scholarly journals Right-Sizing Religion and Religious Engagement in Diplomacy and Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (sup1) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Peter Mandaville
Keyword(s):  
Religious Engagement

Keeping the Faith: Divine Protection and Flood Prevention in Modern Buddhist Ladakh

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Himalayan Region ◽  
Flash Flooding ◽  
Flood Prevention ◽  
Proper Order ◽  
Religious Engagement ◽  
Moral Universe ◽  
Human World ◽  
Northwest India

In August 2010 the Himalayan Region of Ladakh, Northwest India, experienced severe flash-flooding and mudslides, causing widespread death and destruction. The causes cited were climate change, karmic retribution, and the wrath of an agentive sentient landscape. Ladakhis construct, order and maintain the physical and moral universe through religious engagement with this landscape. The Buddhist monastic incumbents—the traditional mediators between the human world and the sentient landscape—explain supernatural retribution as the result of karmic demerit that requires ritual intervention. Social, economic, and material transformations have distorted the proper order, generating a physically and morally unfamiliar landscape. As a result, the mountain deities that act as guardians and protectors of the land below are confused and angry, sending destructive water to show their displeasure. Thus, the locally-contextualized response demonstrates the agency of the mountain gods in establishing a moral universe whereby water can give life and destroy it.

scholarly journals Religious Engagement and the Migration Issue: Towards Reconciling Political and Moral Duty

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Joanna Kulska
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Religious Engagement ◽  
The Face ◽  
Religious Actors

The increasingly acknowledged post-secular perspective has resulted in the emergence of some new approaches theorizing this phenomenon. One such approach has been the concept of religious engagement, which calls for the redefinition of the perception of religious non-state actors towards including them as important partners in the process of identifying and realizing political goals. According to this view, due to the multidimensional role played by religious communities and non-state religious actors, they need to be recognized as pivotal in creating a new form of knowledge generated through encounter and dialogue of the political decision-makers with these subjects. Among numerous others, the challenge of migration calls for enhanced debate referring to both political and ethical issues. When such a perspective is applied, the question is raised of the duties and limits of nation-states using more or less harsh political measures towards refugees and migrants based on the concept of security, but also short-term political goals. In the face of a state’s lack of will or capacity to deal with the problem of migration, the question of religion serving not only as the service-provider but also as the “trend-setter” with regard to fundamental ethical questions needs to be considered.

Compliance or negotiation? Diyanet’s female preachers and the diffusion of a ‘true’ religion in Turkey

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 530-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Maritato
Keyword(s):  
Religious Authority ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Control Female ◽  
Religious Engagement ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
Turkish State ◽  
And Control ◽  
Religion In Turkey

This article addresses the religious activities of the female preachers ( vaizeler) employed by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). It investigates the extent to which, and how, the activities carried out by the Diyanet’s vaizeler are in compliance with a state attempt to standardise and control female religious engagement. As religious officers, the vaizeler both spread and embody an organised religion. However, far from any dichotomous perspective, to assert their religious authority the Diyanet’s preachers navigate daily between compliance with the institution’s dogmas and negotiation with a plurality of interpretations labelled as unofficial, popular and traditional. To fully assess this issue, this article refers to ethnographic observations of everyday vaizeler’s preaching activities in Istanbul’s mosques. Conducted between 2013 and 2014, these observations are crucial for contextualising the evolution of the Turkish state monopoly over religious affairs, particularly in the aftermath of the July 2016 attempted coup.

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