Religion and Spirituality in Society Newsletter, September 2011

2012 Religion Conference to be Held in Vancouver  Find Out More >

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Headline News

Call for Journal Editor The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe will become one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve. The roles of the editor are to: write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion. collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate. actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’. assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers). promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks. maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter). The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term. Qualifications The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes: They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal. They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals. Applicants are asked to send: a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal a curriculum vitae a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation. Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@religioninsociety.com. The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011. Faith, Belief, and Scripture: Anglicanism and Homosexuality Faith, Belief, and Scripture: Anglicanism and Homosexuality by Rob James is now available as part of the Religion in Society series. The Anglican Communion has been tearing itself apart over the issue of homosexuality since the Lambeth Conference in 1998 and rumblings of discontent stretch back years before that. Most Anglican debate on homosexuality focuses the argument on the Bible. Does the Bible allow homosexuality or not? This book begins by taking one step back from the argument. It looks at what it means to approach a text as scripture, from the standpoint of faith. It then examines why the Bible is used to claim such radically different positions and why those who argue for either position can legitimately claim to find their argument supported by reading the Bible. Anglicans (and others) who disagree about what their scriptures claim need to understand why there is a disagreement. It is only by stepping back from the argument and trying to understand why it exists hat any sort of resolution can ever be found. Rob James began his studies of religion at the University of Kent at Canterbury, gaining a first class degree in 2001. He then studied Eastern Christianity at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and then at Cambridge. He then returned to SOAS to write his PhD on modern African Christianity. Rob teaches undergraduates as a visiting lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport and is a member of the part-time tutor panel of Oxford University.

Community News

Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism? From Guy Sorman, City Journal The moment you arrive at the airport in Cairo, you discover how little Egypt—the heart of Arab civilization—is governed by the rule of law. You line up to show your passport to the customs officer; you wait and wait and wait. Eventually, you reach the officer . . . who sends you to the opposite end of the airport to buy an entry visa. The visa costs 15 U.S. dollars; if you hand the clerk $20, though, don’t expect any change, let alone a receipt. Then you make the long hike back to the customs line, where you notice that some Egyptians—important ones, apparently—have helpers who hustle them through. Others cut to the front. It’s an annoying and disturbing welcome to a chaotic land, one that has grown only more chaotic since the January revolution. It’s also instructive, effectively demonstrating why it’s hard to do business in this country or in other Arab Muslim lands, where personal status so often trumps fair, universally applied rules. Such personalization of the law is incompatible with a truly free-market or modern society and helps explain why the Arab world’s per-capita income is one-tenth America’s or Europe’s. The airport experience, had he been able to undergo it, would have been drearily familiar to Rifaa al-Tahtawi, a brilliant young imam sent to France in 1829 by the pasha of Egypt. His mission: figure out how Napoleon’s military had so easily crushed Egypt three decades earlier, a defeat that revealed to a shocked Arab world that it was now an economic, military, and scientific laggard. At the outset of the book that he wrote about his journey, The Gold of Paris, Rifaa describes a Marseille café: “How astonished I was that in Marseille, a waiter came to me and asked for my order without my looking for him.” Then the coffee arrives without delay. Finally—most amazing of all—Rifaa gets the bill for it, and the price is the same as the one listed on the menu: “No haggling,” he enthuses. Rifaa concludes: “I look for the day when the Cairo cafés will follow the same predictable rules as the Marseille cafés.” But nearly two centuries later, the only Egyptian cafés that live up to Rifaa’s hopes are the imported Starbucks. To Read More… Is That All There Is? From James Wood at The New Yorker… I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?” In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts. We are locked into our rival certainties—religiosity on one side, secularism on the other—and to confess to weakness on this order is like a registered Democrat wondering if she is really a Republican, or vice versa. These are theological questions without theological answers, and, if the atheist is not supposed to entertain them, then, for slightly different reasons, neither is the religious believer. Religion assumes that they are not valid questions because it has already answered them; atheism assumes that they are not valid questions because it cannot answer them. But as one gets older, and parents and peers begin to die, and the obituaries in the newspaper are no longer missives from a faraway place but local letters, and one’s own projects seem ever more pointless and ephemeral, such moments of terror and incomprehension seem more frequent and more piercing, and, I find, as likely to arise in the middle of the day as the night. I think of these anxieties as the Virginia Woolf Question, after a passage in that most metaphysical of novels “To the Lighthouse,” when the painter Lily Briscoe is at her easel, mourning her late friend Mrs. Ramsay. To Read More…

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Conference News

2012 Religion Conference to be Held in Vancouver Location and Date The 2012 Religion Conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada at UBC’s Satellite in downtown Vancouver: Robson Square from 20-22 February. For more information, please visit www.Religion-Conference.com Plenary Speakers We are currently working on our plenary speaker line-up. Please visit our website for updates and further information. Call for Papers If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options, please click here. To submit a proposal click here and follow the online instructions. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference. Registration Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. For registration options, or to register for the 2012 Religion Conference, click here. Themes The themes for the International Religion and Spirituality in Society Conference are loosely grouped into four categories: Religious Foundations Religious Community and Socialization Religious Commonalities and Differences The Politics of Religion More details on these themes can be seen online here. Please do note that these themes are meant to be rather broad so as to encompass a larger group of interests. Scope and Concerns The Religion Conference scope and concerns is outlined here. Contact Please feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have. We can be reached by email at support@religioninsociety.com or by phone at +1 (217) 328-0405.

Publishing News

Religion and Spirituality in Society Journal, Volume 1, Number 2 The second issue of Volume 1 of The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society is now available. Volume 1, Number 2 includes: Recognizing God’s Active Presence in a Secular Age: Recovering a Theology of Common Grace for Christian Spirituality by David Brisben. Gifts of the Spirit: Women from New Covenant Pentecostal Church by Mary Grace Puckett. Affirming Rationality of Religious Traditions, Approximating the Ultimate Reality and Advancing Goodwill: A Proposal for Religious Dialogue by Kenneth Pak. From Abstraction to Action: Safeguarding Oral Traditions Using Digital Libraries by Karim Tharani. Awakening Community: The Need to Reinvent the Social Dimension of Religion by S. Francesca L. Po. From Washington to Jefferson – A Changing Vision, A Changing First Amendment: Charting the Ideological Connection of First Amendment Adjudication to Our Founding Fathers’ Views on Religion by Paul Baumgardner. ACTing & PREACHing: An Historical Symbiosis by Kurt Edwards. Holds and Folds of Veda Dharma for the Social Discipline by Prabhakar Calyam. Spirituality and Religion in the Lives of New Zealanders by Franco Vaccarino, Heather Kavan and Philip Gendall. Tantric Buddhists in Buenos Aires: A Case Study of Secular Religiosity among Young People by Gaston Becerra. (more…) Religion and Spirituality in Society Journal Submissions Open We are accepting submissions for The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society. The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society aims to create an intellectual frame of reference for the academic study of religion and spirituality, and to create an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of religion and spirituality in society. It is intended as a place for critical engagement, examination, and experimentation of ideas that connect religious philosophies to their contexts throughout history in the world, places of worship, on the streets, and in communities. The journal addresses the need for critical discussion on religious issues – specifically as they are situated in the present-day contexts of ethics, warfare, politics, anthropology, sociology, education, leadership, artistic engagement, and the dissonance or resonance between religious tradition and modern trends. Papers published in the journal range from the expansive and philosophical to finely grained analysis based on deep familiarity and understanding of a particular area of religious knowledge. They bring into dialogue philosophers, theologians, policymakers, and educators, to name a few of the stakeholders in this conversation. Refereeing of submitted papers will commence shortly so start the submission process early by submitting your proposal. Paper submission guidelines and timelines are available online. The Promotion of Devotion The Promotion of Devotion: Saints, Celebrities and Shrines by Donn James Tilson is now available as part of the Religion in Society series. What do St. Francis, Oskar Schindler, Princess Diana and Smokey Bear have in common? Religion, communication and devotion form an inseparable trinity of being, interwoven strands of a tapestry that has enveloped all faiths through the ages. Written in a lively yet informative style, The Promotion of Devotion is the first comprehensive analysis of the convergence of religion and promotional communication from historical origins to modern times. Donn James Tilson, an associate professor of public relations at the University of Miami’s School of Communication, has published and lectured internationally on public relations and religion and is considered the leading scholar in the field. A member of the Public Relations Society of America’s College of Fellows and Religion Communicators Council, he served as a public relations manager for BellSouth prior to joining UM, directing the company’s philanthropy program in Florida.

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