This thesis takes its starting-point in the post-secular changes in society and how these interplay with tourism. In spite of the intensive academic debate on and theorisation of the post-secular and post-secularism, the role of tourism in this change, called the return of religion, has not been studied. Conversely, neither has the role of post-secularism in tourism been addressed. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the relation between post-secularism and tourism. Specifically, the aim is to clarify and understand the relation between religious faith, place and tourism in our time on the basis of a case study of pilgrimage in the area of Santiago de Compostela. In other words, the thesis highlights the role of tourism in the emergence of what is now called the post-secular condition. Santiago de Compostela is a Catholic Church instituted holy city, which has increase in number of visitors. The growing number of pilgrimages and their significance lend vitality to the return of religion phenomenon. The empirical material derives primarily from individual interviews as narratives are considered to be a vital dimension to constitute and construct human realities and modes of being. This thesis shows that contemporary pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a post-secular performative and place-creating phenomenon. Post-secular tourist places are subjective and spiritually meaningful destinations. Unlike traditional pilgrimage destinations a key attribute is that neither traditional religious faith nor loyalty to institutionalised faith are (pre)ordained. Rather, place is constructed by the narratives and experiences of post-secular tourists. / This thesis takes its starting-point in the post-secular changes in society and how these interplay with tourism. In spite of the intensive academic debate on and theorisation of the post-secular and post-secularism, the role of tourism in this change, called the return of religion, has not been studied. Conversely, neither has the role of post-secularism in tourism been addressed. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the relation between post-secularism and tourism. Specifically, the aim is to clarify and understand the relation between religious faith, place and tourism in our time on the basis of a case study of pilgrimage in the area of Santiago de Compostela. In other words, the thesis highlights the role of tourism in the emergence of what is now called the post-secular condition. This thesis shows that contemporary pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a post-secular performative and place-creating phenomenon. Post-secular tourist places are subjective and spiritually meaningful destinations. Unlike traditional pilgrimage destinations a key attribute is that neither traditional religious faith nor loyalty to institutionalised faith are (pre)ordained. Rather, place is constructed by the narratives and experiences of post-secular tourists.

My thesis problematizes the simplistically and widely accepted idea of a Victorian ‘crisis of faith’ or religious ‘decline.’ Most historical and critical narratives of nineteenth-century Britain portray the Victorian Age as a period marked by a crisis of faith and a gradual secularization through (Darwinian) scientific developments. My work questions this by examining the late-Victorian novels of colonial India and the British New Woman novels. My first chapter deals with Victorian popular fiction that presents the invasion of Victorian London by colonial idols. The idols, overdetermined as both Hindu and Theosophist in inspiration, force the British legal system to recognize the limits of its own materialist perceptions of reality, so that it finally arrives at a deeper understanding of spirituality. My second chapter deals with Victorian New Woman novels where I study how the British New Woman as a literary figure, despite apparent unbelief and disempowerment, embodies a deep-seated religious power that can be assumed only by a woman and that helps challenge the assumption of declining faith. My final chapter examines the shift of scene to India, where once again the English men and women inadvertently express their fears of British secularization in the context of their encounter with Oriental faiths, but ultimately arrive at a richer appreciation of the religious ‘impossible’ through this encounter with colonial ‘otherness.’

The search for new identity factors and shared values in the post-Soviet region has given rise to a process of reevaluation of the role of religion in society. Not least the Central Asian countries are struggling with these issues in their nation building processes. They share important parts of their history with other Muslim dominated nations, but the Soviet heritage sets them apart. The focus of this study lies on the way religion as a general concept and Islam in particular are treated in four textbooks used in Kazakhstan’s school education. The contents of the textbooks are analyzed within a historical and societal context as well as a framework of contemporary secularity theory. The results elucidate a contrast between the discourse on religion found in the textbooks and the official legal status of religion in Kazakhstan today, which is taken as an indication of an ongoing reevaluation of religion leading away from the staunch Soviet secularity and possibly towards a situation where religion is seen as a natural part of societal developments. At the same time, however, the normative effect of official discourse is a double-edged sword, which, while shaping ideas of what religion is and ought to be, may also undermine the credibility and authority of a religion too closely associated with political authority.

Peacebuilding NGOs are increasingly aware that religion is a steadfast and sometimes growing influence in the contexts in which they work. Despite this, many fail to meaningfully integrate religious perspectives into their initiatives. This thesis examines and consolidates criticisms of NGO responses to religion in peacebuilding programmes, identifies factors inhibiting responses from advancing, and explores NGO staff attitudes regarding religion, including perspectives on whether a conducive environment exists for developing alternative responses. It then formulates recommendations for advancing practice and suggests future research directions.  The research approach consists of an examination of literature regarding NGO responses to religion, accompanied by a survey using semi-structured interviews of nine people who have worked on NGO peacebuilding programmes across the world. The main conclusions drawn from this study are that whilst NGOs consider religious actors as potential allies, they rarely utilise the role of religion in society as an analytical lens. This impinges their ability to understand contexts holistically. The contemporary funding environment is also found to discourage alternative approaches from emerging. This thesis recommends that further research is conducted in order to produce examples of improved NGO responses to religion. This will provide practical evidence of how to enhance practice.

This study addresses issues concerning religion in the public sphere, brought about by the debates over the perceived resurgence of religion and the post-secular. The aim is to analyze the participation of religious actors in the public, using three newspaper debate pages as the empirical material. Building on theories by Casanova, especially his concept of public religions, as well as mediatization theory and Habermas' writings on religion in the public sphere, 639 opinion pieces signed by religious actors were analyzed. The mixed-methods content analysis was conducted in two steps: first a quantitative overview of the religious actors published, to what extent and on what issues. The second step consisted of three qualitative case studies based on the results of the first step: an argument analysis of the debate over same-sex marriage; an exploration of the specific position of the Church of Sweden and the idea of the national church as a public utility; and finally a discourse analysis of articles by Jewish and Muslim authors. These were analyzed on the basis of criteria for public religions developed from Casanova’s theory and from the media logic of debate articles. While the results show no clear increase in the number of religious actors during the period under scrutiny, one notices a clear presence of Muslim and Jewish actors, eventhough Christians of varying denominations dominate the material. There are also clear differences between the different religions: minority religion contributions are limited in terms of issues and scope, while Christian groups write about more varied issues. Muslims often relate to negative media discourse towards Islam, while Jewish signatories write on a limited number of themes closely related to the group itself. In many articles, one found a meta-debate over the place of religion in the public sphere even when specific issues were debated. The contribution of this dissertation is to critically discuss the concepts and assumptions underlying the debate over the place of religion in the public sphere. It stresses the importance of media perspectives as well as empirical studies for analyzing issues of authority, visibility, private/public and religion in late modern, mediated contexts. / The Impact of Religion - Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy

Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2017-06-28T19:25:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIEGO IN?CIO FERNANDES VASCONCELLOS.pdf: 1190154 bytes, checksum: ff8200d9d093bae59aa2f1ccbb16ca04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-28T19:25:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIEGO IN?CIO FERNANDES VASCONCELLOS.pdf: 1190154 bytes, checksum: ff8200d9d093bae59aa2f1ccbb16ca04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-21 / The paper presents an examination of the concept of the public sphere and its relation to the reasoned discourse of religious confessions, from the perspective of the philosopher J?rgen Habermas, in a post-secular context. In the first chapter, we try to reconstruct the concept of the public sphere and its importance for the democratic rule of law. It is argued in favor of a concept of the public sphere that meets the demands of the post-secular liberal state, open to the confessional perspectives, but without dispensing with them. In the second chapter, we seek to identify some peculiarities of religious discourse that allow it to appear among the voices that make up plurality, as opposed to those that make it unfeasible in public contexts. The third chapter seeks to explain some criteria that guide the validation of religious perspectives when inserted in the public sphere. Finally, we intend to consider the secular / post-secular process that implies the repositioning of religion before the spheres of life and the system. It is argued that the displacement of the value-axis, provided by the anthropological reversal advocated by the Enlightenment tradition, left open the question of religion for the individual, whose revaluation reaches the present times. / A disserta??o apresenta um exame do conceito de esfera p?blica e sua rela??o com o discurso fundamentado das confiss?es religiosas, desde a perspectiva do fil?sofo J?rgen Habermas, em um contexto p?s-secular. No primeiro cap?tulo, procura-se reconstruir o conceito de esfera p?blica e sua import?ncia para o Estado democr?tico de direito. Argumenta-se em favor de um conceito de esfera p?blica que atenda as demandas do Estado liberal p?s-secular, aberto ?s perspectivas confessionais, por?m sem delas prescindir. Busca-se, no segundo cap?tulo, identificar algumas peculiaridades do discurso religioso que o permitem figurar entre as vozes que comp?em a pluralidade, em contraposi??o ?quelas outras que o tornam invi?veis em contextos p?blicos. O terceiro cap?tulo procura explicitar alguns crit?rios que servem de orienta??o para a valida??o das perspectivas religiosas quando inseridas na esfera p?blica. Por fim, pretende-se considerar o processo secular / p?s-secular que implica no reposicionamento da religi?o perante as esferas da vida e do sistema. Argumenta-se que o deslocamento do eixo de valores, proporcionado pela virada antropol?gica defendida pela tradi??o Iluminista, deixou em aberto a quest?o da religi?o para o indiv?duo, cuja revaloriza??o alcan?a os tempos de hoje.

Despite Sweden being described as the most secularised country in the world, there is belief that religion is expected to play a lesser role in public life especially amongst peoples’ lives regardless of modernisation and industrialisation. At the same time, in a post-secular Sweden, there is anticipation of the rise in private religiousness and increased religion due to factors like migration among others. Post-secular religiousness has also had an impact on religious education in Sweden especially regarding didactics in secondary schools. This study was specifically aimed at analysing how secondary school RE teachers are adapting to teaching religion in Sweden. Likewise, the study was aimed at analysing, how RE teachers in secondary schools understand the term post-secular religiousness in school. To accomplish this research, the study used only qualitative research methods which helped me analyse the impact of post secular religiousness on the didactics of religious education. The study used observations and interviews limited to secondary school RE teachers where the data gave me different kinds of results and conclusions regarding the research.  The results from the study and the empirical analysis revealed that religion was about creating understanding for all religions and to achieve this, there is need to ensure an open environment where everyone can freely express themselves. Based on the findings of my study, post-secular religiousness has also been understood by RE teachers to mean increased private religiousness despite religion continuing to play a major role in public and likewise in school.  In conclusion, the research shows that RE teachers have adapted in their work in a post-secular classroom by adopting different methods to teach religion depending on circumstances by using their intercultural competences. Future research can try and explore the meaning of both post-secularism and didactics specifically in a classroom context in Sweden. / Trots att Sverige beskrivs som världens mest sekulariserade land i världen, finns det, tro på att religion förväntas att spela en mindre roll i det offentliga livet särskilt, bland människors liv oavsett modernisering och industrialisering. Samtidigt finns det i ett postsekulärt Sverige, en förväntan på ökad privat religiositet och ökad religion på grund av bland annat migration. Postsekulär religiositet har också haft en inverkan på religionsundervisning i Sverige, särskilt vad gäller didaktik i gymnasieskolan. Studien syftar specifikt till att analysera hur gymnasielärare har anpassat sig till religionsundervisning i Sverige och även analysera hur religionslärare i gymnasieskolor förstår begreppet postsekulär religiositet.  För att analysera postsekulärt religiositets inflytande på gymnasieskolor använde jag i studien kvalitativa forskningsmetoder som hjälpte mig att analysera postsekulärt religiösitetsinflytande på religionsundervisnings didaktiken. I studien, användes jag observationer och intervjuer som begränsades till religionslärare från olika gymnasieskolor vilket gav mig olika typer av resultat och slutsatser.  Resultaten från studien och den empiriska analysen avslöjade att religionsundervisning för religionslärare handlade om, att skapa förståelse för alla religioner och för att uppnå detta är det nödvändigt att säkerställa en öppen miljö där alla kan fritt uttrycka sig. Studien visar att den postsekulära religiositeten också förståtts av religionslärare att religion fortfarande spelar en viktig roll i allmänhet samt på skolan men i form av privat religiositet.  Sammanfattningsvis, visar forskningen att religionslärare har anpassat sig i sitt arbete i ett sekulärt klassrum genom att använda olika metoder för att undervisa religion beroende på omständigheter med hjälp av sina inter-kulturella kompetenser. Framtida forskning kan försöka utforska betydelsen av både post-sekulärism och didaktik, särskilt i ett svenskt sammanhang i klassrummet.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate how different religious groups such as Muslims and Christians are presented in the digital magazine Samtiden. Furthermore, the purpose is to investigate whether and how different religions differ in their presentation and whether there is a clear agenda related to emerging beliefs.  The actual selection I chose to start from is the year 2018 where articles in relation to my keywords and delimitations have been shown. They have then been analyzed through a qualitative text analysis with the ambition to be able to answer my questions and the purpose of investigating how different religious groups such as Muslims and Christians are portrayed in the digital magazine Samtiden. By starting from my theoretical starting points about postcolonial theory, anti-emigration, post-secular theory and gender perspective, I, along with methodological approaches, have got tools to be able to analyze the material in a successful way.  My results show how the representation of religions is manifested and what distinguishes them from where it appears that stereotypical categorizations such as Muslims are cruel, violent and perceived as a threat while Christians appear to be victims of Muslim aggression. The Christian and "Swedish" appear to be intertwined and constitute "we" while Muslims are portrayed as "them".

This paper studies the theological anthropologies of the Catholic thinkers Alice von Hildebrand and Margaret Harper McCarthy. I place my research of these two theologians, categorized as religiously conservative thinkers, among other contemporary research on women in traditional religions by using types of agencies inspired by researchers such as Phyllis Mack, Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood. This paper analyzes how the two theologians construct their anthropologies, systems that see man in a relationship with a God-given order that dictates the role of freedom and responsibility in both the relationship with fellow human beings and his or her teleological goals. I argue that this anthropology comes from their reading of biblical passages and interpretations of real life experiences that break with secular, liberal and individualist patterns of thought. Using a hermeneutics aware of the tensions between secular readings of religious texts and readings that focuses on a self-transcendence, I present a reading of the theologians' systems of thought as a balancing act between liberal and poststructuralist feminist critiques. I argue that both Hildebrand and McCarthy reject the liberal and poststructuralist anthropologies because of their conviction that the liberal and poststructuralist anthropology is inadequate by not addressing the ontological reality of the human complementarity of the sexes. I also identify a tension in the theologians critique of feminism and what I take to be a dialectic between criticizing and appropriating feminist goals for women.

[pt] Esta tese pretende abordar a teoria da religião do filósofo e sociólogo alemão Jürgen Habermas (1929 –) em uma sociedade considerada pós-secular em que o Estado seja neutro, isto é, secular e plural diante das diversas visões de mundo. Habermas parte da reviravolta linguística pragmática pós-metafísica do século XX, dos jogos de linguagem do L. Wittgenstein tardio até a transformação semiótica da filosofia de Kant no a priori da comunidade transcendental de comunicação de K.-O. Apel, passando pelo caminho da linguagem em M. Heidegger, pela hermenêutica de H. G. Gadamer e a teoria dos atos de fala de J. Austin. Herdeiro desse arcabouço teórico, Habermas filia-se a ética do discurso, a partir da pragmática universal com a teoria do agir comunicativo. Os princípios da moralidade e da universalização da ética do discurso são repensados na teoria discursiva do direito e da democracia, a partir dos modelos normativos do liberalismo e do republicanismo, em que os direitos humanos e a soberania popular são entendidos como cooriginários no modelo da democracia deliberativa ou procedimental. Ora, é nesse modelo de um estado liberal, e assim secular, que é normatizada a vida de uma sociedade pós-secular, onde a religião persiste, apesar de seu entorno secular. Para que a religião possa existir no seu entorno secular, é preciso que crentes e não crentes travem um diálogo tolerante de aprendizagem mútua. Mas qual o papel que a religião ainda pode ter nessa sociedade? De que forma a filosofia ainda pode pensar Deus hoje? A defesa que se faz aqui, principalmente a partir da última obra de Habermas – Pensamento pós-metafísico II – é a de uma filosofia, de posicionamento agnóstico e metodologicamente ateu, que tomando por base Kant dialoga com a teologia contemporânea. É reconstruída, por Habermas, uma filosofia da religião de Kant, tendo como fundamento o contributo moral que a filosofia e a teologia, podem deixar para o conceito de uma sociedade moderna e da solidariedade anamnética. Essa filosofia da religião, que está presente no pensamento de Habermas não se dá a partir de provas ontológicas ou cosmológicas da existência de Deus, mas na fundamentação da exigência do dever moral, uma “fé moral”, uma filosofia da religião da boa conduta de vida, no dizer de G. Sala e J. A. Estrada. Somente assim poderíamos chamar Habermas de filósofo da religião. / [en] This thesis intends to approach the theory of religion of the German philosopher and sociologist Jurgen Habermas (1929 –) in a society considered post-secular in which the state is neutral, that is, secular and plural before the different world views. Habermas starts from the twentieth-century pragmatic, post-metaphysical linguistic turn, of L. Wittgenstein s late language games and the semiotic transformation of Kant s philosophy into the a priori of transcendental community of communication of K. O. Apel, going through on the way to language, by M. Heidegger, through the hermeneutics of H.G. Gadamer and the theory of speech acts from J. Austin. Heir to this theoretical framework, Habermas joins the discourse ethics, from universal pragmatics with the theory of communicative action. The principles of morality and universalization of discourse ethics are rethought in the discursive theory of law and democracy, based on the normative models of liberalism and republicanism, in which human rights and popular sovereignty are understood as co-originating in the model of deliberative or procedural democracy. Now, it is in this model of a liberal state, and thus secular, that the life of a post-secular society is normalized, where religion persists despite its secular surroundings. In order that religion exists in its secular environment, believers and non-believers must engage in a tolerant dialogue of mutual learning. But what role can religion still play in this society? How can philosophy think about God today? The defense made here, mainly from Habermas last work – Postmetaphysical Thinking II – is that of a philosophy, with an agnostic and methodologically atheist position, which, based on Kant, dialogues with contemporary theology. t is reconstructed by Habermas, a philosophy of religion by Kant, based on the moral contribution that philosophy and theology can leave for the concept of a modern society and anamnestic solidarity. This philosophy of religion, which is present in Habermas thought, is not based on ontological or cosmological proofs of the existence of God, but on the grounds of the requirement of moral duty, a moral faith, a philosophy of religion of good conduct of life, in the words of G. Sala and J. A. Estrada. Only then, we could call Habermas a philosopher of religion.