The Religion Factor

Stories of transformation in development contexts tend to be separated into secular narratives of social transformation, and religious narratives of personal transformation.

Rethinking “security”, the role of the state, the secularist biases that exist in policy and practice around displacement and religion’s potential to address these problems are crucial issues to consider in terms of religion’s intersection with the global crisis of displacement.

Rethinking “security”, the role of the state, the secularist biases that exist in policy and practice around displacement and religion’s potential to address these problems are crucial issues to consider in terms of religion’s intersection with the global crisis of displacement.

In the third and final piece in our series on “Religion, Secularism and Multiple Modernities in Europe”, Professor of Secularization Studies, Herman Paul, argues that the religious/secular divide is unhelpful for thinking about the realities of human existence and should be done away with.

In the second instalment for our series reflecting on Religion, Secularism and Multiple Modernities in Europe, Christoph Jedan considers what our practices of grief and consolation, considered in historical context, can reveal about the nature of modernity. 

On 13 June 2014, esteemed sociologist of religion Professor Jose Casanova received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. During his visit, the Faculty hosted a roundtable discussion on conceptions of religion, secularism and modernity in contemporary European identity, raising questions over exactly what it means to be “modern”, “secular”, “religious” and “European”.

Climate change continues to be one of the most controversial global issues of our time, with debates ranging from the best ways to respond to the challenges of climate change, especially for those who are most vulnerable to its effects, to whether it is even happening at all and who is responsible.

On Sunday 29 June, the first day of Ramadan 2014, ISIS announced the restoration of the caliphate. From now on, its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is “the caliph for Muslims everywhere”, the message states, adding that the name of the organisation, The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, becomes simply The Islamic State.

Today is World Refugee Day and if the numbers released by the UNHCR today tell us anything, more action and new approaches are urgently needed to address the needs of the rapidly growing globally displaced population.

Religious Freedom is rapidly becoming a high priority issue in the EU and elsewhere. In today’s post, Frank Ubachs explores some of these developments, particularly in relation to the Netherlands...