23 research outputs found
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Global Perspectives on Religion, Media and Public Scholarship
Copyright © Tim Hutchings, et al, 2020. This article encourages researchers of religion, media and culture to develop new, global, comparative conversations about the meaning and purpose of public scholarship. Key terms like “religion”, “media”, “publicness” and “scholarship” can be understood and articulated differently in different social, cultural and geographical locations, and dialogue across our academic contexts is needed to help explore these parallels and divergences. This article shares three reflections from scholars who have lived and worked in west Africa, southern Europe and south-east Asia. Each contributor has been asked to address two questions: How do religious communities engage public audiences? And how can (or should) scholars communicate with the public? The conclusion to the article identifies some of the central themes of their responses: secularity, colonial legacies, globalization, power, vulnerability, and the intended audience of our public interventions
Christianity, Sexuality and Citizenship in Africa: Critical Intersections
Citizenship in sub-Saharan Africa has undergone profound changes in recent decades as part of wider social and political dynamics. One notable development is the emergence of Christianity, especially in its Pentecostal-Charismatic forms, as a public religion. Christian actors, beliefs and practices have increasingly come to manifest themselves in the public sphere, actively engage with politics, define narratives of nationhood, and shape notions of citizenship. A second major development is the emergence of sexuality as a critical site of citizenship and nationhood in postcolonial Africa. On the one hand, many political and religious leaders are invested in a popular ideology of the heterosexual family as the basis of nation-building, while on the other hand, LGBT communities are becoming more visible and claim recognition from the state. The contributions to this special issue engage these two contrasting developments, examining the interconnections between Christianity, sexuality and citizenship empirically and theoretically through case studies in various African contexts and from several academic disciplines and critical perspectives