This book focuses on religious tolerance and intolerance in terms of practices, institutions, and intellectual habits. It brings together an array of historical and anthropological studies and philosophical, cognitive, and psychological explorations by established scholars from a range of disciplines. The contributions feature modern and historic instances of tolerance and intolerance across a variety of geographies, societies, and religious traditions. They help readers to gain an understanding of the notion of tolerance and the historical consequences of intolerance from the perspective of different cultures, religions, and philosophies. The volume highlights tolerance’s potential to be a means to build bridges and at the same time determine limits. Whilst the challenge of promoting tolerance has mostly been treated as a value or practice of demographic or religious majorities, this book offers a broader take and pays attention to minority perspectives. It is a valuable reference for scholars of religious studies, the sociology of religion, and the history of religion.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the problem of religious intolerance has become a worldwide problem. In todays pluralistic society, the dialogical tension between openness and identity has become a major challenge for interreligious dialogue and peaceful co-existence. This tension is expressed in the question, Can one maintain ones own religious identity without one closing oneself off from the other? This question is central to the challenges posed on how religious education can contribute to sustainable peace in Nigeria and the world over. In this book Stella Nneji critically assesses the various models of religious pedagogy (mono-religious, multi-religious and inter-religious) by asking how these models relate to the dialogical tension between openness and identity in Nigeriaa nation perceivably confronted with an enduring history of post-colonial strife, religious intolerance and violence. The contention is that the mono-religious and multi-religious models, which, while dominant in current practice and in academia, nevertheless fall short of expressing the authentic challenges and opportunities religious intolerance presents in Nigerian multi-religious/cultural context. In this connection, this book provides a clear notion of the theological foundation, principles, and framework of inter-religious education and a practical guide for authentic dialogue in a plural context. She calls for a paradigm shift for confessional religious pedagogy to a model of inter-religious learning as incorporated within the hermeneutical-communicative education. On this basis, the book proposes a new model for the role of religious education in Nigeria. This model in a critical-enculturated way, attempts to recognize the tensions of authentic religious difference, presupposing a broad spectrum of difference in the classroom in a way that also incorporates genuine religious encounters and expressions of identity.

Headscarves in schools. Ethnic gang rapists. Domestic violence in Indigenous communities. Polygamy. Sharia law. It seems that in public debates around the world, concerns about marginalised communities often revolve around issues of gender and women’s rights. Yet all too often, discussions about complex matters are reduced to simplistic debates such as “hijab: to ban or not to ban?” or “Muslim women: oppressed or liberated?”. This collection provides a space for in-depth analyses on the politics of gender, race and religion. As well as critical reflections on images and experiences of Muslim women, chapters also explore the relationships between gender, violence and protection, and offer innovative possibilities for intellectual and practical understandings at the intersection of gender, race and religion. Essential reading for scholars and students of gender and women’s studies, cultural studies, racial and ethnic studies, religious studies and an educated public interested in understanding the challenges and possibilities of tackling both racism and the oppression of women.

This new book has taken many years of spiritual exploration to create. It explores spirituality within various religions, and finds spiritual gems within each religion while discarding what is contrary to universal human spirituality. The book tries to tear out of religion whatever is tearing humanity apart. It extracts ideas and teachings from our various religions that give us the ability to practice the trimmings of simple spirituality free from the trappings of religious dogma. It reviews various approaches to meditation, and finds a simple letting-go meditation practice which opens up our innate spirituality. This method works for everybody, and is free of religious exclusivity. The meditation practice is based on the teachings of the Tao, Zen, and the Hindu Upanishads, and is consistent with Islamic and Christian spirituality. Finally, it teaches and guides us in bringing the spirituality acquired from prayer and meditation into our everyday lives. This insightful and inspiring book is a call to set spirituality free from the dead-weight of religious dogma. It fearlessly exposes the madness of religious fundamentalism and offers instead the loving kindness of genuine spiritual awakening. Bigoted religion is a source of most of the conflicts bedeviling our world today. In this book Raja Bhat offers an exciting alternative: spirituality transcending religion. Timothy Freke, author and co-author of numerous books on religion and spirituality, such as Encyclopedia of Spirituality; The Jesus Mysteries; Jesus And The Lost Goddess; Spiritual Traditions: Essential Teachings To Transform Your Life; The Complete Guide To World Mysticism and many others.

Fruitful relationships and constructive interaction between religions have become more important than ever. But what about the issues of truth and conflicting truth claims? Is it a betrayal of one's own faith to acknowledge the truth of other religions? The current work is the first English translation of "Gott ohne Grenzen", published in 2005. In this much acclaimed study, Perry Schmidt-Leukel defends religious pluralism showing under which presuppositions Christians can accept other religions as equally valid without denying their differences. He discusses in detail how the pluralist position opens up new perspectives in Christianity's dialogue with Jews, Muslim, Hindus and Buddhists. Schmidt-Leukel, Perry, Prof. Dr., ist Professor für Religionswissenschaft und interkulturelle Theologie an der Universität Münster. Er ist am Exzellenzcluster Religion und Politik der Universität Münster beteiligt. Er ist Mitglied im international advisory board des Forschungsprojektes 'Religion und Dialog in modernen Gesellschaften' an der Akademie der Weltreligionen der Universität Hamburg. Seine Schwerpunkte sind unter anderem Theologie der Religionen, interreligiöse Beziehungen, christlich-buddhistischer Dialog und Pluralismusfähigkeit der Religionen.

For better or worse, Rorty has shaped the trajectory of academic philosophy. A decade after his passing, his legacy is ever present, especially in context of the growth of the far right, the struggle over the meaning of justice and equity, and the ecological crises we face. Edited by Randall Auxier, Eli Kramer, and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, Rorty and Beyond brings together leading international philosophers from the United States and Europe to reevaluate Rorty’s legacy and explore what lies beyond his life and work. This collection covers a diverse territory, exploring Rorty’s legacy regarding theories of truth, accounts of nature and naturalism, the historical situation of professional philosophy, the private and public aspects of religion, the place of literature in cultural politics, and points beyond Rorty, such as what we may hope for after his critical attack on certainty and ultimacy. Scholars, specialists, and those new to Rorty will all find insight, useful criticism, and edification in this volume.

There is a myth—easily shattered—that Western societies since the Enlightenment have been dedicated to the ideal of protecting the differences between individuals and groups, and another—too readily accepted—that before the rise of secularism in the modern period, intolerance and persecution held sway throughout Europe. In Beyond the Persecuting Society John Christian Laursen, Cary J. Nederman, and nine other scholars dismantle this second generalization. If intolerance and religious persecution have been at the root of some of the greatest suffering in human history, it is nevertheless the case that toleration was practiced and theorized in medieval and early modern Europe on a scale few have realized: Christians and Jews, the English, French, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, Italians, and Spanish had their proponents of and experiments with tolerance well before John Locke penned his famous Letter Concerning Toleration. Moving from Abelard to Aphra Behn, from the apology for the gentiles of the fourteenth-century Talmudic scholar, Menahem ben Solomon Ha-MeIiri, to the rejection of intolerance in the "New Israel" of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Beyond the Persecuting Society offers a detailed and decisive correction to a vision of the past as any less complex in its embrace and abhorrence of diversity than the present.

This book aims to examine and critically analyse the role that religion has and should have in the public and legal sphere. The main purpose of the book is to explain why religion, on the whole, should not be tolerated in a tolerant-liberal democracy and to describe exactly how it should not be tolerated – mainly by addressing legal issues. The main arguments of the book are, first, that as a general rule illiberal intolerance should not be tolerated; secondly, that there are meaningful, unique links between religion and intolerance, and between holding religious beliefs and holding intolerant views (and ultimately acting upon these views); and thirdly, that the religiosity of a legal claim is normally a reason, although not necessarily a prevailing one, not to accept that claim.

In an age of intolerance where religious persecution is widespread, Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan explores how societies can promote freedom of religion or belief as a fundamental right of citizens.