Publications

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Publication: “Devolution fraying the edges of UK Church establishment”

Norman Bonney, ‘Established religion, parliamentary devolution and new state religion in the United Kingdom’, Published online in Parliamentary Affairs 2012.

http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/12/pa.gsr067.abstract

Parliamentary devolution in the UK since 1999 has had the effect of trimming the significance of Church establishment in the UK and introducing alternative expressions of official religosity and secularism in the proceedings of the devolved parliament and assemblies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The Church of England remains as the official state church of the United Kingdom performing religious services for the UK Parliament and state but the elected devolved institutions have devised alternative arrangements in relation to their own business with a secular Welsh National Assembly, silent contemplation in place of daily prayers in the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly and a multi-faith Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament.

The article examines the origins and reasoning of the new parliamentary bodies for abandoning the practice of Anglican prayers and adopting innovative contemporary solutions to the perennial tensions between the spheres of politics and religion.

http://pa.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/12/pa.gsr067.abstract

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Publication: Approaching Religion Vol 2/1‏ The New Visibility of Atheism in Europe

A new publication has been announced of interest to the NSRN. Contributors below include the NSRN director Stephen Bullivant and other contributors to our upcoming annual conference.

Approaching Religion

Vol. 2/ 1 (June, 2011)

Theme: The New Visibility of Atheism in Europe

Contributors:

Grace Davie, Phil Zuckerman, Teemu Taira, Thomas Zenk, Teuvo Laitila, Tiina Mahlamäki, Gavin Hyman, Mattias Martinson, Stuart McAnulla, Stephen Bullivant, Lise Kanckos, Mikko Sillfors.

AR is published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History in Åbo, Finland. Its purpose is to publish current research on religion and to offer a platform for scholarly co-operation and debate within the field. The journal appears twice a year and consists of articles and book reviews. It addresses an international readership and, as the title suggests, approaches the field of religion from a broad perspective, engaging contributors from different theoretical and methodological traditions.

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Podcast with Tariq Modood on the Crisis of European Secularism

The Religious Studies Project have published a half hour podcast with Professor Tariq Modood on the Crisis of European Secularism, recorded at this year’s SOCREL Conference in Chester:

http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2012/05/28/podcast-tariq-modood-on-the-crisis-of-european-secularism/

You can download this interview on iTunes.

Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy at the University of Bristol. He is founding Director of the University Research Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, and co-founding editor of the international journal, Ethnicities. As a regular contributor to the media and policy debates in Britain, he was awarded a MBE for services to social sciences and ethnic relations in 2001 and elected a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2004. He also served on the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, the IPPR Commission on National Security and on the National Equality Panel, which reported to the UK Deputy Prime Minister in 2010.

His recent publications include Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain (Edinburgh University Press, 2005), Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (Polity, 2007) and Still Not Easy Being British: Struggles for a Multicultural Citizenship (Trentham Books, 2010); and as co-editor, Secularism, Religion and Multicultural Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Is There a Crisis of Secularism in Western Europe?, which expands considerably upon the issues in this interview, is now available at http://www.bris.ac.uk/ethnicity/news/2012/36.html.

NSRN subscribers might also be interested in Linda Woodhead’s podcast on the Secularisation Thesis, and Bjoern Mastiaux’s essay on the same topic.

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Publication: An ethnography of the British Humanist Association, Dr Matthew Engelke

The ESRC has produced a report and press release on Humanist Funerals,  announcing the work of Dr Matthew Engelke, which explores early outcomes from his year researching with and within the British Humanist Association.

For more details about the research please contact

Dr Mathhew Engelke
Email: m.engelke@lse.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7995 6494 or 07800 835403
ESRC Press Office:

Danielle Moore-Chick
Email: danielle.moore-chick@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793 413122
Jeanine Woolley
Email: jeanine.woolley@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793 413119

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Publication: Is There a Crisis of Secularism in Western Europe?

Please see below for details of an electronic advance publication of Tariq Modood’s talk at the the annual conference at Chester SocRel.  On a personal note I can attest to how thought provoking and insightful I found this lecture, Modood invites comments and it would be interesting to hear people’s thoughts via the NSRN-Discuss.

2011 Paul Hanly Furfey Lecture

Is There a Crisis of Secularism in Western Europe?

Tariq Modood
Sociology of Religion 2012

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Publication: What is a good death? Ritual, whether religious or not, still counts

Perhaps of interest to the network, Dr Matthew Engelke writes for the Guardian on his work with the British Humanist Association Celebrants.

“As an anthropologist, one of the reasons I wanted to study the BHA is because of this commitment to the experiential and embodied side of being non-religious. As an increasing number of philosophers within the atheist and humanist ambit have stressed, much of the god debate over the past six or seven years has been dominated by a hyper-intellectualised version of what it means to do without Him. But godless dons have funerals – most of them do, at any rate. And so do other non-religious people.”

Read the full article on the guardian site

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Publication: First issue of the Journal of Religion in Japan (JRJ)

 

A new journal dedicated to Japanese religions, the Journal of Religion in Japan (JRJ) published from Brill.

Of particular interest to the network is the first issue, which focuses on Religion and the Secular in Japan and is now available. Brill is offering free online access to JRJ 1/1

Contents:

JOURNAL OF RELIGION IN JAPAN 1/1 (March 2012)

Publisher’s note
Editorial
Articles

  •  Ian Reader. Secularisation, R.I.P.? Nonsense! The ‘Rush Hour Away from the Gods’ and the Decline of Religion in Contemporary Japan.
  • John Nelson. Japanese Secularities and the Decline of Temple Buddhism.
  •  Mark Mullins. Secularization, Deprivatization, and the Reappearance of ‘Public Religion’ in Japanese Society.
  •  Elisabetta Porcu. Observations on the Blurring of the Religious and the Secular in a Japanese Urban Setting.

Book reviews

  • Paula Arai. Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women’s Rituals. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2011 (Helen J. Baroni).
  • Ugo Dessì (ed.). The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010 (Paul Watt).
  • Lori Meeks. Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010 (Matthew Mitchell).
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Book Launch: The Salvation of Atheists and Catholic Dogmatic Theology, 17 April

One of the directors of the NSRN, Stephen Bullivant will be launching his new book, The Salvation of Atheists and Catholic Dogmatic Theology on Tuesday 17th April 2012. Please find details below

5.30pm-7pm with a drinks reception and light refreshments
Senior Common Room, St Mary’s University College,
Waldegrave Road, Twickenham TW1 4SX

The Salvation of Atheists and Catholic Dogmatic Theology

Stephen Bullivant
(Oxford University Press, 2012)

Ethnicity and the Mixed Marriage Crisis

Katherine E. Southwood
(Oxford University Press, 2012)

Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory

Nur Masalha
(Zen Books, 2012)

A poster for the event can be found here

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Project of Religious Freedom discussion series launched on the Immanent Frame

The Luce Project of Religious Freedom is launching a discussion series on the Immanent Frame. The series, guest edited by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan in conjunction with a joint research project asks the question -“what is religious freedom, and why are we talking about it now?”

Scholars contributing to the series consider the multiple histories and genealogies of religious freedom—and the multiple contexts in which those histories and genealogies are salient today. The responses start with Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s contribution Believing in religious freedom and has continued with contributions from Saba Mahmood, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Peter Danchin, and Samuel Moyn.

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Oxford Journal of Law and Religion – first issue just published

 

The Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, new to Oxford Journals in 2012, has just published its first issue! Plenty in the first issue for the scholar of secularism and the secular including Religious freedom, state and church and human rights.

The OJLR will be freely available online in 2012, so visit the table of contents for the first issue:

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/4452/6

Make sure to create or update your My Account profile so you don’t miss Advance Access alerts for the OJLR’s articles as they publish online ahead of print here:

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/4452/7