Published by De Gruyter

Religion and Its Others

Studies in Religion, Nonreligion and Secularity

Edited by: Stacey Gutkowski and Johannes Quack

ISSN: 2330-6262

Overview
Volumes

The series Religion and Its Others: Studies in Religion, Nonreligion and Secularity (RIO) considers the multiple relations between religion, nonreligion and secularity. Monographs, edited volumes and readers in this series are concerned with the forming and reforming of religious traditions in relation to their cultural and political contexts, their boundaries and what is beyond those boundaries. The series explores apparently nonreligious or 'irreligious' phenomena that are significantly related to religion (including forms of atheism, agnosticism, indifference) and modes of differentiation between religion and its various others, often institutionalized in cultural, legal and political orders. Affiliated with the interdisciplinary Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network (https://thensrn.org/), the series publishes research from across disciplines, including religious studies; anthropology, sociology and psychology of religions; history and philosophy of religions; political, cultural and area studies; media and communication studies; and studies of visual and performing arts.

Topics

Book 2022

Asia and the Secular

Francophone Perspectives in a Global Age

Pascal Bourdeaux, Eddy Dufourmont, André Laliberté, Rémy Madinier

Volume 10 in this series

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This volume looks at the secular state in the context of contemporary Asia and investigates whether there existed before modernity antecedents to the condition of secularity, understood as the differentiation of the sphere of the religious from other spheres of social life. The chapters presented in this book examine this issue in national contexts by looking at the historical formation of lexicons that defined the "secular", the "secular state," and "secularism". This approach requires paying attention to modern vernacular languages and their precedents in written traditions with often a very long tradition. This book presents three interpretive frameworks: multiple modernities, variety of secularisms, and typologies of post-colonial secular states.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733068
ISBN:: 9783110733068
ISBN:: 9783110733099
ISBN:: 9783110738001
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Comparative Studies
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2020

Communicating Religion and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe

Jenny Vorpahl, Dirk Schuster

Volume 9 in this series

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This book brings together case studies dealing with historical as well as recent phenomena in former socialist nations, which testify the transfer of knowledge about religion and atheism. The material is connected on a semantic level by the presence of a historical watershed before and after socialism as well as on a theoretical level by the sociology of knowledge. With its focus on Central and Eastern Europe this volume is an important contribution to the research on nonreligion and secularity.
The collected volume deals with agents and media within specific cultural and historical contexts. Theoretical claims and conceptions by single agents and/or institutions in which the imparting of knowledge about religion and atheism was or is a central assignment, are analyzed. Additionally, procedures of transmitting knowledge about religion and atheism and of sustaining related institutionalized norms, interpretations, roles and practices are in the focus of interest.
The book opens the perspective for the multidimensional and negotiating character of legitimation processes, being involved in the establishment or questioning of the institutionalized opposition between religion and atheism or religion and science.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110547085
ISBN:: 9783110547085
ISBN:: 9783110546378
ISBN:: 9783110546552
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Religion in Europe
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2018

Freigeistige Organisationen in Deutschland

Weltanschauliche Entwicklungen und strategische Spannungen nach der humanistischen Wende

Stefan Schröder

Volume 8 in this series

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Die Entwicklung freigeistiger Organisationen in Deutschland nach 1945 ist bislang unter dem Radarschirm der Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften geblieben. Dabei lassen sich gerade seit der humanistischen Wende in den 1980er Jahren dynamische Wandlungsprozesse innerhalb der Szene wahrnehmen, deren Untersuchung einen wichtigen Beitrag zu interdisziplinären Debatten und öffentlichen Diskursen um das Verhältnis von Religion und Säkularität in der Gegenwart leisten kann.

Diese Grounded Theory geleitete Studie entwickelt in diesem Zusammenhang eine Organisationstypologie, mit deren Hilfe nicht nur weltanschauliche Entwicklungen und strategische Spannungen innerhalb der gegenwärtigen freigeistigen Szene offengelegt, sondern auch gängige säkularisierungstheoretische Wahrnehmungsmuster des Gegenstandsfeldes hinterfragt und reinterpretiert werden. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf einer Ethnografie des Humanistischen Verbandes Deutschlands und der Giordano Bruno Stiftung. Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, das von der einen freigeistigen oder humanistischen „Bewegung“ nicht die Rede sein kann.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110612837
ISBN:: 9783110612837
ISBN:: 9783110644043
ISBN:: 9783110611625
ISBN:: 9783110611489
Subject:: General Interest
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Contemporary History since 1945
Subject:: East and West Germany
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Die andere Seite des Islam

Säkularismus-Diskurs und muslimische Intellektuelle im modernen Ägypten

Daniel Kinitz

Volume 7 in this series

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Secularism (al-'almaniyya) is an important yet highly divisive issue in the Arabic world. This study reconstructs, on the basis of recent Arabic publications and illustrative case studies, the social and religious problems attached to secularism as concept. Stressing the ambivalent authority of the Muslim intellectual from a sociological point of view, Kinitz’s study is an important contribution to understanding Islam in the globalized present.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110462579
ISBN:: 9783110462579
ISBN:: 9783110601398
ISBN:: 9783110461893
ISBN:: 9783110461855
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Sociology of Religion
Subject:: Religion in the Middle East
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2017

Organized Secularism in the United States

New Directions in Research

Ryan T. Cragun, Christel Manning, Lori L. Fazzino

Volume 6 in this series

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There has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of the US population that is not religious. However, there is, to date, very little research on the social movement that is organizing to serve the needs of and advocate for the nonreligious in the US.

This is a book about the rise and structure of organized secularism in the United States. By organized secularism we mean the efforts of nonreligious individuals to build institutions, networks, and ultimately a movement that serves their interests in a predominantly religious society. Researchers from various fields address questions such as: What secularist organizations exist? Who are the members of these organizations? What kinds of organizations do they create? What functions do these organizations provide for their members? How do the secularist organizations of today compare to those of the past? And what is their likely impact on the future of secularism?

For anyone trying to understand the rise of the nonreligious in the US, this book will provide valuable insights into organized efforts to normalize their worldview and advocate for their equal treatment in society.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458657
ISBN:: 9783110458657
ISBN:: 9783110441956
ISBN:: 9783110457421
ISBN:: 9783110644036
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2018

Social Imaginaries in a Globalizing World

Hans Alma, Guido Vanheeswijck

Volume 5 in this series

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How to study the contemporary dynamics between the religious, the nonreligious and the secular in a globalizing world? Obviously, their relationship is not an empirical datum, liable to the procedures of verification or of logical deduction. We are in need of alternative conceptual and methodological tools. This volume argues that the concept of ‘social imaginary’ as it is used by Charles Taylor, is of utmost importance as a methodological tool to understand these dynamics. The first section is dedicated to the conceptual clarification of Taylor's notion of social imaginaries both through a historical study of their genealogy and through conceptual analysis. In the second section, we clarify the relation of ‘social imaginaries’ to the concept of (religious) worldviewing, understood as a process of truth seeking. Furthermore, we discuss the practical usefulness of the concept of social imaginaries for cultural scientists, by focusing on the concept of human rights as a secular social imaginary. In the third and final section, we relate Taylor's view on the role of social imaginaries and the new paths it opens up for religious studies to other analyses of the secular-religious divide, as they nowadays mainly come to the fore in the debates on what is coined as the ‘post-secular.’

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110435122
ISBN:: 9783110435122
ISBN:: 9783110644050
ISBN:: 9783110441833
ISBN:: 9783110434156
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Philosophy of Religion
Subject:: Sociology of Religion
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2023

Säkularismus und religiöser Wandel

Ein soziologisches Porträt des Freidenkertums in der Schweiz

Pascal Tanner, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 4 in this series

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This study sociologically analyzes the freethought movement in Switzerland in two main themes: firstly, it paints a comprehensive picture of the movement, with a special emphasis on mobilization, the structure of membership, collective identity, and activism. Secondly, it embeds its object of study within an environment that was shaped by secularization and the politicization of the religious.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110791044
ISBN:: 9783110791044
ISBN:: 9783110791099
ISBN:: 9783110791020
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Comparative Studies
Subject:: New Religious Movements
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Working with A Secular Age

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Charles Taylor's Master Narrative

Florian Zemmin, Colin Jager, Guido Vanheeswijck

Volume 3 in this series

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Charles Taylor’s monumental book A Secular Age has been extensively discussed, criticized, and worked on. This volume, by contrast, explores ways of working with Taylor’s book, especially its potentials and limits for individual research projects. Due to its wide reception, it has initiated a truly interdisciplinary object of study; with essays drawn from various research fields, this volume fosters substantial conversation across disciplines.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110375510
ISBN:: 9783110375510
ISBN:: 9783110374681
ISBN:: 9783110573152
ISBN:: 9783110387179
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: History of Philosophy
Subject:: Modern Philosophy
Subject:: 20th and 21st Century Philosophy
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2015

Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age

Michael Rectenwald, Rochelle Almeida, George Levine

Volume 2 in this series

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Global Secularisms addresses the state of and prospects for secularism globally. Drawing from multiple fields, it brings together theoretical discussion and empirical case studies that illustrate "on-the-ground," extant secularisms as they interact with various religious, political, social, and economic contexts. Its point of departure is the fact that secularism is plural and that various secularisms have developed in various contexts and from various traditions around the world. Secularism takes on different social meanings and political valences wherever it is expressed. The essays collected here provide numerous points of contact between empirical case studies and theoretical reflection. This multiplicity informs and challenges the conceptual theorization of secularism as a universal doctrine. Analyses of different regions enrich our understanding of the meanings of secularism, providing comparative range to our notions of secularity. Theoretical treatments help to inform our understanding of secularism in context, enabling readers to discern what is at stake in the various regional expressions of secularity globally. While the bulk of the essays are case-based research, the current thinking of leading theorists and scholars is also included.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516750
ISBN:: 9781614517665
ISBN:: 9781614516750
ISBN:: 9781614519317
ISBN:: 9781501515644
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Comparative Studies
Subject:: Theory of Religion
Subject:: Religion and Politics
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2015

Multiple Secularities Beyond the West

Religion and Modernity in the Global Age

Marian Burchardt, Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Matthias Middell

Volume 1 in this series

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Questions of secularity and modernity have become globalized, but most studies still focus on the West. This volume breaks new ground by comparatively exploring developments in five areas of the world, some of which were hitherto situated at the margins of international scholarly discussions: Africa, the Arab World, East Asia, South Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe.
In theoretical terms, the book examines three key dimensions of modern secularity: historical pathways, cultural meanings, and global entanglements of secular formations. The contributions show how differences in these dimensions are linked to specific histories of religious and ethnic diversity, processes of state-formation and nation-building. They also reveal how secularities are critically shaped through civilizational encounters, processes of globalization, colonial conquest, and missionary movements, and how entanglements between different territorially grounded notions of secularity or between local cultures and transnational secular arenas unfold over time.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614514053
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-568-5
ISBN:: 978-1-61451-405-3
ISBN:: 9781614519782
ISBN:: 9781614515746
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Comparative Studies
Subject:: Secularity and Non-Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter