Hospitality and religious diversity, or, when is home not a home?

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-436
Author(s):  
Kyle Conway

Recent debates about hospitality and religious diversity frequently hinge on unspoken notions of home. This is especially true in the Canadian province of Quebec, where citizens have worked to establish a secular state after a history of domination by the Catholic Church. In the last two decades, as religious minorities have grown, controversy has arisen about requests for accommodations made on religious grounds. Here I examine responses to those requests and ask what notions of home underpin them. One is grounded in history: its adherents contend that immigrants are guests and should conform to the norms of their new home. It expands the geography of home by linking secularism to collective identity. A second is grounded in political-legal thought: its adherents contend citizens are at home even if their views differ from the majority’s. It recognizes that long-time residents and newcomers mutually influence each other and, over time, people’s identities change.

Modern Italy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-211
Author(s):  
Clodagh Brook

Alessandro Ferrari claims that Catholicism was the only cement binding the newly unified Italy together, a country without a common language or a widespread culture capable of founding civic engagement. Taking a post-secular perspective on religion, which recognizes that religion is not simply a ‘residue’ soon to be extinguished (as Raymond Williams once stated), this article will explore Italian cinema’s contemporary constructions of this national ‘religious cement’ as a putative foundation for identity in 21st century Italy. The article sets out too to show the cracks in the cement: collective identity can only be created by ignoring religious diversity and removing thorny issues from the history of the Catholic church.


Author(s):  
Rochana Bajpai

What role does secularism have in the governance of religious diversity in an age marked by the assertion of religio-cultural identities across the world? India, with its long history of religious pluralism, a state ideology of secularism, and the ascendancy of Hindu nationalism, is a key site for examining the disposition of secularism towards religious identities and diversity. Secularism and multiculturalism are often seen as opposed in political debates involving religious minorities, notably the well-known French headscarf case. Several scholars have suggested that religious traditions offer better resources for toleration than modern secularism (for India, see, for example, Madan 1998: 316; Nandy 1998:336–7). Others, more sympathetic to secularism, have also suggested that it may be deficient in the normative resources required for the accommodation of religious practices, particularly in the case of minorities (Mahajan, this volume; Modood 2010).


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-111
Author(s):  
Irina I. Rutsinskaya

Historians have long been studying in detail the story of I.V. Stalin visiting V.I. Lenin in Razliv. The main subject of their interest is whether this event took place in reality. Most of modern authors agree that it did not. This article does not dispute this verdict, because it is not about the event itself, but about the history of the mythologeme’s origin and the forms of its representation in the culture of the Stalin era.Researchers have not ye raised the question of why this story was introduced by Stalin into the updated version of his own official biography only thirty years after the events described in it. Meanwhile, appealing to it makes it possible not only to comprehend the reasons and goals of mythologizing individual episodes of the leader’s biography at the culmination stage of building his cult, but also to study the methods and forms of using cultural tools to achieve such goals.The article focuses mainly on visual representations of the mythological story. However, it was important not only to analyze and classify the new unstudied iconographic schemes that had never been studied by anyone before, but also to see them in a historical and cultural context. This approach made it possible to demonstrate how the Soviet representation strategies had been “working” under the conditions of the permanent expansion of the leader’s “life story”, as well as how the universally proclaimed slogan about the immense veneration of the teacher Lenin by his student Stalin had been adjusted over time. The fact that the story of “Stalin in Razliv” had remained for a long time beyond the attention of the leader himself and the ideologists of his cult (i.e. it had been considered unworthy of special efforts) and was included in his biography only seven years before his death, makes the analysis proposed in the article even more comprehensive.


2021 ◽  
pp. 664-680
Author(s):  
Claudio Ferlan ◽  
Marco Ventura

The history of religion in Italy reveals both a continuing Catholic presence and growing religious diversity. This chapter traces this history from medieval times, through early modern, pre-unification Italy, to the struggle for unity, the forcible end of the Pontifical States, and the problematic coexistence of the Holy See, the Catholic Church, and the Kingdom of Italy after 1861. The later sections deal with the appeasement of the Holy See under fascist rule and the Lateran Pacts of 1929; then the transition from fascism to democracy and from monarchy to republic, through the referendum of 1946 and the Constitution of 1948. Central to this evolution is the explicit acknowledgment that Italy is no longer a Catholic state; conversely laicità is identified as the supreme constitutional principle. Since 1989, cultural Christianity and the consolidation of various forms of Catholic preference are learning to coexist with an increasingly multi-religious population.


Author(s):  
D.B. Vershinina

The article attempts to trace the history of women's political representation in the Irish parliament - from the struggle for the right to vote and to be elected to parliament to the current level of women's representation in the Oireachtas and related discussions in the political elite and Irish society. The author draws attention to the specifics of the policy of various Irish parties in relation to the problem of representation of women in parliament and demonstrates the importance of political and national culture for such a phenomenon as the participation of women in politics. Analyzing the change in the proportion of women in the lower house of the Oireachtas, the author demonstrates the influence of the Irish women's movement on the dynamics of the number of female TDs. The author concludes that the policy of affirmative action played a significant, but insufficient role in the country, which for a long time remained under the influence of the Catholic Church and its patriarchal view of the role of women in society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Adam Wójcik ◽  

The issue of Polish-German reconciliation after 1945 and the actions of both parties to reach an agreement are undoubtedly related to the activities of the Catholic Church in Poland and of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, who led it. Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops is a symbol of forgiveness and the will to rebuild relations between the Polish and German nations. The step taken by the leaders of the Church in Poland towards the German side contributed to the normalization and, with time, of establishing mutual Polish-German relations. The aim of the work is to show the essence of the Polish bishops letter and showing the reaction of both sides to the actions taken by the church hierarchs. At work, Polish-German relations are quite fast before the publication of the Polish Orbis to German bishops, as well as the situation after the publication of the letter. The article presents the process of preparing the letter in chronological order, as well as the ideas that guided the authors of the breakthrough work. The article presents what problems after the publication of Lub, the Catholic Church in Poland and its leadership had to face. There were also shown responses to propaganda and anti-church trust in people towards the Church and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The work shows how important a moment in the history of Polish-German relations is the publication of the letter of the Polish bishops, which is to become the basis for the improvement and, over time, the establishment of relations between neighbors. The work describes a topic repeatedly raised by other authors, but contains new information, developed over the years, about the essence of this important work.


2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Regina Laukaitytė

The present article deals with the history of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania between 1944 and 1990, focusing mainly on the exceptional situation of Orthodoxy conditioned by the Soviet attempts to exploit it via internal policy in the republic. Consolidating the Stalinist regime in occupied Lithuania in 1944–1948, the government demanded Orthodox archbishops start ‘the struggle against reactionary Catholicism’, i.e., start a critique of its dogmas, to bring the whole faith into disrespect, etc. Nevertheless, even though it enjoyed state support the Orthodox Church was too weak to compete successfully with Catholicism which remained dominant in the country. Small in number, Russian-speaking, alien to Lithuanian society and culture and lacking intellectual potential, the Orthodox Church failed to cope with the task. Besides, strengthening the position of Orthodoxy was not acceptable to the leadership of Soviet Lithuania. Though subsequently not directly protected, but having already strengthened its structures, the Orthodox Church continued to enjoy its favourable political image as a religion ‘less harmful’ to the interests of the state than Catholicism. Accordingly, the consequences of the antireligious campaign, conducted in the entire Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964, were minimal in the Lithuanian eparchy. Some of the reforms were not implemented here altogether. In Lithuania the attention of the Soviet regime was concentrated mainly on the struggle against Catholicism, and Orthodoxy for a long time remained outside the sphere of atheistic propaganda. As time went by the Orthodox eparchy was put into the shade entirely by the concern of the KGB and the commissioners about the growing underground of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Meanwhile the structure of the Orthodox Church in Lithuania suffered comparatively insignificantly (only four parish churches were closed). The Orthodox communities shrank mainly as a result of the rising secularization and urbanization of society. Only communities in the major towns retained their former vitality.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Elias Kiptoo Ngetich

The Jesuits or ‘The Society of Jesus’ holds a significant place in the wide area of church history. Mark Noll cites John Olin notes that the founding of the Jesuits was ‘the most powerful instrument of Catholic revival and resurgence in this era of religious crisis’.[1] In histories of Europe to the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Jesuits appear with notable frequency. The Jesuits were the finest expression of the Catholic Reformation shortly after the Protestant reform began. The Society is attributed to its founder, Ignatius of Loyola. As a layman, Ignatius viewed Christendom in his context as a society under siege. It was Christian duty to therefore defend it. The Society was formed at a time that nationalism was growing and papal prestige was falling. As Christopher Hollis observed: ‘Long before the outbreak of the great Reformation there were signs that the unity of the Catholic Christendom was breaking up.’[2] The Jesuits, as a missionary movement at a critical period in the Roman Catholic Church, used creative strategies that later symbolised the strength of what would become the traditional Roman Catholic Church for a long time in history. The strategies involved included, but were not limited to: reviving and nurturing faith among Catholics, winning back those who had become Protestants, converting those who had not been baptised, training of the members for social service and missionary work and also establishing educational institutions.[1]       Mark A. Noll. Turning points: Decisive moments in the history of Christianity. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1997), 201.[2]       Christopher Hollis. The Jesuits: A history. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968), 6.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Garrouste ◽  
Jérôme Munzinger ◽  
Andrew Leslie ◽  
Jessica Fisher ◽  
Nicolas Folcher ◽  
...  

AbstractNew Caledonia was, until recently, considered an old continental island harbouring a rich biota with outstanding Gondwanan relicts. However, deep marine sedimentation and tectonic evidence suggest complete submergence of the island during the latest Cretaceous to the Paleocene. Molecular phylogenies provide evidence for some deeply-diverging clades that may predate the Eocene and abundant post-Oligocene colonisation events. Extinction and colonization biases, as well as survival of some groups in refuges on neighbouring paleo-islands, may have obscured biogeographic trends over long time scales. Fossil data are therefore crucial for understanding the history of the New Caledonian biota, but occurrences are sparse and have received only limited attention. Here we describe five exceptional fossil assemblages that provide important new insights into New Caledonia’s terrestrial paleobiota from three key time intervals: prior to the submersion of the island, following re-emergence, and prior to Pleistocene climatic shifts. These will be of major importance for elucidating changes in New Caledonia’s floristic composition over time.


2019 ◽  
pp. 62-68
Author(s):  
A.A. Salamzade ◽  
R.H. Abdullayeva

В статье мультикультурализм рассматривается как традиционное явление в истории Азербайджана, обусловленное этническим и конфессиональным разнообразием в регионе, толерантным отношением к представителям иных культур. Подчеркивается, что в период независимости Азербайджана мультикультурализм был поднят на уровень государственной культурной политики. В выступлениях и деятельности Президента Азербайджанской Республики Ильхама Алиева он представлен как действенный фактор не только внутренней, но и внешней политики страны. Для продвижения политики мультикультурализма в 2008 г. был запущен так называемый Бакинский процесс . Одновременно Баку стал местом проведения множества международных мероприятий самого высокого уровня. Интересным явлением последнего десятилетия является совпадение оценок феномена мультикультурализма экспертами Азербайджана и России.The basis of any cultural policy is always a certain idea. Sometimes a national idea is used in this capacity. Some ideas are supranational, some are built on a geographical basis rather than on a national one. At the turn of the 21st century, many countries of the world widely discuss the ideas of multiculturalism and the ways of their implementation at the level of public policy. In the article, multiculturalism is considered as a traditional phenomenon in the history of Azerbaijan, due to the ethnic and religious diversity in the region and a tolerant attitude towards representatives of other cultures. It is emphasized that during the period of independence of Azerbaijan, multiculturalism was raised to the level of a state cultural policy. During the years of independence, many mosques have been erected in Azerbaijan, Orthodox churches are being restored and reconstructed, a synagogue and even a Catholic church are being built. In addition, one of the temples of the Albanian Apostolic Church is being restored. The traditions of tolerance are still reflected in the development of not only modern architecture, but also culture and society as a whole. In the speeches and activities of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, multiculturalism is presented as an effective factor in both domestic and foreign policies of the country. In 2008, to launch the policy of multiculturalism, he launched the socalled Baku Process. At the same time, Baku is becoming a venue for many international events of the highest level. Over the past decade, the Baku Humanitarian Forum, the Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, the Eurovision 2012 music contest, the international festival Mugham World have been held here. In 2009 Baku was declared the capital of Islamic culture in 2015 it hosted the first European Games in 2016 the VII Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations and many other humanitarian, cultural and sports events. In the Decree of the President of the country, 2016 was declared the year of multiculturalism in Azerbaijan, and 2017 the year of Islamic solidarity. All this made it possible for President Aliyev to declare that Azerbaijan has once again established itself as the humanitarian center of the world. An interesting phenomenon of the past decade is the coincidence of assessments of the phenomenon of multiculturalism by experts from Azerbaijan and Russia. This unanimity is seen as particularly promising at the regional level and, above all, in the south of Russia, with its ethnic and religious diversity.


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