Secularization and the World Religions - Hardcover

Hans Joas; Klaus Wiegandt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184631187X ISBN 13: 9781846311871

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2009

Synopsis

The question of religion, its contemporary and future significance and its role in society and state is currently perceived as an urgent one by many and is widely discussed within the public sphere. But it has also long been one of the core topics of the historically oriented social sciences. The immense stock of knowledge furnished by the history of religion and religious studies, theology, sociology and history has to be introduced into the public conscience today. This can promote greater awareness of the contemporary global religious situation and its links with politics and economics and counter rash syntheses such as the clash of civilizations. This volume is concerned with the connections between religions and the social world and with the extent, limits, and future of secularization. The first part deals with major religious traditions and their explicit or implicit ideas about the individual, social and political order. The second part gives an overview of the religious situation in important geographical areas. Additional contributions analyze the legal organization of the relationship between state and religion in a global perspective and the role of the natural sciences in the process of secularization. The contributors are internationally renowned scholars like Winfried Brugger, Jose Casanova, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Hans Joas, Hans G. Kippenberg, Gudrun Krämer, David Martin, Eckart Otto and Rudolf Wagner.

About this title

About the Author

Hans Joas is Director of the Max Weber Center at the University of Erfurt and Professor of Sociology and Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He has previously been Visiting Professor at: Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study, University of Wisconsin at Madison, New School for Social Research, New York and at Duke University. Klaus Wiegandt is founder and CEO of the foundation Forum fur Verantwortung.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184631187X
• ISBN 13: 9781846311871
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Hans Joas