Secularization

This paper uses evangelical reflections on the meaning of "rights" to explore the juridification of religion in contemporary England. Drawing on sixteen months of participatory fieldwork with evangelicals in London, I argue that English evangelicals' critiques of Christian-interest litigation reflect the interaction of local theologies with developments in the law's regulation of religion, developments that have contributed to the relativization of Protestant Christianity even as historic church establishment is maintained. Through an exploration of the tension between the goals of (rights-based) individualism and (Christian) relationalism as they concern the law, I show how litigation can affect religious sub-jectivity even in the absence of a personal experience with the pageantry of the court.

Qu’est-ce que la laïcité ? Comment, dans un contexte scolaire, faire
observer la laïcité, comme cadre neutre respectueux de tous ?
Comment, dans le cadre de cours, aborder la laïcité comme
principe structurant de notre société, mais aussi comme sujet
qui provoque débats, parce qu’il est le résultat d’évolutions historiques ?
Ce volume, fruit d’un travail collectif de personnes engagées sur différents
terrains du champ éducatif, cherche à présenter des pistes de réflexion sous
une forme dynamique, autour d’une architecture synthétique.
• Une dynamique structurée selon trois types de repères pour penser et
agir avec des élèves.
• Une dynamique liant des textes courts, des développements plus
conséquents à lire en ligne, des compléments en vidéo, des adresses utiles
vers les textes institutionnels. Des pictogrammes signalent ces ressources
et ces liens.
• Une dynamique à créer en proposant aux étudiants, aux stagiaires et
aux formateurs de se saisir de ces textes.
• Une dynamique à amplifier en alimentant la page Laïcité (www.univnantes/
espe/laicite) avec de nouvelles ressources.
Ce numéro de la collection « Repères » pour la laïcité est le produit du
partenariat entre l’ESPE de l’académie de Nantes (Université de Nantes) et
l’Institut du Pluralisme religieux et de l’Athéisme, réseau pluridisciplinaire
(créé par la région Pays de la Loire).
Anne Vézier, Maître de conférences en histoire et didactique de l’histoire,
Référente Laïcité ESPE Académie de Nantes, Université de Nantes
John Tolan, Professeur d’histoire médiévale, Université de Nantes
Dominique Avon, Professeur d’histoire contemporaine, Université du Maine

The paper discusses the major characteristics of modernity and post-modernity presented in Passion of the Western Mind by contemporary depth psychologist and philosopher Richard Tarnas. The essay, created for a course taught by Dominican theologian Fr. Edward Krasevac on the nature and history of Western thought, summarizes Tarnas's view of the larger cultural and historical contexts in which the dominant epistemologies and perspectives of modernity and post-modernity evolved and serves as a basic introduction to some of the distinctive features of modern and post-modern philosophical criticism.

Post-modern theology is highly suspicious of social theory and its secular origins. After all, the founder who gave us the word “sociology” also coined the term “positivism.” An alternative strategy is that of Bernard Lonergan, a theologian with a highly developed sociological imagination. He was quite aware of the secularity but devoted a life-time in trying to think through some of the key issues. His was a mind on the move and perhaps it is not surprising that his contribution has yet to be assimilated.
In this paper I shall take a look at a key text from Lonergan’s magnum opus, Insight. I will suggest that, in a sense, this may be regarded as “social physics” (another phrase from Auguste Comte). As we shall see, Lonergan’s thought wrestled with many issues of concern to the other founders of sociology: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber, but his vision is quite original, and in fact, he will draw on Arnold J. Toynbee.
I do not believe Lonergan’s work is beyond criticism—as his later developments suggest—so I will try to identify some difficulties by examining closely some of those later changes. Before offering my appraisal, then, I will look at Lonergan’s social theory from five periods. First, I shall simply record his interest in the 1930s by referring to some work he retained in a file but never published. Then I shall give a more careful exposition of a chapter written in the early 1950s. I will suggest that Lonergan’s deployment of mathematical analogies to understand social theory underwent some changes and so I will look at that transition in the 1960s. I will then be able to take a glance at the new way Lonergan presented his ideas in Method in Theology (1972) and go on to sample a few developments in the last decade up to 1980. In my appraisal we will be able to see some of the strengths and weaknesses Lonergan encountered in his project of social physics and perhaps make a small increase to the stock of ideas myself.

“Stuart has elected not to describe the nature of Goenka’s practice and the detailed (and easily accessible) theory that underpins it. … [T]he biographer describes Goenka as ‘dedicated to serving as a powerful channel for his teacher’s [U Ba Khin’s] vijjādhātu, . . . the psychic force of the wisdom of vipaśyanā [insight meditation] made available to Goenka and his students by the grace of U Ba Khin and his enlightened nonhuman guides.’”

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

What is fashion? Where does it come from? Why has it come to permeate modern life? In the last half century, questions like these have drawn serious academic reflection, resulting in a new field of research-fashion studies-and generating a rich multidisciplinary discussion. Yet theology's voice has been conspicuously absent in this conversation. The time has finally come for theology to break her silence and join this decades-long conversation. Fashion Theology is the first of its kind: a serious and long-overdue account of the dynamic relationship between theology and fashion. Chronicling the epic journey from ancient Christian sources to current developments in fashion studies, cultural theologian Robert Covolo navigates the rich history of Christian thought as well as recent political, social, aesthetic, literary, and performance theory. Far from mere disparity or quick resolution, Covolo demonstrates that fashion and theology inhabit a mutual terrain that has, until recently, scarcely been imagined. Covolo retraces the way theologians have taken up fashion across history, unveiling how Christian thinkers have been fascinated with fashion well before the academy's current focus, and bringing these insights into the conversation with fashion itself: the logic by which fashion operates, how fashion shapes our world, and the way fashion imperceptibly molds our personal lives. Within fashion's realms reside some of life's greatest challenges: the foundations of political power, the basis for social order, the nature of aesthetics, how we inhabit time, and the means by which we tell stories about our lives-challenges, it turns out, that theologians also explore. Fashion favors the bold; theology demands humility. Holding the two together, Fashion Theology trailblazes an interdisciplinary path informed by a thoughtful engagement with the Christian witness. For those traversing this spectacle of unexpected crossroads and hotly contested terrain, the promise of fashion theology awaits with its myriad unexplored vistas.

Jürgen Habermas und Talal Asad zählen zu den bedeutendsten Protagonisten des Diskurses um die postsäkulare Gesellschaft. In der vorliegenden Arbeit unternehme ich eine vergleichende Lektüre zentraler Schriften beider Autoren. Dabei versuche ich, möglichst präzise zu beschreiben, wie Habermas und Asad einen neuen Blickwinkel auf die Verhältnisbestimmung von Religion und Gesellschaft in der Gegenwart freigeben und plausibilisieren.
Einen zentralen Stellenwert schreibe ich der Tatsache zu, dass hierfür von beiden der Begriff der ‚Übersetzung‘ herangezogen wird. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es folglich, erste systematisierende Vorstöße bezüglich des Begriffspaars ‚Religion übersetzen‘ zu leisten. Dabei gilt es ein Bündel an Forschungsfragen zu beantworten: Wie wird der Begriff der Übersetzung verstanden? In welcher Art und Weise kommt Religion im Werk der Autoren zur Sprache? Auf welche Aspekte der Religion soll sich die Übersetzungsleistung beziehen? Wer sind die Subjekte dieser Übersetzung? Und schließlich, welche Chancen und Probleme bringen die beiden Ansätze für eine politiktheoretische Perspektive auf religiös-gesellschaftliche Fragestellungen mit sich?

Friedrich Nietzsche is presented in this essayistic documentary film as a fascinating, questionable and sometimes repulsive philosopher whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of the academic world. As a representative of perspective thinking he is regarded as a pioneer of modernism and postmodernism. Of utmost importance for his life and work was the tiny Swiss village Sils Maria, the only place that he visited again and again during his nomadic years and where much of his work was created. The film conveys a tangible impression of the area and how this charismatic place must have influenced Nietzsche's thinking and feeling. For the first time in a film are shown some of the scribbled sheets from the time of Nietzsche's mental derangement at the clinic in Jena. The majority of the interviewees in the film are academics related the Nietzsche-Haus in Sils Maria.

This review essay on Jewish "traditionalism" (Hasidism, musar, Orthodoxy,etc.) argues that, notwithstanding a past tendency among historians to magnify secularist trends within modern East European Jewry, several new works suggest a revitalization of traditionalism in the region during the modern era.

Since the turn of the millennium there has been a clear rise in the implementation and research of mindfulness across primary, secondary and postsecondary education. These implementations, however, hardly constitute a uniform phenomenon. They reflect a variety of framings, modalities and educational aims, as documented in hundreds of peer-reviewed papers. To date no overarching review has provided an empirically-based mapping of this multifaceted and rapidly developing discourse. This paper offers a first-of-its-kind map of mindfulness in education based on the 447 peer-reviewed papers published between 2002 and 2017 that constitute this academic discourse, applying grounded theory methodology. The research reveals an exponential rise in the amount of publications over years, with a complex discourse that evolves from seven different framings of the practice, applied to nine different educational domains and through various types of implementation. It maps this complexity and outlines two main patterns that reflects this discourse to date: a) Mindfulness in education, which comprises mostly of outsourced, secularized interventions aimed at improved mental-physical health, social-emotional learning and cognitive functions. b) Mindfulness as education, which is a more transformative strand characterized by contemplative pedagogy in higher education and sporadic whole-school implementations. Overall, in the studied period mindfulness has been moving from near-anonymity toward the mainstream; however, this discourse reflects a nascent phase given that it is only beginning to critique itself. Furthermore, its two patterns reflect a split discourse that is challenged by the practice's psychological-secular framing and its Buddhist framing.

Introduction and first chapter of a new book: Even though ‘the crisis of secularism’ was declared decades ago, it remains unresolved. This book argues that its roots are internal to the liberal model of secularism, which emerged from the religious dynamics of the Protestant Reformation. In Europe and India, this model has gone hand in hand with an intolerant anticlerical theology that rejects certain traditions as evil ‘political religion’. Consequently, liberal secularism often harms local forms of coexistence rather than nourishing them.

La época republicana en Colombia, con las innovaciones propias de la situación política revolucionaria, inauguró también un nuevo capítulo en las discusiones en torno a las relaciones entre Iglesia y Estado, con las respectivas pugnas y reconciliaciones entre los diferentes proyectos surgidos en este ambiente. La cuestión no era pacífica en absoluto y hunde sus raíces en las influencias ilustradas del antiguo Virreinato de la Nueva Granada, empezando por las herencias absolutistas dentro del primer liberalismo republicano y sus proyectos que, por una vía o por otra, en medio de la experimentación del nuevo régimen, encontraron a lo largo del tiempo un espacio para la materialización de un modelo más radical o de otro más moderado. La nueva situación interna después de la Independencia y los modelos políticos revolucionarios que influenciaban desde fuera (especialmente desde Francia) crearon la oportunidad para que el liberalismo criollo naciente condujera sus políticas hacia una secularización gradual de la sociedad colombiana, más o menos exitosa según el momento. La exposición que sigue presenta algunos hitos históricos escogidos en los que, a lo largo del siglo XIX, se pueden observar estos proyectos, sus mutaciones, las pugnas entre sí y con la Iglesia y sus efectos en el plano político-jurídico con el propósito de comprender los caminos que van del llamado «laicismo de combate» hasta la «nueva laicidad», esta última, como veremos, no es tan nueva y más bien su éxito actual se debe a su coexistencia con el oscilante anticlericalismo decimonónico que ocultaba bajo el conflicto su crecimiento gradual.

First, the paper states some distinct political debates on the presence of religion in educational institutions and some  relevant case law on this issue. In the second section, the paper
deals with J. S. Mill’s ideas on education, in order to provide a normative framework of liberal education. The following sections deal with the specific ways in which Italy, France and USA treat the education, religious or not, of religions in the curricula. The final section contrasts the religious
education model, on the one hand, and the teaching of the «religious fact» model, on the other; as well as the philosophical and political assumptions of both alternatives.
Keywords: religious education, school, secularism.
DOXA, Cuadernos de Filosofía del Derecho, 33 (2010) ISSN: 0214-8676 pp. 639-656

The interrelationship of sport and religion manifests in complex and multiple ways. This chapter details five significant intersections between sport and religion:
1. the historical connection, as pre-modern societies often classified sports feats as worship directed to the gods;
2. the fact that physical exertion may act as a trigger for altered states of consciousness, which may explain why trials of sporting prowess merited consideration as religious acts;
3. in the modern world, famous sportsmen and women frequently profess personal religious faith, and credit their success to divine intervention;
4. the devotion of fans to sporting stars and teams (in the manner of all fandoms) resembles religious devotion; and
5. sports may function as a substitute for religion, or as a ‘secular religion’, for certain people in the contemporary, deregulated spiritual marketplace of the West.
This chapter investigates all five of these relations between sport and religion, and provides at least one case study to illuminate the methodological issues that are explored in each particular relationship.

If you were forced to live with faith, or without, which would you choose?

England. 1986. The Church controls the country, and all members of the Secular Movement have been expelled to the Island.

On the Island, religion is outlawed. A gang of boys patrols the community, searching for signs of faith, and punishing any believers.

When an English girl arrives – intent on finding her mother who disappeared, mysteriously, ten years ago – she is swept up in the dangerous games of the gang. But while one boy falls in love with her, the other wants revenge for the wrongs of the past, and, as the violence escalates, the English girl becomes their pawn.

The Godless Boys is a book about faith, and life without faith; about love, and its absence. But above all, it's about power, and how dangerous it can be to stand out from the crowd. Both violent and tender, it’s a remarkable debut, and clearly marks Naomi Wood as a name to note.

"Schmalzbauer found a strong group of knowledge class professionals who have successfully avoided secularizing or privatizing their own faith.... Schmalzbauer concludes that there has been a welcome revival of religion in the academy, even in the social sciences, and that journalism is more accommodating to persons of faith than it was in the twentieth century."

-- William (Beau) Weston, The Cresset

"Using religion as an example, Schmalzbauer (Sociology, College of Holy Cross) raises questions fundamental to personal behavior in a complex, secularized society: By what commitments should people live and, if necessary, die? Should those commitments arise out of informed, reasoned, and personal choices or be relatively unthinking responses to others' expectations. Focusing on a sample of evangelical Protestants and Catholics who are academics or professional reporters, the author asks how such persons can function in environments demanding objectivity, ethical neutrality, and toleration for a secular representation of reality.... Here is sociology at its most provocative best. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels and collections."

-- L. Braude, Choice

"It is certainly true that the professions, including the media and academe, are dominated by people hostile to expressions of religious belief. Where did this hostility come from? And is it inevitable? John Schmalzbauer attempts to answer these questions, among others, in People of Faith, a valuable sociological survey. Mr. Schmalzbauer chronicles the way that religion has been an object of derision for journalists since H. L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes trial in the 1920s and for academics since the mid-20th-century introduction of the fact-value distinction in scientific research. After reviewing the statistical and anecdotal evidence.... Mr. Schmalzbauer argues that the religious perspective is making something of a comeback."

-- Naomi Schaefer, Wall Street Journal

"At the core of this work, Schmalzbauer has shown that religious belief in the professions does not take something away, but has the ability to add a richer description and understanding of human reality. This is an insight that both religious scholars and nonreligious scholars alike can appreciate."

-- Elaine Howard Ecklund, Cornell University, Sociology of Religion

"Sociologist John Schmalzbauer investigates the role played by religious faith in two of the most secular and objectivity-obsessed professions: journalism and social sciences.... He concludes that despite a constant tension, both groups have made significant contributions to American society and have introduced a religious perspective into their professions without sacrificing their credibility."

, Virginia Quarterly Review

"This work reports the findings of Schmalzbauer's interviews with forty journalists and social science academics. The interviewees represented the Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant faith traditions. They are also very public figures whose voices have incorporated their various faith traditions into their work places and public space. This research emerges from the author's interest in the role of religion in the public space as well as his interest in examining his on-going struggle 'to make sense of the role of Christian faith and the academic profession?' (p. xv).... This work adds to the field of sociology of religion as well as the broad field of religious studies. This piece is also helpful to those involved in the field of religious education which attempts to assist with lifelong interpretive processes. Historians of higher education will find interesting how educational institutions assist in developing inquiring minds."

-- Nelson T. Strobert, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, History of Education Quarterly
Review
"People of Faith is an innovative account of the incorporation of religious sensibilities in professional life. John Schmalzbauer smartly weaves together multiple secondary sources, engaging interviews, and profiles of leading Catholic and evangelical journalists and social scientists."

-- Scott Appleby, Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame

"John Schmalzbauer has brought to light important and generally neglected information. People of Faith has much to offer those fascinated with the ways in which academics and journalists write and think."

-- Alan Wolfe, Boston College

"Journalism and the social sciences are among the most resolutely secular of the modern American professions, but John Schmalzbauer shows that in each of these fields, Catholics and evangelicals have produced excellent work that is profoundly influenced by their religious commitments. This book challenges the standard assumption, held by secular and religious critics alike, that the only options for people of faith working in these professions are accommodation or resistance. Schmalzbauer shows that these Christian believers have brought their convictions into their professions in ways that can enrich American intellectual life and public affairs discourse."

-- Joel Carpenter, Calvin College

La historiografía en general tiende a resolver los periodos históricos de ruptura política como transformaciones en las que tales quiebres se traducen inmediatamente en los planos social y cultural. Como si los cambios en los preceptos que regulan las relaciones entre los actores institucionales y con la sociedad tengan una concomitancia absoluta en las prácticas de esta última. A estos defectos, mi interpretación es que el libro que tengo entre mis manos, ¿QUE HACER CON DIOS EN LA REPÙBLICA?, a la vez que estudiar la “relación entre la política y la religión, la historia del proceso de secularización del Estado desde la perspectiva de la religión, de sus actores institucionales y sociales”, cumple con su pretensión de ser una crítica a las teorías de la secularización y a la historiografía que disocian la historia política institucional de las prácticas culturales.

One of the major challenges facing modern-day secular states is the issue of social integration. The issue discussed in this article is how it is possible to arrive at unifying values in a multicultural society that is characterised by secularisation and disintegration of the Christian hegemony of former times on the one hand and by the emergence of cultural and religious diversity on the other. The analysis is centred around Norwegian kindergarten, which represent a key institution for communicating values and morals in contemporary Norwegian society. The objects clause states that the kindergarten is based on the fundamental values of Christian and humanistic heritage and traditions, combined with values that are expressed in different religions and philosophies and that are also clearly expressed in the Declaration of Human Rights. I argue that the objects clause can be understood as a form of ‘common ground strategy.’ This can be seen as a possible unifying values base and a key strategy for future social integration, across cultural affiliations.

Over the past three decades, Mexico has witnessed the end to the Catholic Church's virtual monopoly of religious and moved increasingly towards religious diversity. This transformation leads us to the following questions: What challenges does the rise of religious diversity represent for the secularism model in Mexico? The first section of this article describes the current model of secularism in Mexico as the context for church-state relations. The emphasis here is on new areas of confrontation and tension between different political and religious actors who vie to redefine the state's role in the public sphere. Religious diversity is an important part of cultural pluralism in Mexico. To chart the new religious map, we analyze recent data on religious belonging from Mexico's Population and Housing Census (2010) and identify the main actors and trends within this transformation. Religious groups have different positions on the relationship between religion and the public sphere. To analyze them, we draw on the Mexican National Survey on Religious Beliefs and Practices conducted by the Religious Research Network of Mexico (RIFREM) in 2016 (Hernández et al. 2016). Based on all available information, we reflect on the issues and challenges of religious transformation and the resulting need to redefine secularism.

Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a defining event that changed how we think about the relationship between religion and modernity. Ayatollah Khomeini’s mass mobilisation of Islam showed that modernisation by no means implies a linear process of religious decline. Reliable large-scale data on Iranians’ post-revolutionary religious beliefs, however, has always been lacking. Over the years, research and waves of protests and crackdowns indicated massive disappointment among Iranians with their political system. This steadily turned into a deeply felt disillusionment with institutional religion. In June 2020, our research institute, the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in IRAN (GAMAAN), conducted an online survey with the collaboration of Ladan Boroumand, co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Recurriendo a conceptos de la sociología de la religión de Max Weber y de Peter L. Berger, en este texto propongo que el discurso meritocrático adquiere funciones epistemológicas y sociopolíticas propias de una teodicea; esto es, que funge como un conjunto de conocimiento mágico-religioso socialmente objetivado, con distintos grados de complejidad teórica, que justifica y dota de sentido, en una sociedad, los privilegios de unos y las carencias de otros.

When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
The difference between a secular mindset and a sacred mindset is that in the secular life, one engages in daily life disconnected and without awareness of God. In the sacred life, one engages in daily life with a strong awareness of God.  In the sacred life, the child of God sees everything and every moment in the context of the spiritual and says, “The God of the universe who holds everything together is fully and personally present right here, right now.”