Based on a symposium held in Istanbul, Turkey.

This pioneering handbook proposes an approach to pluralism that is relational, principled, and non-relativistic, going beyond banal calls for mere "tolerance." The growing religious diversity within societies around the world presents both challenges and opportunities. A degree of competition between deeply held religious/worldview perspectives is natural and inevitable, yet at the same time the world urgently needs engagement and partnership across lines of difference. None of the world’s most pressing problems can be solved by any single actor, and as such it is not a question of if but when you partner with an individual or institution that does not think, act, or believe as you do. The authors argue that religious literacy—defined as a dynamic combination of competencies and skills, continuously refined through real-world cross-cultural engagement—is vital to building societies and states of neighborly solidarity and civic fairness. Through examination, reflection, and case studies across multiple faith traditions and professional fields, this handbook equips scholars and students, as well as policymakers and practitioners, to assess, analyze, and act collaboratively in a world of deep diversity. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Religion evokes strong emotions and raises hard questions. This volume addresses many of the contentious elements that religion provokes and challenges some of the easy answers contemporary society has produced. The frequent and often facile dictum about the separation of church and state, when examined closely, may prove to contribute to the erosion of some of our most cherished human values, rather than to their preservation. The science-versus-religion dichotomy is dogma for many, yet the empiricism that is the hallmark of scientific method and knowledge can be singularly absent from positions that claim to be science. The current spate of attacks against God and religion that are now commonplace, when critically scrutinized, often fail to provide compelling arguments or even to be as objective as their authors claim. These and other explorations are the focus of this book. From the Forward in which Charles Kimball challenges the West to re-evaluate its perspective and understanding of the East, particularly Islam, to the Afterword in which theologian Gregory Baum chronicles the extraordinary reversal of sociologyâ (TM)s estimation of religion, the invitation from this volume to all of us is to review our pieties and presuppositions as we reflect on the future of religion.

Eleven lectures on the role of Òthe letter and the SpiritÓ and the centrality of Christ set against the historical background of the Reformation of the Anabaptists and the Calvinists.

The thirteen essays in this volume provide thematic assessments of the current state of global human rights programs as well as prescriptions for future human rights policy, with topics including democracy promotion, women's rights, refugee policy, religious freedom, labor standards, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.

“A work of tremendous originality and insight. ... Makes you see the world differently.”—Washington Post Translated into twenty languages ?The Future of Freedom ?is a modern classic that uses historical analysis to shed light on the present, examining how democracy has changed our politics, economies, and social relations. Prescient in laying out the distinction between democracy and liberty, the book contains a new afterword on the United States's occupation of Iraq and a wide-ranging update of the book's themes.

"The Future of Religion in American Politics presents thoughtful, wide-ranging essays by twelve eminent public intellectuals and scholars, offering rich and stimulating views on one of the most divisive issues of our time. Editor Charles W. Dunn and the contributors assess the impact of religion on American politics in four distinct time periods: the founding, the Civil War, the New Deal era, and the modern era. Dunn outlines seven propositions that characterize the interaction of religion and politics during these time periods and describes how and why religion continues to influence politics in America."--BOOK JACKET.

Based on a symposium held in Istanbul, Turkey.