2019

State-Religious Relations during a Coronavirus Pandemic: Collisions of Religious Security

Author(s): Vitalii Turenko,Viktoria Zaporozhets / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2020

The article reveals the features of the relationship between the state and religious organizations during a pandemic. There are two strategies of state policy for the functioning of religious buildings: liberal and strategic. It has been proven that conditioned by one or another form of government and understanding of the role and significance of religion in society. The leaders of states in their decisions regarding the functioning of religious organizations in such a crisis period proceeded from the number of cases in a particular country, as well as from the traditions of key religious beliefs in a particular state. It was revealed that religious organizations were faced with a collision: either to submit to the decisions of the authorities of a certain country or to go “against” and thereby inflicting danger on the population. Therefore, it was possible to observe that if the leaders of religious organizations urged believers to adhere to the restrictive measures established by the authorities, then some believers in a number of countries did not obey quarantine measures, explaining this either by their religious beliefs or apocalyptic sentiments.

RELIGIOUS VOTING IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: TESTING ALTERNATIVE THEORIES

Author(s): Lyman A. Kellstedt,James L. Guth / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Scholars of American electoral politics have documented the recent partisan realignment of religious groups. Indeed, careful analysts often find that religious variables are better predictors of partisan choice than classic socioeconomic divi-sions. Still, there has been relatively little effort to put this religious realignment in both theoretical and historical perspective. In this article, we update our pre-vious work on the historical evolution of religious partisanship, demonstrating the continued relevance of ethnocultural (or ethnoreligious) theory, utilized by po-litical historians, and restructuring theory, an important sociological perspective. Both viewpoints help us understand presidential elections since the 1930s, as we demonstrate with data from a wide range of surveys. After utilizing the 2020 Co-operative Election Study to examine the contemporary voting of ethnoreligious groups in greater detail, we test the impact of religious variables controlling for other demographic, attitudinal, and partisan influences and find that religious identities and orientations often retain independent influence even under strin-gent controls for other factors shaping the presidential vote.

CATHOLICS AND THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Author(s): Corwin E. Smidt / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

This article examines the role of Catholics within the 2020 presidential election in the United States. Although Catholics were once a crucial and dependable component of the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition, their vote in more recent years has been much more splintered. Nevertheless, Catholics have been deemed to be an important “swing vote” in American politics today, as in recent presidential elections they have aligned with the national popular vote. This article therefore focuses on the part that Catholics played within the 2020 presidential election process. It addresses the level of political change and continuity within the ranks of Catholics over the past several elections, how they voted in the Democratic primaries during the initial stages of the 2020 presidential election, their level of support for different candidates over the course of the campaign, how they ultimately came to cast their ballots in the 2020 election, and the extent to which their voting patterns in 2020 differed from that of 2016.

DID THE NONES PUT JOE BIDEN IN THE WHITE HOUSE? AN ANALYSIS OF THE VOTING PATTERNS OF THE RELIGIOUSLY UNAFFILIATED IN 2020

Author(s): Hunter Driggers,Ryan P. Burge / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The fastest growing segments of the American religious landscape are atheists, agnostics, and nothing in particulars. In 2008, these three groups together (often called the Nones) represented 22% of the population, but just twelve years later their numbers surged to 34% of the populace. Given that one in three adults is a None, it stands to reason that they are having a growing influence on electoral politics. To that end, this analysis focuses on how those three types of unaffiliated Americans shifted their political ideology, partisanship and voting patterns from 2016 to 2020. The results indicate that Donald Trump’s baseline of support dropped among all types of Nones, and that the drop was especially acute for nothing in particulars who had high household incomes in 2020.

TRUMP, CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM, AND ISSUE POLARIZATION: THE ATTITUDES AND ACTIVISM OF IOWA CLERGY IN THE 2020 CAUCUSES

Author(s): Kedron Bardwell / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Prior research has investigated the differences between evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, and Catholic clergy in American general elections. We know less about attitudes and activism of clergy in presidential nomination campaigns. This research highlights results from a survey of 480 clergy on candidate support, issues, and political activism in the 2020 Iowa caucuses. A strong Iowa caucus showing often fuels momentum for candidates in the rest of the nomination race, as with Barack Obama in 2008. This 2020 survey covers issues such as immigration, racial justice, health care, and more. I also explore how Iowa clergy think about political activism and views on Christian nationalism. I find that most Democratic-leaning clergy supported center-left candidates in Iowa in 2020. Among Iowa clergy of all parties (including independents), most disapproved of the job Donald Trump was doing as President. A comparison with a 2012 survey reveals increasing polarization of the three clergy groups on political ideology, church-state issues, and racial justice.

THE CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT ISLAMIZATION OF CHECHNYA AS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHENOMENON

Author(s): Tatiana N. Litvinova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The article is aimed to reveal the influence of religious factor on the conflict and post-conflict societal and political spheres of the Chechen Republic. The study is based on the retrospective and discourse analysis of central and republican newspapers, interviews and speeches of political leaders, publications of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Chechen Republic, materials of opposition and hostile Internet resources. The study identifies several phases of the Islamization of Chechnya: 1) an attempt to create an Islamic state during the struggle for sovereignty; 2) the choice of Akhmad Kadyrov in favor of loyalty to the federal center and adherence to traditional Islam in defiance of the Wahhabi project; 3) Wahhabism, which had not taken root in Chechnya, went into the cyber underground, and its supporters joined the “Global Jihad”; 4) today’s penetration of traditional Islam into social (school, family, gender relations) and political (local and regional administration, international relations) life of the republic. The restoration of the role of Islam as an important social, moral and political regulator demonstrates the possibility of new gaps between secular society and the political system of modern Russia and Chechnya as a part of the country.

IDEOLOGICAL VIOLENCE TOWARDS THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHIDO CHURCH IN THE POST-1960s

Author(s): Solomon Molla Ademe / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) is one of the religious institutions in Ethiopia. EOTC has faced some challenges, which have created both physical and epistemic violence on it. This study analyses the two historical events that the EOTC and its believers faced with epistemic and physical violence.  It argues that Ethiopian elites and intellectuals used ideologies and new experiences inappropriately to analyse the existed contexts in these two historical events, which in consequence created violence on the EOTC and its believers. Investigating these historical events that made violence on the EOTC is very important as the EOTC and the believers have been facing with violence so far. Through thematic analysis, this study concludes that considering the EOTC as the past feudal regimes’ tool that oppresses some ethnic groups in Ethiopia; and viewing the EOTC as an Amhara’s institution have been continuing. The study integrates how elite’s inappropriate use of ideologies or new experiences for analysing the existed contexts, which caused violence on EOTC and its believers.

“THE MASKS OF THE POLITICAL GOD: RELIGION AND POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONTEMPORARY DEMOCRACIES”

Author(s): Valeria Resta / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021