Linell E. Cady

Religion and conflict in South and Southeast Asia: Disrupting violence

Preface Part One: 1.Introduction: Disrupting Violence: Religion and Conflict in South and Southeast Asia Linell E. Cady and Sheldon W. Simon 2. From Bhindranwale to bin Laden: A Search for Understanding Religious Violence Mark Juergensmeyer Part Two: 3. The Sword Against the Crescent: Religion and Violence in Muslim Southeast Asia Robert W. Hefner 4. Buddhism, Violence, and the State in Burma (Myanmar) and Sri Lanka Juliane Schober 5. The Roots of Religious Violence in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh Sumit Ganguly 6. Religious Conflict and the Globalization of Knowledge in Indonesian History Mark Woodward 7. Religious Violence Beyond Borders: Reframing South Asian Cases Alyssa Ayres 8. The (Psychic) Roots of Religious Violence in South and Southeast Asia Kumar Ramakrishna 9. Debating Strategies for Disrupting Violence: Lessons from South Asia Maya Chadda 10. Violence and the Long Road to Reconciliation in Southern Thailand Joseph Chinyong Liow 11. Levinas and the Question of Civilizational Amity after September 11 See Seng Tan Notes on Contributors About The National Bureau of Asian Research About The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict Index

Comparative secularisms and the politics of modernity: An introduction

In mid-nineteenth century England, George Holyoake coined the term “secularism” to name an orientation to life designed to attract both theists and atheists under its banner. Impatient with positions defined in opposition to traditional Christian belief, such as atheist, infidel, or dissenter, Holyoake dreamed of a new formation, rallying around the “work of human improvement,” that would not be splintered by these older divisions.1 He needed a positive philosophy, one that was not parasitic on what was being rejected. His 1854 Principles of Secularism aspired to give voice to such an alternate vision. Its signature features were its appeal to reason, nature, and experience and its passionate commitment to the amelioration of human life. Although it clearly differed from forms of traditional Christianity that invoked clerical or scriptural authorities or focused on supernatural means and otherworldly ends, secularism, as Holyoake fashioned it, was not the antithesis of religion or one side of a religion-secularism binary. It was a canopy large enough to house some forms of religion as it excluded others. Its capaciousness was one of its defining virtues.

Hermeneutics and Tradition: the Role of the Past in Jurisprudence and Theology

The current disarray within the field of theology is readily apparent to anyone having even a cursory acquaintance with the issues and problems that have generated the most intense discussions during the past decade. Although substantive issues continue to elicit divergent perspectives, problems of method have increasingly come to the fore in theological discussion. The historical roots of this methodological crisis in theology have been long in the making. Whether one calls it the “eclipse of biblical narrative” with Hans Frei, the collapse of the “house of authority” as Edward Farley does, or the emergence of “theology as imaginative construction” as Gordon Kaufman does, theology is experiencing a radical revolution in the criteria and warrants which characterize persuasive argumentation. Put briefly, there is a growing sentiment that theology can no longer invoke authorities to buttress its claims but must make its case in a public forum without privileged warrants. Appeals to Scripture, tradition, or institutional decrees lack the sanction once accorded them.

Public theology and the postsecular turn

This article considers the emergence, development and future of public theology in relation to its broader intellectual and social contexts, focusing primarily on the United States. Although some of the conditions that gave rise to the genre of public theology endure, developments and trends associated with a postsecular turn have created a strikingly different context, with new challenges and opportunities. In the article, it is argued that a primary task of public theology today consists in the critical engagement and reconfiguration of the reigning bipolar religion-secular model that fosters competing and mutually deficient religious and secular formations, and obscures forms of religiosity operating outside its conventional boundaries.

Reading Secularism through a Theological Lens

How might we view secularism differently if we read it through the eyes of its religious “other?” This chapter is a venture in answering this question. Although secularism is more aptly viewed as secularisms, distinctive formations that refract the history and politics of particular places, this collection tracks similar patterns across the country cases that reflect the global diffusion of the religion/secular classification and similar challenges stemming from its oppositional construction. As there is no single religious lens, of course, no reading can stand in for them all, though any one might generate insights that travel. In this chapter I read secularism through the lens of the Western theological tradition, with attention to its embodiment within the American context.