Conversion in the Age of Pluralism

Conversion in the Age of Pluralism
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2009-09-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047444949

The theme of conversion constitutes a privileged point to study the framework linking an individual to the sociocultural contexts in which he or she is included. Changes in personal biographies and sociocultural change are interwoven when we speak of conversion: values, speech, norms, behaviors, beliefs, lifestyles, interests--everything is open to potential debate when an individual "converts." Conversion is especially developed here through a connection with the dynamics of pluralism, which appears to be the most peculiar cultural characteristic of our era: what does it mean to speak of "conversion" in a time in which it seems that the presumption of only one "true" truth no longer exists, while instead many different truths live together, each with its own judgment criteria.

Pluralism in the Middle Ages

Pluralism in the Middle Ages
Author: Ragnhild Johnsrud Zorgati
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2012-03-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136622101

The challenges of cultural and religious diversity that face European and American societies today are not a new phenomenon. People in the Middle Ages lived in pluralistic societies, and they found highly interesting ways of dealing with religious and cultural diversity. While religious and political authorities commanded people to stick to their kind, some people explored the borderland between religious identities. In medieval Iberia, Christians and Muslims challenged the legal authorities’ prohibitions against crossing religious and cultural boundaries when they engaged in mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians or converted from one religion to the other. By examining the topics of conversion and mixed marriages in legal texts of Muslim and Christian origin, Pluralism in the Middle Ages explores the construction of boundaries as well as the reasons explaining such constructions. It demonstrates that the religious and social boundaries were not static, nor were they similarly defined by Islamic and Christian medieval cultures. Moreover, the book argues that Muslims and Christians in medieval Iberia did not constitute clearly separated groups, since various categories of people haunted the boundaries between them: false converts employing taqiya strategy (taking on an outward Christian identity while practicing Islam in secret), those engaged in mixed marriages or interreligious sexual relations (and their children), and converts, whose conversion may be perceived as sincere or insincere, total or partial.

Evangelism after Pluralism

Evangelism after Pluralism
Author: Bryan Stone
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2018-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493414569

What does it mean to evangelize ethically in a multicultural climate? Following his successful Evangelism after Christendom, Bryan Stone addresses reasons evangelism often fails and explains how it can become distorted as a Christian practice. Stone urges us to consider a new approach, arguing for evangelism as a work of imagination and a witness to beauty rather than a crass effort to compete for converts in pluralistic contexts. He shows that the way we lead our lives as Christians is the most meaningful tool of evangelism in today's rapidly changing world.

Liberty for All

Liberty for All
Author: Andrew T. Walker
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493431153

Christians are often thought of as defending only their own religious interests in the public square. They are viewed as worrying exclusively about the erosion of their freedom to assemble and to follow their convictions, while not seeming as concerned about publicly defending the rights of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and atheists to do the same. Andrew T. Walker, an emerging Southern Baptist public theologian, argues for a robust Christian ethic of religious liberty that helps the church defend religious freedom for everyone in a pluralistic society. Whether explicitly religious or not, says Walker, every person is striving to make sense of his or her life. The Christian foundations of religious freedom provide a framework for how Christians can navigate deep religious difference in a secular age. As we practice religious liberty for our neighbors, we can find civility and commonality amid disagreement, further the church's engagement in the public square, and become the strongest defenders of religious liberty for all. Foreword by noted Princeton scholar Robert P. George.

Christianity and Pluralism

Christianity and Pluralism
Author: Ron Dart
Publisher: Lexham Press
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2019-07-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1683592883

Are the world's great religions ultimately all the same? Christianity and Pluralism is a collection of concise yet thoughtful essays by J. I. Packer and Ron Dart, interacting with and responding to the four traditional models used to answer the existence of multiple faiths (exclusive, inclusive, pluralist, and syncretist), but focusing particularly that form of syncretism which claims that all faiths find commonality through their mystical traditions. Written in response to key events in the history of the Anglican church, Packer and Dart's analysis gives us a perennially relevant model for how the church ought to respond to our own pluralistic culture with integrity and kindnessâ€"and how to uphold the distinctiveness of the gospel. Christians directly or indirectly engaging our pluralist world will find their ideas enriched by this short yet powerful book.

The Culture Of Religious Pluralism

The Culture Of Religious Pluralism
Author: Richard Wentz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2018-10-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 042997633X

Providing a historical context, this book examines the challenges that pluralism presents to denominationalism and civil religion and considers the contributions secularism and the New Age movement have made to the culture of religious pluralism.

Pluralism Comes of Age

Pluralism Comes of Age
Author: Charles H. Lippy
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2000-07-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780765638588

This concise work by distinguished professor Charles Lippy surveys the varied course of religious life in America in the twentieth century. Beginning with the close of the Victorian Age, the narrative moves through the shifting power of Protestantism and American Catholicism and into the intense period of immigration and pluralism that has characterized our nation's religious experience. Later chapters cover the Jewish experience, African American religion, Native American traditions, the ecstatic personal expressions of conversion that mark the evangelical movement, the politics of religion, the proliferation of sects and cults, and the many strands of religious thought in this century. The book includes an extensive, detailed bibliography.

A Public Faith

A Public Faith
Author: Miroslav Volf
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2011-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441232079

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good. Now in paperback. Praise for the cloth edition Named one of the "Top 100 Books" and one of the "Top 10 Religion Books" of 2011 by Publishers Weekly "Accessible, wise guidance for people of all faiths."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Highly original. . . . The book deserves a wide audience and is one that will affect its readers well after they have turned the final page."--Christianity Today (5-star review)

Religious Diversity and Interreligious Dialogue

Religious Diversity and Interreligious Dialogue
Author: Anna Körs
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030318567

This edited volume offers solutions on the challenges of religious pluralisation from a European perspective. It gives special attention to interreligious dialogue and interfaith relations as specific means of dealing with plurality. In particular, the contributors describe innovative scientific approaches and broad political and social scopes of action for addressing the diversity of beliefs, practices, and traditions. In total, more than 25 essays bring together interdisciplinary and international research perspectives. The papers cover a wide thematic range. They highlight how religious pluralisation effects such fields as theology, politics, civil society, education, and communication/media. The contributors not only illustrate academic debates about religious diversity but they also look at the political and social scope for dealing with such. Coverage spans numerous countries, and beliefs, from Buddhism to Judaism. This book features presentations from the Herrenhausen Conference on "Religious Pluralisation - A Challenge for Modern Societies," held in Hanover, Germany, October 2016. This insightful collection will benefit students and researchers with an interest in religion and laicism, interreligious dialogue, governance of religious diversity, and religion in the public sphere.