Morale, religion et société dans l’œuvre durkheimienne

For Durkheim, "society" primarily refers to a symbolic reality, "morality" being an integral part of its essence. Apart from respect for authority, indispensable to any definition of morality, the newsecular definition of morality contains three basic components: discipline, attachment to a group and autonomy. From this point of view, "nation" has moral primacy. But two problems arise here: a) how to express a symbolic reality in rational terms, and b) how to instill warmth into these rational ideas. Durkheim comes close to providing solutions to these problems when he declares that it is the intensity of social relations which produces social ideals, that this new morality can best be instilled through the schools and that it is among workingclass people that it can most clearly be seen springing.Durkheim was fascinated by the intensity of communal living among "primitive" peoples. This intensity alone is able to resource a society. Religious ritual is the scene where this collective effervescence takes place. Durkheim is not far from saying that religious symbolism has a creative function all its own.Sociology to Durkheim plays the role of guide for the process of social thought. His work embraces a great vision of society

Illusions of Innocence: Protestant Primitivism in America, 1630-1875

History helps us understand who we are and what we should become. This book demonstrates that primitivism is central to American religion. Primitivism is the dream of restoring religion to a purer order, as found in former times.https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/acu_library_books/1016/thumbnail.jp

‘Dominant ethnicity’ and the ‘ethnic-civic’ dichotomy in the work of A. D. Smith

This article considers the way in which the work of Anthony Smith has helped to structure debates surrounding the role of ethnicity in present-day nations. Two major lines of enquiry are evident here. First, the contemporary role of dominant ethnic groups within 'their' nations and second, the interplay between ethnic and civic elements in nationalist argument. The two processes are related, but maintain elements of distinctiveness. Smith's major contribution to the dominant ethnicity debate has been to disembed ethnicity from the ideologically-charged and/or anglo-centric discourse of ethnic relations and to place it in historical context, thereby opening up space for dominant group ethnicity to be considered as a distinct phenomenon. This said, Smith's work does not adequately account for the vicissitudes of dominant ethnicity in the contemporary West. Building on the classical works of Hans Kohn and Friedrich Meinecke, Anthony Smith has also made a seminal contribution to the debate on civic and ethnic forms of national identity and nationalist ideology. As well as freeing this debate from the strong normative overtones which it has often carried, he has continued to insist that the terms civic and ethnic should be treated as an ideal-typical distinction rather than a scheme of classification

The dominant ethnic moment: towards the abolition of 'whiteness'?

International audienc

The Golden Rule:Interfaith Peacemaking and the Charter for Compassion

The Charter for Compassion has been signed by over two million people from around the world and partnered with hundreds of interfaith organizations and cities seeking to put into practice the Golden Rule, common to the main faith traditions, of doing unto others as you would be done by. This article sets the Charter within the context of a post secular international society and faith-based diplomacy, in which religious interreligious initiatives emerge as serious, rather than peripheral, actors in developing sustainable peace making through bottom-up approaches. The article critically engages with the Charter's claim that ‘any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate’ while accepting that peaceful interpretations of scriptures are helpful to peace processes where religious actors are involved. The article explores the claims of the Charter for Compassion International as they seek to make peace through compassion, before concluding that the Charter for Compassion is a long-term project aimed at changing hearts and minds but has had limited substantive impact to date

History, Commemoration, and Belief: Abraham Lincoln in American Memory, 1945-2001

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91765/1/Schuman-History_Commemoration_Belief.pd

Varities of Civil Religion

Cambridgexv, 208 p.; 21 c

La religione civile in Italia e in America

Libro nella serie "Classici della sociologia" che raccoglie due saggi di Bellah sulla religione civile in America e in Italia in nuova traduzion