This book brings together international scholars of Islamic philosophy, theology and politics to examine these current major questions: What is the place of pluralism in the Islamic founding texts? How have sacred and prophetic texts been interpreted throughout major Islamic intellectual history by the Sunnis and Shi‘a? How does contemporary Islamic thought treat religious and political diversity in modern nation states and in societies in transition? How is pluralism dealt with in modern major and minor Islamic contexts? How does modern political Islam deal with pluralism in the public sphere? And what are the major internal and external challenges to pluralism in Islamic contexts? These questions that have become of paramount relevance in religious studies especially during the last three-four decades are answered as critically highlighted in Islamic founding sources, the formative classical sources and how it has been lived and practiced in past and present Islamic majority societies and communities around the world. Case studies cover Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, and Thailand, besides various internal references to other contexts.

Our contemporary world is fast becoming religiously diverse in a variety of ways. Thanks to globalization and migration, to mention only two current worldwide trends, people of diverse and sometimes mutually hostile faiths are now sharing neighborhoods and encountering one another's religious traditions on a daily basis. For scholars in religious studies and theology the issue to be examined is whether religious diversity is merely the result of historical development and social interaction, or whether it is inherent in the object of belief--part of the very structure of faith and our attempts to understand and express it. The essays in this volume range from explorations of the impact of religious diversity on religious studies to examples of interfaith encounter and dialogue, and current debates on Christian theology of religion. These essays examine not only the theoretical issues posed by religious pluralism to the study of religion and Christian theology but also concrete cases in which religious pluralism has been a bone of contention. Together, they open up new vistas for further conversation on the nature and development of religious pluralism.

In this study of the relationship between a modern philosophical idea and an ancient historical moment, Lauren Apfel explores how the notion of pluralism, made famous by Isaiah Berlin, features in the Classical Greek world and, more specifically, in the thought of three of its most prominent figures: Protagoras, Herodotus, and Sophocles.

Where does the law and political power of any given territory come from? Until recently it was believed that it came from a single and hierarchical source of constitutional authority, a sovereign people and their constitution. However, how can this model account for the new Europe? Where state constitutions and the European Constitution, which are ultimately equally self-standing sources of constitutional authority, overlap heterarchically over a shared piece of territory. Constitutional pluralism is a new branch within constitutional thought that argues sovereignty is no longer the accurate and normatively superior constitutional foundation. It instead replaces this thought with its own foundation. It emerged on the basis of contributions by the leading EU constitutionalists and has now become the most dominant branch of European constitutional thought. Its claims have also overstepped the European context, suggesting that it offers historic advantages for further development of the idea of constitutionalism and world order as such. This book offers the first overarching examination of constitutional pluralism.Comprehensively mapping out the leading contributions to date and solving the complicated labyrinth they currently form, Klemen Jaklic offers a complete assessment against existing and new criticisms while elaborating his own original vision. Constitutional pluralism thus refined has the potential to rightfully be considered the superior new approach within constitutional thought.

The crisis of liberalism is in its claim to endorse neutral procedures that allow individuals and groups to pursue their own good, when the very possibility of such neutrality is affected by the growth of plural societies, and resulting divisions of loyalty. This collection explores this crisis.

Leading psychologist, lecturer, and author Windy Dryden has compiled his most valuable writings on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy from the last thirty five years. This collection reveals the thinking, concepts and practical experience that have made Dryden one of the most respected and cited REBT authorities of our time. Dryden has authored or edited over 195 books and established Europe’s first Masters in REBT. While his primary allegiance remains with REBT, he has published extensively on CBT and the wider issues of psychotherapy. Dryden’s pluralistic perspective on REBT comes through in such seminal pieces as: The therapeutic alliance in rational-emotive individual therapy Compromises in rational-emotive therapy Adapting CBT to a broad clientele Unconditional self-acceptance and self-compassion

In recent years, there have been a number of concerns about the recognition of religious laws and the existence of religious courts and tribunals. There has also been the growing literature on legal pluralism which seeks to understand how more than one legal system can and should exist within one social space. However, whilst a number of important theoretical works concerning legal pluralism in the context of cultural rights have been published, little has been published specifically on religion. Religion and Legal Pluralism explores the extent to which religious laws are already recognised by the state and the extent to which religious legal systems, such as Sharia law, should be accommodated.

The Turkish Republic was founded simultaneously on the ideal of universal citizenship and on acts of extraordinary exclusionary violence. Today, nearly a century later, the claims of minority communities and the politics of pluralism continue to ignite explosive debate. The Reckoning of Pluralism centers on the case of Turkey's Alevi community, a sizeable Muslim minority in a Sunni majority state. Alevis have seen their loyalty to the state questioned and experienced sectarian hostility, and yet their community is also championed by state ideologues as bearers of the nation's folkloric heritage. Kabir Tambar offers a critical appraisal of the tensions of democratic pluralism. Rather than portraying pluralism as a governing ideal that loosens restrictions on minorities, he focuses on the forms of social inequality that it perpetuates and on the political vulnerabilities to which minority communities are thereby exposed. Alevis today are often summoned by political officials to publicly display their religious traditions, but pluralist tolerance extends only so far as these performances will validate rather than disturb historical ideologies of national governance and identity. Focused on the inherent ambivalence of this form of political incorporation, Tambar ultimately explores the intimate coupling of modern political belonging and violence, of political inclusion and domination, contained within the practices of pluralism.

Contents: Arend Soeteman: Introduction - Edmund Abegg: Justice and the Intrinsic Value of Humans - Caridad Velarde: Universalism in Contemporary Human Rights Theory - Marijan Pavcnik: Gleichheit als rechtlicher Kern der Gerechtigkeit, Gerechtigkeitsma�st�be und Recht - Jos� Rubio-Carracedo: Differentiated Universalization of Human Rights - Ashok Gaur: Human Rights: Dimensions and Challenges - Martin Borowski: Religious Freedom as a Fundamental Legal Right, A Rawlsian Perspective - J�rg Paul Mueller: Is freedom of conscience still a topic? - Burton M. Leiser: The Right to Immigrate and the Right to Exclude Immigrants - J.W. Harris: Rights and Resources - Libertarians and the Right to Life - Hans-Rudolf Horn: The Scope of Human and Social Rights in the Global Economic System - Isabel Trujillo P�rez: Partiality and Distributive Justice - Haig Khatchadourian: Merit as a Canon of Distributive Justice - Francesco Biondo: Conception of the person and currency of distributive justice in Van Parijs and Sen - Carlos Kohn Wacher: Hannah Arendt's Concept of Solidarity as a Criticism to Liberalism - Mikko Wennberg: Contract Law as a Response to Contract Failures: When Contracting Fails? - Hendrik Kaptein: Just Criminal Lawyers? Professional ethics and problems of punitive justice: restorative perspectives - Joan McGregor: The Law's Treatment of Rape as Expressing the Inequality of Women - David A. Reidy: The Justification of Hate Crimes Laws: The Argument from Group-Based Oppression - Alexandra George: The Problem of Property in Human Body Parts - Laura Palazzani: Person and Human Being in Bioethics and Biolaw - Jan Swanepoel: The Equality Jurisprudence Developed by South Africa's Constitutional Court since 1994 - Nikolas Roos: Fundamental Rights, European Identity and Law as a Way to Survive.

Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian nationalist and statesman.