As part of the new Religions and Public Life initiative, a new graduate-level seminar is being offered jointly by the Divinity School, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Titled “A paradoxical politics? Religions, poverty and the re-imagining of citizenship within a globalizing world,” the course will meet Tuesdays from 5:30-8:00 pm, and will include discussion leaders from among Duke faculty as well as Jose Casanova, Georgetown University; Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago; Susan Holman, Harvard University; Ruth Marshall, University of Toronto; and Peter van der Veer, Max Planck Institute. For more information, download the course flyer or see the course description below:
A Paradoxical Politics? Religions, Poverty, & Re-Imagining Citizenship in a Globalizing World {REL 999.08, XTIANTHE 840}
Spring 2013; Tuesdays 5:30-8:00pm
This interdisciplinary graduate seminar examines the paradoxes in the public sphere when faith, citizenship and poverty intersect with the myriad processes of globalization. What is the shape, purpose and configuration of the public sphere in regional, national and international contexts that issue forth from the points where these intersect?
Faith-based grassroots movements address poverty and inequality and in the process are involved in the renewal of citizenship by democratic means. Examples include the role of Islamic parties in the Arab Spring, Pentecostalism in creating islands of social care in the favelas of Brazil, to millions raised for humanitarian aid and development by Evangelical groups, and the resort to religious discourses of jubilee and usury in addressing the deleterious impact of financialised debt. Paradoxically, religious groups are also charged with exacerbating conditions that produce poverty and inequality. Here we think especially of women, authoritarian institutions, indigenous peoples and the fallout of contesting visions of public life whether secular, religious or plural.
Understanding the paradoxes produced by the intersection of faith, politics and economics is a crucial yet neglected dimension to negotiating the impact of globalisation locally, regionally and internationally on a wide range of issues such as public health, the environment, welfare provision, schooling, development aid, immigration, urban regeneration and security.