scholarly journals Religious Education in Greece - Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Secularism

Author(s):  
Marios Koukounaras Liagkis

This study is an attempt to address the issue of religion in the public sphere and secularism. Since the Eastern Orthodox Church has been established by the Greek constitution (1975) as the prevailing religion of Greece, there are elements of legal agreements- which inevitably spawn interactions- between state and Church in different areas. One such area is Religious Education. This article focuses on Religious Education (RE) in Greece which is a compulsory school subject and on two important interventions that highlight the interplay between religion, politics and education: firstly the new Curriculum for RE (2011) and secondly the introduction of an Islamic RE (2014) in a Greek region (Thrace) where Christians and Muslims have lived together for more than four centuries. The researches are based on fieldwork research and they attempt to open the discussion on the role of RE in a secular education system and its potential for coexistence and social cohesion.

Author(s):  
Verioni Ribeiro Bastos

Diante da estrutura do sistema de ensino brasileiro no qual encontramos a disciplina, Ensino Religioso, constitucionalmente obrigatória no ensino fundamental das escolas públicas até as Ciências das Religiões nas Universidades Federais brasileiras, busco realizar um diálogo com outras trabalhos usando estes como interrogações para questionar o comum tido como natural, ou seja, a presença do religioso na esfera pública. Somado a isto o debate com autores que discutem a realidade francesa e a narração de dois casos extraídos da  observação participante completam a intenção de apresentar um ângulo mais agudo de refletir sobre a realidade brasileira no que concerne a religião, política e educação, como também, como o público e o privado caminham juntos na mentalidade da população do país. A secularização à brasileira anda a passos lentos e o quadro político-social e educacional do Brasil precisa de menos análises do que está posto e questionar por que o que está posto parece normal e se perpetua por gerações e gerações.Palavras-chave: Laicidade: ensino religioso. Política. Brasil. França.AbstractTaking the ideias of some authors we will try to understand the interconnections between religions and public sphere in Brazil and France. In Brazil we get two exemples of the relationship between public sphere and the religion: the presence of Religious Education and the Science Religions in the brazilian federal universities. In other hand we try to understand how in France we can see the relation between the religions and the public sphere thourgh the eyes of some authors who speak about it using two exemples we will show in this text. Completing the intention to present a more acute angle to reflect on the Brazilian reality with regard to religion, politics and education, as well as public and private walk together in the mindset of the country's population. Secularization Brazilian's slow steps and the socio-political framework and Brazil's educational needs less analysis than is post and question why what's post looks normal and perpetuates for generations and generations.Keywords: Secularism: religious education. Politics. Brazil. France.


Author(s):  
Rhoni Rodin ◽  
Miftahul Huda

The history of Islamic education in Indonesia, apart from having a traditional character, not all women have had the opportunity to pursue education. The society paradigm considers that women are only weak creatures who do not need higher education. This has an impact on the role of women only in the domestic sphere, which does not have a broad role in the public sphere in society. Such social conditions moved the heart of a reformer figure in Islamic education from West Sumatra, named Rahmah el-Yunusiyah. The purpose of this study was to determine the sacrifice and struggle of Rahmah el-Yunusiah in the field of education and Rahmah el-Yunusiyah's views on the essence of Islamic religious education. She is the first female Islamic education figure to pay attention to the importance of education for women. She realizes that education is the main means to improve the position of women in the global life order. In this study using a qualitative approach. The method used is a research library. The data analysis technique used is content analysis. The result of this research shows that Rahmah el-Yunusiyah's dedication in Islamic education for women is that she founded the Diniyah school Puteri. According to him, religious education (Islam) according to him is the basis for the formation of human character, and becomes the essence for other activities. Keywords:  Rahmah el-yunusiyah, Islamic education, Dedication a Good Women


Author(s):  
Konstantinidou Zoe ◽  
Argyris Kyridis ◽  
Tsioumis Konstantinos

Preparing students for the honor and privilege of being able to assume the role of citizen is one of the main roles and aims of education, which is considered to be one of the most important institutions as far as political socialization and civic education of children is concerned. The power of a state lies with its citizens. In a democracy, everyone is responsible for what happens in the public sphere and thus, everyone must be properly prepared for and committed to the role of citizen. The question is whether the current education system is ready and able to form conscientious and active citizens. This study consists of 103 activities that were designed with civic education in mind by students of various education faculties of various universities in Greece (students of faculties of primary education N = 54, students of faculties of preschool education N = 49) and analyzed. The average age of the students that participated in the study was 20.3 years. The results show that students choose activities that are mainly related to environmental education and democracy and focus less on activities related with interculturalism. More advanced students (i.e. students who are closer to graduation) are usually using more measurable objectives and experiential methods. As far as students of faculties of primary education are concerned, it was observed that the prefer to implement activities related to citizenship in large classes. students of faculties of preschool education on the other hand, seem to plan and organize more complete activities, using specific verbs.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 460
Author(s):  
Janusz Węgrzecki

The article analyzes the content of the Pope’s speeches discussing, reconstructing and interpreting the concept of two dominant western cultures and their mutual relationships to the perspective of Pope Benedict XVI, who calls them the culture of radical enlightenment and the culture of humanism that is open to transcendence. The article identifies fundamental contentious issues including: anthropological issues, human dignity, political anthropology, freedom, reason, its rationality, and the role of religion in the public sphere. Thus, the article provides a positive answer to the question of whether the perspective of the clash of cultures outlined by Samuel Huntington can be cognitively used in interpreting the contrast of cultures presented from the perspective of Pope Benedict XVI. However, contrary to Huntington, who describes the clash of western cultures with other, non-western cultures, Pope Benedict XVI claims that there is a clash between two dominant western cultures.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2336825X2110291
Author(s):  
Vasil Navumau ◽  
Olga Matveieva

One of the distinctive traits of the Belarusian ‘revolution-in-the-making’, sparked by alleged falsifications during the presidential elections and brutal repressions of protest afterwards, has been a highly visible gender dimension. This article is devoted to the analysis of this gender-related consequences of protest activism in Belarus. Within this research, the authors analyse the role of the female movement in the Belarusian uprising and examine, and to which extent this involvement expands the public sphere and contributes to the changes in gender-related policies. To do this, the authors conducted seven semi-structured in-depth interviews with the gender experts and activists – four before and four after the protests.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Gerardo Serra ◽  
Morten Jerven

Abstract This article reconstructs the controversies following the release of the figures from Nigeria's 1963 population census. As the basis for the allocation of seats in the federal parliament and for the distribution of resources, the census is a valuable entry point into postcolonial Nigeria's political culture. After presenting an overview of how the Africanist literature has conceptualized the politics of population counting, the article analyses the role of the press in constructing the meaning and implications of the 1963 count. In contrast with the literature's emphasis on identification, categorization, and enumeration, our focus is on how the census results informed a broader range of visual and textual narratives. It is argued that analysing the multiple ways in which demographic sources shape debates about trust, identity, and the state in the public sphere results in a richer understanding of the politics of counting people and narrows the gap between demographic and cultural history.


2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. M. Stewart

AbstractThe deconstruction of what is termed “the public sphere” in recent decades has resulted in an important shift in scholarly attention towards networks and forms of association. This article explores how greater sensitivity to the unstable and ephemeral nature of “publics,” combined with a stronger awareness of the role of cultural exchange, has undoubtedly enriched our understanding of early modern politics. Some analytical precision has, nonetheless, been lost. A justifiable emphasis on the artificiality of the territorial borders that have defined units of enquiry has occurred at the expense of deeper consideration of the cultural boundaries that dictated the terms on which people could participate in and shape public discourse. Study of the British archipelago can offer new ways of thinking about these problems. Linguistic and ethnic differences, the search for religious concord as well as the reality of confessional division, institutional variation, and the consequences of London's increasing dominance of the archipelago, are key facets of the reassessments undertaken here. The article concludes by reflecting on how interactions between varieties of “public” and other forms of association can nuance our understanding of early modern state formation.


10.1068/d459t ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Yacobi

This paper offers a critical analysis of the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that deal with planning policy in general and in Israel in particular. The inherent dilemmas of the different NGOs' tactics and strategies in reshaping the public sphere are examined, based on a critical reading of Habermas's conceptualization of the public sphere. The main objective of this paper is to investigate to what extent, and under which conditions, the NGOization of space—that is, the growing number of nongovernmental actors that deal with the production of space both politically and tangibly—has been able to achieve strategic goals which may lead towards social change.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 410
Author(s):  
Ian A. Morrison

Towards the end of the twentieth century, religion re-emerged as a topic of pressing concern in a number of the most self-consciously secularized states of the global north. From disputes over the wearing of headscarves in schools to debates over accommodations for religious practices in the public sphere, religion, particularly the ‘foreign’ religiosity of migrants and other minority religious subjects, appeared on the scene as a phenomenon whose proper place and role in society required both urgent and careful deliberation. This article argues that in order to account for the affective potency produced by the immanence of the figure of the ‘foreign’ religious subject, it is necessary to understand secularization as fantasy. It is within the fantasy of secularization that the secular emerges as an object of desire—as something that, if attained, appears as a solution to the problem of ‘foreign’ religiosity—and figures of inassimilable religiosity assume the role of scapegoats for the failure to resolve these concerns. In this sense, within this fantasy scene, the secular promises to provide ‘us’ with something that we are lacking. However, this promise has been undermined by the apparent persistence of religious difference. As such, as a result of their continued religiosity, ‘they’ appear to be taking something from ‘us’.


2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Misztal

This paper's purpose is to exam Turner's (2006a) thesis that Britain neither produced its own public intellectuals nor a distinctive sociology. It aims to outline difficulties with the logic of Turner's argument rather than to discuss any particular public intellectual in Britain. The paper argues that Turner's claim about the comparative insignificance of public intellectuals in Britain reinforces the myth of British exceptionalism and overlooks the significance of the contribution to the public sphere by intellectuals from other disciplines than sociology. It discusses Turner's assumption that intellectual innovation requires massive disruptive and violent change and suggests that such an assertion is not necessarily supported by studies of the conditions of the production of knowledge. Finally, the paper argues that Turner's anguish at the absence of public intellectuals among sociologists in Britain is symptomatic of New Left thinking that models the idea of the intellectual on Gramsci. In conclusion, the paper asserts that Turner's idea of the intellectual fails to note the tension at the heart of the role of public intellectual–the tension between specialist and non-specialist functions.


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