IPSA RC 43 - Religion and Politics

Global Religious Movements Across Borders: Sacred Service Edited by Stephen M. Cherry and Helen Rose Ebaugh Ashgate, 2014

Series : Ashgate Inform Series on Minority Religions and Spiritual Movements

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409456872

From global missionizing among proselytic faiths to mass migration through religious diasporas, religion has traveled from one side of the world and back again. It continues to play a prominent role in shaping world politics and has been a vital force in the continued emergence, spread, and creation of a transnational civil society.

Exploring how religious roots are shaping organizations that seek to aid people across political and geographic boundaries - 'service movements' - this book focuses on how religious movements establish structures to assist people with basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter, education, and health. Examining a multitude of faith traditions with origins in different parts of the world, seven contributing chapters, with an introduction and conclusions by the senior author, offer a unique discussion of the intersections between religious transnationalism and social movements.

Contents:

Preface, Helen Rose Ebaugh

Introduction to religious and global transnational service movements, Stephen M. Cherry

The Redeemed Christian Church of God: African Pentecostalism, Afe Adogame

The Gulen Movement: Sunni Islam, Helen Rose Ebaugh

Soka Gakkai International: Nichiren Japanese Buddhism, Daniel A. Métraux

BAPS Swaminarayan Community: Hinduism, Arun Brahmbhatt

The Gawad Kalinga Movement: charismatic Catholicism, Stephen M. Cherry

Aga Khan development network: Shia Ismaili Islam, Karim H. Karim

Bahá'í international community: Bahá'í faith, Mike McMullen

Studying global transnational religious service movements, Stephen M. Cherry

NONRELIGION AND SECULARITY RESEARCH NETWORK

3rd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Call for Papers| 19-20 November 2014, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA

EXPLAINING NONRELIGION AND SECULARITY

IN THE U.S. AND BEYOND

Conveners: Ryan Cragun (ryantcragun@gmail.com), Christel Manning (manningc@sacredheart.edu), and Phil Zuckerman (phil_zuckerman@pitzer.edu)

Keynote speakers:

Professor Darren Sherkat (Sociology, Southern Illinois University)

Professor Lori Beaman (Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottowa)

The study of nonreligion and secularity, long neglected by religion researchers, has recently become a growing field of inquiry. The NSRN is an international, interdisciplinary association of scholars from various fields (religious studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, history, etc.) who are interested in nonreligion, atheism, secularity, secularism, secularization – and related issues. Since the NSRN convened its first international conference in 2009 at the University of Oxford, UK, research and publications dealing with nonreligion and secularity have continued to increase and diversify. The third NSRN conference will reflect upon accumulated and newly emerging empirical work and focus attention on how these diverse phenomena can be explained. To what extent do they fit into existing theoretical frameworks, such as secularization theories, ‘desecularization’ theories and pluralist or ‘postsecular’ models? Do we need to refine these models, or even generate new theories altogether in order to understand the occurrence and nature of contemporary secular populations and nonreligious cultures?

The conference welcomes papers that further expand our understanding of nonreligion and secularity, including topics such as:

· Theoretical development in the study of secularity and nonreligion

· The explosion of the so-called “Nones” in the United States in the last two decades

· Nonreligion and secularity in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East

· Cross-cultural comparisons/contrasts of nonreligion and secularity

· Secularism and politics in the USA and around the world

· Intersections of non-religion and secularity with race, class, and gender

· The varieties of nonreligious experience

· Typological development in the analysis of secular people and secular movements

· Neurological and emotional aspects of secularity

· Secularity and sexuality

· Prospects for the further development of secular studies

· Ritual and community within secular culture

· Secular-religious conflict and cooperation

· Apostasy and religious rejection

Abstracts for panels and presentations should be submitted to Ryan Cragun at ryantcragun@gmail.com by 1 June 2014. Abstracts should be 250 words long and accompanied by a short biographical note.

Registration will open in April 2012. Full conference (includes all meals, does not include accommodations) is $155.

Summer Graduate Studies in Religion and Global Politics at John Cabot University Funded with a grant from the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)

19 May – 20 June 2014

The Summer School features:

A graduate seminar on Religion and Global Politics (PL 529 is a 6 ECTS or 3 US credit course) which examines the topic from the perspectives of philosophy, law and empirical political science. Students will attend regular tutorials with one of the program’s lecturers. Visits to religious and political institutions in Rome, such as the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, the Sant’Egidio Community, the Rome Synagogue, and the Grand Mosque of Italy. A two-day international conference on “Rethinking Political Catholicism: Empirical and Normative Perspectives,” to be held at the University in May, 22-23, 2014. Scholars from Italy, Europe and the U.S. will discuss new research on both the normative relations between Catholicism and liberal democracy and new socio-political trends in Political Catholicism in contemporary Europe and the United States.

In addition to the Religion and Global Politics Seminar, students participating in the Institute may also audit or take for-credit one other course offered by the University during the Summer I 2014 session. Summer I 2014 Course Schedule.

Apply online now.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis with final deadline of April 15, 2014.

The application fee of 50 euro is waived for students applying for the graduate seminar in religion and politics.

Tuition fees

€ 1170 for Religion and Global Politics Seminar (6 ECTS / 3 US credits)

€ 2170 for Religion and Global Politics Seminar + another course for credit (12 ECTS / 6 US credits)

Graduate student fees for the Religion and Global Politics Seminar have been subsidized by John Cabot University and the ECPR.

Two students will also be awarded a € 165 travel grant, sponsored by the ECPR.

All students will be expected to pay their travel, accommodation and living expenses.

Interested students may apply for John Cabot University Housing.

For more information or inquiries, please contact one of the convenors.

Quand le religieux fait conflit. Désaccords, négociations ou arrangements

Edited by Anne-Sophie Lamine (Professor of sociology, Université de Strasbourg), Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 23 janvier 2014, 240 p., 16 €

This book offers an original, groundbreaking and analytical view of various religious antagonism in France and in Europe. The investigations were carried out in places such as prisons, schools, mosques, pentecostal churches, cemetaries, or on practices such as hallal food, martial arts, direct sale or judo-buddhism. The sociological approach enlighten regulation and negociation modes and reaveals a wide range of compromise or adjustment opportunities.

(Cet ouvrage propose une lecture inédite et analytique des antagonismes religieux en s’appuyant sur une série d’enquêtes dans des lieux aussi variés que des prisons, des collèges, des mosquées, des églises pentecôtistes ou des cimetières, sur des pratiques aussi diverses que l’alimentation halal, le judéo-bouddhisme, les arts martiaux ou la vente directe. Le regard sociologique éclaire les modes de régulation et de négociation et révèle l’existence de nombreuses possibilités de compromis et d’ajustement)

Avec le soutien de l’Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR, programme thématique « Conflit(s), guerre(s), violence ») et de la maison inter-universitaire des sciences de l’homme Alsace (MISHA, programme thématique « Formes et enjeux du pluralisme religieux »).

Content - Pouvoirs publics et régulation du religieux : identité nationale et religion(s) civile(s) - La pluralité religieuse dans les établissements et services publics : tensions, pragmatisme et ajustements - Conflits intra- et inter-religieux : solidarité sans consensus et identités en concurrence - Comment les frontières du religieux révèlent les frontières symboliques d’une société

Co-authors : Balas Marie. Becci Irène. Bouzar Dounia. Donnet Claire. Fath Sébastien. Husson Jean-François. Illy Yannick. Kim Hui-Yeon. Knobel Brigitte. Lamine Anne-Sophie. Lorcerie Françoise. Luca Nathalie. Niculescu Mira. Rodier Christine. Sarg Rachel. Vivarelli Clémentine.

View this title online at : http://www.pur-editions.fr/detail.php?idOuv=3387

Call for Papers for a Special Session:

The Politics and Poetics of Managing Tourism in Sacred Cities

Amos S. Ron - Ashkelon Academic College, Israel Daniel H. Olsen - Brandon University, Canada

RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2014

26 to 29 August 2014, at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London

Sacred cities are one of the oldest and most prevalent forms of urban organization and can be found in several cultures and locations throughout human history. Cities such as Varanasi, Lourdes, Mecca, Lalibela and Jerusalem have long attracted pilgrims, merchants, and other tourists. However, although there has been much written on sacred cities from various disciplines, such as comparative religion (e.g. Diana Eck on Varanasi), history (e.g. Ruth Harris on Lourdes) and anthropology (e.g. Abdellah Hammoudi on Mecca), very little has been written by geographers and tourism scholars. Furthermore, in studies on sacred cities the focus has been descriptive and case study-oriented with little focus on the management of pilgrimage and other forms of tourism.

This session therefore aims to bring together a range of papers that examine sacred cities from various theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives, in different historical, cultural and geographical contexts with a focus on tourism management. Submissions can be case study oriented, comparative or conceptual, and may address, but are not be limited to, the following areas:

• The history of sacred site management

• Challenges, problems and solutions in management of sacred destinations

• Modern mass tourism to ancient sacred cities

• Modernity, technology and visiting the sacred

• Contested spaces in sacred cities

• Sustainable development of sacred cities

• Commodification in sacred cities

• The resilience of sacred cities

• The shared characteristics of sacred cities

• Patterns of globalization in sacred cities

• Spatial patterns of beggars and begging in sacred cities

Abstracts (max. 250 words) should be submitted by Sunday 23 February, 2014. For more details, and to submit an abstract, please contact:

Dr. Amos S. Ron, Department of Tourism and Leisure Studies, Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel: amosron@gmail.com

Dr. Daniel H. Olsen, Department of Geography, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada: olsend@brandonu.ca

Salzburger Religionstriennale

International Salzburg Summer School on

The Political and Cultural Presence of Religions in Europe: Judaism – Christianity – Islam

The Department for Systematic Theology at the University of Salzburg and the Salzburger Hochschulwochen are organizing a Triannual International Summer School on The Political and Cultural Presence of Religions in Europe: Judaism – Christianity - Islam (Salzburger Religionstriennale) which will take place at the University of Salzburg. This summer school offers 20 excellent PhD-students as well as postdoctoral researchers from all over Europe the possibility to study and discuss questions of religion, culture, politics and identity in the European context with distinguished experts in this field. These topics will be dealt with in a historical as well as systematic perspective focusing on the three monotheistic traditions Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The second part of this triannual programme will take place from

28th of July to 2nd of August 2014

at the University of Salzburg.

The topic of this year’s Salzburg Summer School is

Political Religions: The Political History and Presence of Religions in Europe

Three first-class researchers will unfold this topic from the perspectives of different religious traditions:

- Ruth Langer (Boston) – Judaism (Monday/Tuesday) - John Milbank (Nottingham) – Christianity (Wednesday/Thursday) - Nicolai Sinai (Oxford) – Islam (Friday/Saturday)

There is also the possibility for participants to present their own research topics in an afternoon section.

The accompanying scholar of the week is Georg Essen, professor for systematic theology at the University of Bochum.

The whole programme will be held in English, knowledge of the German language is not necessary.

PhD-students and postdoctoral researchers in the field of theology and religious studies from all over Europe are invited to apply for participation until 28th of February 2014. Only persons who participate in the whole programme can be considered for participation.

The organizers of the International Salzburg Summer School offer:

· Free participation in a high-quality programme on The Political and Cultural Presence of Religions in Europe: Judaism – Christianity – Islam

· Possibility to present own research projects

· Optional participation in the cultural programme of the Salzburger Hochschulwochen (an interdisciplinary academic programme that will take place at the same time as the Summer School – www.salzburger-hochschulwochen.at)

· Free meals and accommodation (www.virgil.at)

· Travel reimbursement up to € 250,--

A registration fee of € 100,-- has to be paid in advance. This registration fee will be paid back in case of successful participation.

Please send your application including a brief CV, a short description of your research interests and (optional) an abstract of your research presentation (about 300 words) to sigrid.rettenbacher@sbg.ac.at no later than 28th of February 2014. The organizing committee of the Salzburger Religionstriennale will select 20 participants who will be informed about participation by the beginning of April 2014.

For further questions contact

MMag.a Sigrid Rettenbacher Project coordinator Vice chairwoman of the Salzburger Hochschulwochen Department for Systematic Theology University of Salzburg sigrid.rettenbacher@sbg.ac.at

The Church and Immigration

University of Notre Dame

March 2-5, 2014

http://latinostudies.nd.edu/news-events/the-church-and-immigration-conference/

"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God." -Ephesians 2:19

People have been migrating since the dawn of human history, but the scope and scale of migration today is unprecedented. Nowhere is this reality more present than in the United States. Although scholars have examined this reality from a number of perspectives, there is a critical need for more sustained reflection on the Church's contribution to immigration reform. Pope Francis has highlighted the importance of this issue and encouraged individuals and institutions from around the world to respond to this defining moral issue of our times. This conference will bring together scholars, pastoral workers, public policy leaders, and advocates committed to responding to this issue in the United States today. In the process we hope to not only reflect more critically on immigration today but also to assist our understanding of what the Church has done, what it is doing, and what it might do better in its outreach to migrants and refugees.

Program: http://latinostudies.nd.edu/assets/118685/the_church_and_immigration_conference_program_.pdf

Missio Dei? Evangelicalism and the New Politics

University of Chester, Hollybank

12th June, 2014, 10.00 – 4.00 pm

2nd Call for Papers – Deadline March 31st 2014

Aim and Context

The aim of this conference is to facilitate a space whereby the innovative mission, praxis and ecclesiologies of evangelical Christianity (including inner-urban areas and including Pentecostal and charismatic contributions) is enabled to enter into dialogue with emerging themes within contemporary Evangelical theology including new understandings of the concepts of Missio Dei, Kingdom of God, Incarnation, Atonement and Trinity.

The overall trajectory observable in many disciplines outside systematic theology (especially sociology of religion and human geography and public policy) suggests a shift within the evangelical Christian communities towards more activist and holistic models of mission, which are also characterised by a willingness to experiment in new ways of ‘being church’. There are also shifts in a different direction where instead of forms of rapprochement with the public sphere, a certain bifurcation emerges as a response to the new complexity and plurality of the public space. It is fair to say that both trajectories within contemporary British Evangelicalism (including Pentecostalism and Charismatic traditions) are having an increasing strategic impact on the political and social fabric of British society and public policy.

This conference will represent a unique opportunity to track and debate this shift at both theological and missional/ecclesiological levels, as well as from perspectives that lie outside the Christian tradition. Relevant perspectives or ‘lenses’ by which to track these shifts include doctoral level research from urban and missional practitioners within contemporary British evangelicalism, systematic and practical theologians and interdisciplinary perspectives. The event concludes with a public lecture by Revd Steve Chalke MBE and Founder of Oasis Trust on the theme of The Progressive Power of Religion in the Public Sphere from within the framework of a contemporary evangelical perspective. This lecture will be open to both conference delegates and the wider public.

Although emerging primarily from a British context, papers are welcomed from other contexts and situations outside the UKwhich reflect the ongoing and dialectical relationship between evangelicalism (including Pentecostalism and Charismatic experience), urbanisation, culture and politics.

Structure

The conference will feature 3 keynote lectures of 30 minutes reflecting the three perspectives of the conference:

Practitioner - Krish Kandiah, Evangelical Alliance;

Theology - Dr Stephen Holmes, University of St Andrews;

Sociology of Religion/Public Policy – Dr Anna Strhan, University of Kent

In between these lectures will be parallel paper sessions which further reflect on the theme of Missio Dei – Evangelicalism and the New Politics from the following perspectives: a missional/urban/ practitioner/integral mission strand; a theological strand; and a sociology of religion/public policy strand.

Central to the aims and outcomes of the conference will be papers on:

· New directions in evangelical theology

· New emphases in doctrine and biblical theology including Missio Dei, Kingdom of God, Incarnation, Trinity, atonement, Holy Spirit

· Influence of evangelicalism on politics – both past and present

· Spectrums within Evangelical practice, belief and ecclesiology

· Cutting edge issues within evangelicalism

· Role of evangelical worship and ecclesial/political formation

· Evangelicalism, politics and integral mission

· Emerging church and emerging Christianity

· New expression of urban mission and evangelical identity

· Black majority churches and the public sphere

· Charismatic churches and the public sphere

· Quantitative measurement of evangelicalism and its social impact

· Post evangelicalism and the new politics

· Evangelicalism and culture

· Evangelical/post evangelical geographies of religion

Call for Papers

For this call we are looking for 20 minute papers that respond to any of the above themes and can be accommodated into one of the disciplinary strands outlined above. This is a second call for papers – deadline for submission: March 31st, 2014.

Some papers from non-UK contexts on the themes of the conference will be welcomed. Please send an abstract of ca. 250 - 300 words to Dr Chris Baker (chris.baker@chester.ac.uk) or Dr Ben Fulford (b.fulford@chester.ac.uk)

Registration and enquiries

Please register by the 30th May, 2014. Secure online registration is available at:

http://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=289&zenid=npral1rnoj5jk7svqv28tccf65

For any enquiries, please contact Carly McEvoy: c.mcevoy@chester.ac.uk +44 1244 511031

Please visit http://www.chester.ac.uk/find-us and click ‘Chester Campus’ for travel and location instructions

SIKH RESEARCH CONFERENCE

The University of Warwick 28th June 2014

Research into Sikh studies is relatively young and is rapidly growing as a mainstream academic discipline. This annual conference aims to bring together academics, scholars and researchers and to encourage a spirit of collaboration within UK Sikh studies academia.

The conference aims to explore research and academic inquiry into various aspects of Sikh studies. The conference will provide an environment where academics, researchers and scholars can come together to pursue critical debate, discussion and inquiry into the many aspects of Sikh research in an open, constructive and collegiate manner.

The conference is being organised by Opinderjit Kaur Takhar, Harjinder Singh Lallie and Gurinder Singh Mann. Further details can be found on the Conference website:

http://www.sikhconference.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/SikhResearchUK

Call for Papers International Society for Media, Religion and Culture 4-6 August 2014 / post-conference workshop 7 August 2014

Over the past decade the study of media, religion and culture has broadened out from interests in media representation to thinking about the religious uses and aesthetics of media, the significance of media for religion in public life, and the role of media technologies for new forms of religious life and practice.

Building on this, the biannual conference of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture will explore how we can understand societies in which much public encounter with religion takes place through media and in which religious life takes place through a multiplicity of mediated practices and networks. It will explore questions such as what difference do media content, aesthetics, technologies and networks make to the ways in which religion is understood and practiced? And how do we understand the nature of power in relation to these mediated networks and practices?

Keynote speakers will include Professor Jonathan Walton (Harvard), author of Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism, Associate Professor Kathryn Lofton(Yale), author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon, with an address also given by the inaugural President of the Society, Professor Stewart Hoover (Colorado).

Key information about the conference, including the call for papers which is open until 3 December 2013, registration and accommodation details and the conference programme, is available here. If you have any queries about the conference which are not answered in the information below then please email IMRC 2014.

We are accepting paper proposals of up to 350 words; panel proposals (which must include paper titles, 150 word abstracts for each paper, and names and titles of four participants plus a moderator/respondent); and proposals for exhibitions and/or workshops of up to 350 words. Sessions will be 1½ hours in length.

Some of the questions that may be addressed in paper, panel, workshop, or exhibition proposals include:

- The role of media in shaping religious and cultural understandings - Emergent networks of meaning, religion, and power - Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religion and media - The role of religious and humanitarian organizations in cross-national justice and media initiatives - Media and human rights - Media, religion, and authority - Religious conflict and media representation - Religion and film - Growing up multi-cultural and multi-religious in a mediated world - Religion, globalization and cosmopolitanism - The role of media in the emergence of global religious and cultural movements - Diasporic media and transnational religious communities - Media, religion and global politics - The mediatization of religion - Religion, media, and the global marketplace

Proposals should be sent to Professor Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Denver (Lynn.Clark@du.edu) by 3 December 2013. Notification of acceptances will be sent out from 15th January 2014.