Reliogion in Politics

The present study considers two relevant variables from World Values Survey as measures of
religiosity which includes how important religion is and how actively people participate in
religious organizations. It has also taken into account other relevant variables such as GDP per
capita, HDI, and Gini coefficient and political freedom. The regression analysis has shown that there is largely a highly significant relationship between
corruption and religion which is quite contrary to the findings of another study by Shadabi
(2013) which concluded that there is no significant relationship between religion and corruption,
and that religion does not increase corruption. In contrast, the findings of the present study has
consistently shown that increasing religiosity whether measured by the importance attached to
religion or the frequency people participate in religious activities is accompanied by rising level
of corruption in the countries observed. This relationship, however, slightly varies depending on
the type of measurement used to indicate religiosity. This appears to imply that the various
measurements used to indicate religiosity might have led to the contradictory results regarding
the relationship between corruption and religion.

In Nigeria, there is a history of animosity and escalating violence between Christians and Muslims. Nigeria in recent times has been characterized by rivalries and instability engendered by the mutual prejudices and exclusivist attitudes among some members of these religions. The factors that have negatively influenced the relationship between the members of these religions can be traced in the history of the inception of these religions in Nigeria. The historical animosity between these religions is also embedded in, and influenced by ethno-political factors. While this research looks at Nigeria’s problems from a religious angle, it is also important to note that, it is not often so much the religion but the use and abuse of religion for ethno-political and socio-economic ends that provokes the animosity and sustains conflict in a nation like Nigeria. Using John Paul Lederach’s Integrated Model of peacebuilding as theoretical framework, this study argues that Christianity and Islam have resources that can be used to transform animosity and conflict to sustainable peace. This research argues that dialogue is a mechanism that will enable the members of these religions in Nigeria to come together towards reconciliation and rebuilding their relationship. Finally, using Lederach’s framework the research critically discusses the roles of different leadership levels in facilitating sustainable peace in Nigeria.

This essay articulates and defends a global normative paradigm of religious freedom: a minimum standard of respect for religious freedom that is rooted in human dignity and consistent with a variety of cultural and constitutional frameworks. This paradigm is fleshed out in three arguments: an argument about transcendence; an argument for a certain dualism about religion and politics, and an argument regarding regulation. The first focuses on the concept of religion; the second, on that of freedom; and the third, on rights. The first shows that, though the concept of religious freedom has rightly been expanded to protect nonbelievers as well as believers, all legal systems and constitutional frameworks should be open to the idea of transcendence as such, in order to protect the transcendent dimension of the human person. The argument for dualism calls for an interdependent dualistic structure that guarantees autonomy for both political and religious communities while imposing limits on the principle of laïcité and to theocratic impulses. Finally, the argument for regulation defends the power of political communities to regulate specifically those religious matters which affect the public sphere.

he chapter argues that spiritual arts in Romania approach religious symbols in their own way, disregarding the strict rules of the Byzantine Herminia in an attempt to enhance ‘the spiritual life of humanity’ through recalling ‘a creative Christianity.’ Starting with the end of the 1970s, formerly forbidden borrowings from religious art were accepted by communist cultural hegemony if they backed the official style of communist nationalism and the traditional folk ethos. The artistic production analyzed in this chapter reveals the ways in which open-ended cultural memories can be mixed with new myths and rituals, communicative memories and memories of repression, as well as identity politics.

Sri Aurobindo's main aim was to make the Life Divine for everybody. He never believed in individual salvation, rather in collective salvation. Individual life has many faults and we have to overcome it by achieving Mukti or Moksha. However Indian philosophical concept of Mukti is not admissible to him. In Indian philosophy, Mukti has to be gained by only individual, be it Jivan Mukti, Videha Mukti of the Samkhya philosophy or Sarupyo Mukti, Salokyo Mukti, Sajujyo Mukti of the Vedanta philosophy. But his notion of Mukti is the way to call the Supermind upon the Earthen level and to make the lives of other people the perfect instances of the Life Divine like that of the Yogi himself. In this present article I want to show how Sri Aurobindo showed the hidden touch of spirituality even behind his politics and educational theories.

The author makes a critical reading of the book Religion in China. Survival & Revival under Communist Rule by the Chinese specialist Fenggang Yang (published in 2012) during the government of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party and their process of secularization by means of atheism.

Tres aspectos de la relación entre mythos y logos se estudiarán en
este ensayo. Para comenzar, se muestra cómo la fantasía elabora
simbólicamente el caos y clasifica de algún modo los seres/fuerzas
del universo. Una segunda preocupación estudia dos estrategias
del pensamiento para afrontar el caos: una, a partir del supuesto
mítico del reparto de seres/potencias que llenan el universo desde
siempre y, la otra, que parte del supuesto metafísico de la existencia
de ‘algo’ eterno e infinito del que emana todo lo que existe. Se
trata del antagonismo del mito respecto del dogma y de cómo
vérselas con el caos. Finalmente, se insiste en cómo el mito implica
la activación del pensamiento ante lo indeterminado. En este
punto de la reflexión, la tesis de Blumenberg de la especial relación
del mythos y el logos —propia del orden de proceder por
distanciamiento— se muestra muy provechosa; asimismo, la tesis
complementaria de la noción de lo Real (de Lacan/Zîzêk) como
otra manera de dar cuenta del paso de lo indeterminado a lo
familiar/conocido.

La fe religiosa en la trama del poder imperial* H ace unos meses recibí un ejemplar del ensayo del politólogo y diplomático argentino Eduardo Porretti titulado La nación elegida, con aportes incuestionables al estudio y al debate sobre el significado del hecho religioso dentro del proyecto hegemónico de los Estados Unidos en nuestros días. Porretti, cercano a los cincuenta años de edad, estuvo en misión en Bogotá y, posteriormente, en La Habana, primero en funciones consulares y después como Ministro Consejero de la Embajada de Argentina. Actualmente se desempeña con el mismo cargo en la misión argentina en las Naciones Unidas. De sus últimos años en La Habana data su primer libro, una colección de relatos que lleva el título de Naturaleza humana.