Speciesism, identity politics and ecocriticism : a conversation with humanists and posthumanists

An electronic conversation between 7 scholars from the fields of animal studies and early modern studies aimed at confronting "speciesism," and constructing what Cary Wolfe calls a "posthumanist theory of the subject.

Secularisation: the emergence of a modern combat concept

This paper argues that today’s dominant understanding of secularisation — as an epochal transition from a society based on religious belief to one based on autonomous human reason — first appeared in philosophical histories at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was then anachronistically applied to early modern Europe. Apart from the earlier and persisting canon-law use of secularisation to refer to a species of exclaustration, prior to 1800 the dominant meaning of secularisation was its use in public law and diplomacy to name the civil conversion of ecclesiastical property and jurisdiction. Prior to the same point the most important use of the adjective secular was in political jurisprudence as a synonym for temporal, civil, and political, to name a religious-political settlement from which rival theologies had been excluded as the condition of its negotiation. But this usage was domain-specific, was quite compatible with religious devotion, and had nothing to do with the putatively secular character of the spheres of philosophy or the natural sciences, thence “society”. Far from seeing a shift from religious belief to autonomous rationality, early modernity in fact witnessed a significant intensification of religious belief and practice under the impact of rival confessional movements. It also emerges that the nineteenth century was characterised not by the supersession of confessional religions — or their conversion into rational religion or moral philosophy — but by their remarkable persistence and adaptation to new circumstances. In light of this, the paper argues that the variant philosophical-historical conceptions of secularisation — as the epochal supersession of religious belief by human rationality — should not be understood as theories of a putative process but as “combat concepts”. These were internal to an array of rival cultural-political factions that first emerged in early nineteenth-century Protestant Germany and that continue to do battle today

Praying for Peace: Family Experiences of Christian Conversion in Bhaktapur

In Nepal’s public discourse, Christianity is often described as a divisive force, perhaps a plot by foreign powers to undermine the cohesion of Nepali society. In this article, I present ethnographic material from Bhaktapur suggesting that, at least with respect to family life, the social effects of conversion may often differ from this stereotypical picture. In Bhaktapur, I argue, conversion is more frequently a consequence of pre-existing conflicts within families than a source of new ones. Furthermore, in some contexts, the social, ethical, and ritual practices of Bhaktapurian churches can bring reconciliation to troubled families. In other contexts, conversion can heighten intrafamilial tensions, in particular through the commitment it brings to exclusivist theology. I explore how converts negotiate the conversion process and the tensions that precipitate and result from it, describing how familial power dynamics influence such negotiations. To give the reader a fleshed-out sense of the lived experience of Christian and part-Christian families in Bhaktapur, I give thick descriptions of the conversions of one church minister and his family, and of a church house fellowship in which post-conversion family tensions are discussed. Connecting this ethnography with wider research on Bhaktapurian Christianity, I delineate the competing forces at work in converts’ family lives. In light of the rapid growth of Christianity in Nepal, and the heated and sometimes violent nature of political responses to this, ethnographic research is urgently needed to examine not just the causes but also the longterm effects of Christian conversion; this will help to clarify whether patterns found in Bhaktapur are replicated elsewhere in the country

Where to find Christian philosophy?: Spatiality in John Chrysostom’s counter to Greek Paideia

This article examines the use of the concept philosophia in the writings and homilies of John Chrysostom. Although Chrysostom in his discussion of intellectual achievements draws on a long-standing tradition of Christian apologetics, he lends a new direction to the debate by highlighting the spatiality of philosophy. He not only counters Hellenic paideia with Christian wisdom, but locates these two types of philosophy in the city and the countryside, respectively. The article argues that the spatial dimension is vital to Chrysostom’s view of philosophy as he aims to extend the rural ideal of asceticism to the polis to create a healthy Christian community within the city

"We Are Prisoners in Our Own Homes": Connecting the Environment, Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights to Sport for Development and Peace in Nicaragua

York University Librarie

Varied Impacts of Globalization on Religion in a Contemporary Society

This article discusses the current situation of religion caused by the forces of globalization by analyzing the developing phenomenon related to religion in contemporary society. It argues that globalization has a mixed impact on religion in ways that lead to the opposing view of secularist scholars that religion will be diminished. Apparently, religion has experienced a revival in many parts of the world, mainly in the form of religious fundamentalism. Problems and challenges posed by globalization, such as the environmental crisis and secular society have provided the opportunity and the power to religion to revitalize itself and to transform themselves into a religion with a new form that has a role and a new identity. Furthermore, globalization may lead to the decline of organized religion in modern society and certain intellectual subculture, but it does not cause the death of religion in private life. This is in line with the emergence of the phenomenon of “believing without belonging”. In short, globalization has helped to transform the religion itself and changed its strategy to address the problems and challenges of globalization to create “world desecularization”