1st Edition

Cosmopolitanism, Religion and the Public Sphere

Edited By Maria Rovisco, Sebastian Kim Copyright 2014
    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    Although emerging scholarship in the social sciences suggests that religion can be a potential catalyst of cosmopolitanism and global citizenship, few attempts have been made to bring to the fore new theoretical positions and empirical analyses of how cosmopolitanism -- as a philosophical notion, a practice and identity outlook -- can also shape and inform concrete religious affiliations. Key questions concerning the significance of cosmopolitan ideas and practices – in relation to particular religious experiences and discourses -- remain to be explored, both theoretically and empirically.





    This book takes as its starting point the emergence of cosmopolitanism -- as a major interdisciplinary field -- as a springboard for generating a productive dialogue among scholars working within a variety of intellectual disciplines and methodological traditions. The chapter contributions offer a serious attempt to critically engage both the limitations and possibilities of cosmopolitanism as an analytical and critical tool to understand a changing religious landscape in a globalizing world, namely, the so-called ‘new religious diversity’, religious conflict, and issues of migration, multiculturalism and transnationalism vis-à-vis the public exercise of religion. The contributors’ work is situated in a range of world sites in Africa, India, North America, Latin America, and Europe.





    This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of globalization, religion and politics, and the sociology of religion.



     

    Introduction  PART I: CONTEXTS  1. The Sources and Sites of Religious Global Citizenship Peggy Levitt  2. Muslim Activists in India: Cosmopolitanism as instituted practice Rowena Robinson  3. Controversy over the Minaret in Switzerland: Religious Symbols in the Public Sphere Sebastian Kim  4. Finding a Path to a Common Future: Religion and Cosmopolitanism in the Context of Bosnia-Herzegovina Pauline Kollontai  5. Screening Cosmopolitanism: bearing witness to Cosmopolitanism's failure and repair in Rwanda Jolyon Mitchell  6.  Cosmopolitan challenges and missionary encounters: Young Portuguese Volunteers in Africa Maria Rovisco  SECTION II: DEBATES  7. Towards Engaged Cosmopolitanism: Cultural Translation and Religious Pluralism T ulasi Srinivas  8. Agonistic cosmopolitanism between entrepreneurship and solidarity: the case of Latin American Pentecostalism and ecumenical alterglobalism Joanildo Burity  9. Religion and Deep Multiculturalism: Towards a Cosmopolitical Ethics of Engagement Catarina Kinnval  10.  Christian and cosmopolitan ethics: friends or foes? Etienne de Villiers  11. Indigenous Religions, Cosmopolitan Norms: Ubuntu, South Africa, and the Limits of Human Rights Justin Neuman  12.  Moving Beyond The Rhetoric – Exploring Practical Examples of the Interactions of Cosmopolitanism and Religion in the Public Sphere Amjad Saleem

    Biography

    Maria Rovisco is a Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at York St John University.She has published articles on the tradition of European films of voyage, cosmopolitanism and religion, and on the cultural borders of Europe and globalization.



    Sebastian Kim holds the Chair in Theology and Public Life in the Faculty of Education and Theology at York St John University. His research interests include: public theology; world Christianity; theology of mission; community and identity; contextual theologies; religion and post-modern society.