Academic literature on the topic 'Humanities and religion - History and philosophy subjects'

The core concept of ‘the human’ that anchors so many humanities disciplines – history, literature, art history, philosophy, religion, anthropology, political theory, and others – issues from a very particular modern European definition of Man ‘over-represented’ as the human. The history of modernity and of modern disciplinary knowledge formations are, in this sense, a history of modern European forms monopolizing the definition of the human and placing other variations at a distance from the human. This article is an interdisciplinary research that decenters Man-as-human as the subject/object of inquiry, and proposes a relational analytic that reframes established orthodoxies of area, geography, history and temporality. It also involves new readings of traditional archives, finding alternative repositories and practices of knowledge and collection to radically redistribute our ways of understanding the meaning of the human.

There is no doubt that a person and a people with a strong spiritual support have a great future. Therefore, the scientific study of the Quran is of great importance. The theoretical foundations of this problem are relevant both in the history of religious studies and the philosophy of religion, as well as in the scientific field of natural science and the humanities. Considering the Islamic worldview from the point of view of the humanities, natural (physical) and other sciences allows young people to delve into all areas of science without understanding religion, the Koran as a dogmatic Secret doctrine, and initiates becoming a member of a spiritually conscious society. The article considers The Holy Quran as a divine book based on science, knowledge, teaching and education. The Quran covers all areas of science. In other words, the Quran contains a lot of information from various fields of science: physics, astronomy, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, medicine, Economics, Pedagogy, Psychology, Embryology, Geology, Philosophy, Cultural studies, Natural science, Religious studies, and many others. Therefore, the Quran is a source of inexhaustible science. As science and technology develop, the truth of the Quran is also confirmed. The article notes that the Koran is a real book that has not lost its value over the centuries, its wonders are inexhaustible, useful for the happiness and prosperity of all mankind. The connection between the subject of physics and the topics contained in the Koran, sacred words, verses, and prayers is also considered.

There is no doubt that a person and a people with a strong spiritual support have a great future. Therefore, the scientific study of the Quran is of great importance. The theoretical foundations of this problem are relevant both in the history of religious studies and the philosophy of religion, as well as in the scientific field of natural science and the humanities. Considering the Islamic worldview from the point of view of the humanities, natural (physical) and other sciences allows young people to delve into all areas of science without understanding religion, the Koran as a dogmatic Secret doctrine, and initiates becoming a member of a spiritually conscious society. The article considers The Holy Quran as a divine book based on science, knowledge, teaching and education. The Quran covers all areas of science. In other words, the Quran contains a lot of information from various fields of science: physics, astronomy, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, medicine, Economics, Pedagogy, Psychology, Embryology, Geology, Philosophy, Cultural studies, Natural science, Religious studies, and many others. Therefore, the Quran is a source of inexhaustible science. As science and technology develop, the truth of the Quran is also confirmed. The article notes that the Koran is a real book that has not lost its value over the centuries, its wonders are inexhaustible, useful for the happiness and prosperity of all mankind. The connection between the subject of physics and the topics contained in the Koran, sacred words, verses, and prayers is also considered.

Establishment of human intellect and expertise necessitates wide scope of knowledge and understanding. Post qualification, many practical jobs wherein the required expertise includes social understanding and abilities which are not included in STEM subjects. Organization needs civic sense, team work, understanding, compassion and good communication. In reality, the market needs that the product of higher education being employed has these abilities so as to be able to get well within the organizational work forces. A well-developed human package is hardly complete without appropriate knowledge and insight of, for example, philosophy, anthropology, economics, law, psychology, belief system/religions, geography , history and politics, amongst others. Without these, the very purpose of one's role within an organization, and the society at large, remains very incomplete. Obtaining passing marks in merely a few science specific subjects as usually defined in narrowly defined curricular stop way short of meeting the market demands. Inclusion of some knowledge of social sciences, humanities and arts would help create higher educated people with better understanding of the human condition and the society. Better understanding is the essential prerequisite for being comfortable with oneself and one's society. On the same account, integrative education and research needs to be put in place to bridge knowledge, modes of inquiring and pedagogies from multiple disciplines, within every higher education program.

The cultural importance of religion and its ambiguous potential effects on the stability of liberal democracy and the rule of law recommend including information about religions in public school curricula. In certain contexts, there are even good secular reasons to have this done by teachers approved by the religious communities for their respective groups of pupils, as is being practiced in various European states (with a possibility of opting out, with ethics as a substitute subject in some schools). Is this practice compatible with the religious neutrality of states? An illustrative analysis shows how suitable criteria for the admission of religious groups to offering religious education can block the objection of undue preference. Like any solution in this field, it is not immune to theoretical and practical problems.

Legally preferential treatment of a religious organization is the legal conferral of a status that is more favorable than that accorded to other religious organizations. This essay introduces and analyzes the contrasting concept of deferential treatment. “Deferential treatment” refers to forms of favorable treatment that are cultural rather than legal. While the problems posed by legally preferential treatment of religion are well known, the problems posed by deferential treatment have received little attention. One problem is that when a religious organization receives deferential treatment, its authorities are not compelled to exercise their power in ways that track the interests of those over whom they exercise it. This leaves those subject to their power liable to abuse. Another is that deferential treatment encourages “benchmark traditionalism.” Benchmark traditionalism is problematic because it is politically unreasonable. These problems with deferential treatment give all citizens, including religiously committed citizens, reason to favor a culture of non-deference.

Abstract Tertullian first coined the phrase ‘the freedom of religion’. This article considers what this entails. I argue that Tertullian’s discussion of religious liberty derives its theoretical significance from his creative repurposing of the Roman idea of liberty as non-domination. Tertullian contends that the Roman magistrates’ treatment of Christian citizens and loyal subjects amounts to tyrannical domination characterized by the absence of the traditional conditions for non-domination: the rule of law, rule in and responsive to the interests of the people, and citizens’ rights. On his reworking of these criteria, he argues that citizens and loyal subjects should have the right to act publicly on the convictions of their conscience even if these actions conflict with the state’s civil religion. Tertullian shows that non-domination is a highly flexible idea that does not necessarily entail the participatory ‘free state’ of republicanism. Moreover, by applying the logic of non-domination to questions surrounding religious liberty, he opens up an important avenue of investigation largely ignored in the contemporary republican literature on non-domination.

AbstractBooks belonging to adab literature present material about a variety of subjects, considered from various points of view, such as religious, scientific, historical, literary, etc. They contain knowledge and at the same time entertainment for educated people. Here we consider the content of two adab works, insofar as they discuss subjects from the scientific point of view: (an extract of) Faṣl al-Khiṭāb by al-Tīfāshī (d. 1253) and Mabāhij al-fikar wa-manāhij al-ʿibar by al-Waṭwāṭ (d. 1318).Al-Tīfāshī's work discusses astronomical and meteorological subjects. The passages on astronomy give the usual Aristotelian cosmological picture of the world in a simplified version for non-specialists. The passages on meteorological subjects explain these phenomena in agreement with Aristotle's theory of the double exhalation, and it appears that they are based to a large extent on Ibn Sīnā's interpretation of this theory.The book of al-Waṭwāṭ consists of four sections, which deal with the heaven, the earth, animals and plants respectively. One chapter of the first section deals with meteorological phenomena and presents a survey of the explanations current in his time, such as may be found in the works of al-Kindī and Ibn Sīnā.One will probably not find new and original scientific ideas in the adab literature, but one gets an impression of how besides knowledge of Qurʾān, ḥadīth, poetry and literary prose scientific knowledge was a part of the education of a certain class of people, also of those whose special interest was not science. It also appears that the subjects of science were not restricted to those which were useful for religion and Muslim society. Science was an integrated activity in society, pursued for intellectual satisfaction and pleasure in knowledge, and most groups in that society held that there was nothing in it that would be incompatible with Islam as a religion. This would support the ‘appropriation thesis’ defended by Sabra, that science in medieval Islamic society was well assimilated and widely accepted, as opposed to the the ‘marginality thesis’ adopted by von Grünebaum, that science was a marginal activity, restricted to small elite circles and not rooted in society.

AbstractCreating a unified model of life in the universe – history, extent and future – requires both scientific and humanities research. One way that humanities can contribute is by investigating the relationship between philosophical commitments and data. Making those commitments transparent allows scientists to use the data more fully. Insights in four areas – history, ethics, religion and probability – demonstrate the value of careful, astrobiology-specific humanities research for improving how we talk and think about astrobiology as a whole. First, astrobiology has a long and influential history. Second, astrobiology does not decentre humanity, either physically or ethically. Third, astrobiology is broadly compatible with major world religions. Finally, claims about the probability of life arising or existing elsewhere rest heavily on philosophical priors. In all four cases, identifying philosophical commitments clarifies the ways in which data can tell us about life.

Syftet med föreliggande doktorsavhandling i teknikhistoria är att öka kunskapen om varför, men framförallt hur och under vilka villkor den första elektrifieringen av en statsägd järnväg genomfördes i Sverige. Arbetet med Riksgränsbanans elektrifiering pågick 1908-1917 och var på många sätt ett unikt pionjärprojekt. Två stora tekniska system skulle där komma att sammankopplas med varandra; artonhundratalets mogna järnvägssystem med nittonhundratalets nya elkraftsystem. Riksgränsbanan, den omkring 130 km långa nordligaste delen av Malmbanan mellan Kiruna och Riksgränsen, var världens dittills nordligaste järnväg att elektrifieras och det subarktiska klimatet ställde stora krav på utförandet av tekniska komponenter. Den geografiska lokaliseringen innebar dessutom att de långa avstånden till beslutsfattare inom statsförvaltning och företag måste hanteras. Därutöver genomfördes projektet i en tidsperiod präglad av protektionism, nationalism och internationella konflikter, yttre faktorer som alla också påverkade projektets utformning och genomförande. Att det var Riksgränsbanan som blev den första statliga järnvägslinje att elektrifieras i Sverige berodde på att staten 1907 gått in som hälftenägare i gruvbolaget LKAB och att nya avtal fastställde en ökad brytning och transport av järnmalm, från 1,5 miljoner ton årligen 1908 till 3,85 miljoner ton 1918. Denna mängd kunde inte transporteras inom befintligt system med ångdrift utan omfattande investeringar, vilket innebar att en systemomvandling till elektrisk drift ansågs vara ett bättre alternativ. I maj 1910 beslutade riksdagen anslå 21,5 miljoner kr till projektet som skulle drivas av Järnvägsstyrelsens byrå för elektrisk drift i samverkan med företagen Siemens och ASEA. Kontraktsskrivningen ställde hårda krav på företagen gällande prestanda och utförande och Järnvägsstyrelsen kunde när som helst, senast två år efter övertagandet av driften av banan, besluta att upphäva kontraktet och kräva att företagen återställde anläggningen till ursprungligt skick.Det var en mängd tekniska subsystem och komponenter som skulle färdigställas och sättas samman för att det tekniska primärsystemet ”den elektrifierade Riksgränsbanan” skulle fungera. Speciellt färdigställandet av loken och isolatorerna till ledningssystemet omgärdades av problem som kom att försena projektets färdigställande. Problemen var både organisatoriska och tekniska till sin natur men kunde efterhand åtgärdas genom att det utarbetades bättre rutiner vid korrespondens och annan kontakt mellan aktörerna samt genom att det togs större hänsyn till lokala klimatologiska förhållanden i samband med teknikutveckling. I sin roll som byrådirektör för byrån för elektrisk drift skulle Ivan Öfverholm visa sig vara en stark representant för beställaren och han spelade en central roll för projektets genomförande. Öfverholm kan i detta sammanhang kategoriseras som en offentlig systembyggare som med fast hand styrde projektet. Ibland innebar detta att Öfverholm hamnade i direkt konflikt med företagens representanter men ofta fungerade han också som medlare i de konflikter som ideligen uppstod mellan Byråns och företagens lokala representanter vid anläggningen. Den tvååriga garantitiden inleddes den 1 oktober 1915 och i slutet av 1917 hade nästan samtliga kvarstående arbeten vid anläggningen fullföljts och SJ kunde ta över anläggningen. Slutomdömet om Riksgränsbanans elektrifiering var överlag positivt och 1919 beslutade riksdagen att elektrifiera resterande del av Malmbanan, vilket var genomfört från Narvik till Luleå sommaren 1923. Det banbrytande arbetet i den norrländska ödemarken med att elektrifiera Sveriges nordligaste järnväg var därmed avslutat.

Godkänd; 2012; 20120221 (roiwik); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Teknikhistoria/History of Technology Opponent: Dr Mats Fridlund, Institutionen för filosofi, lingvistik och vetenskapsteori, Göteborgs universitet Ordförande: Biträdande professor Kristina Söderholm, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 20 april 2012, kl 10.15 Plats: A1547, Luleå tekniska universitet

Swedish child-care institutions - day nurseries, kindergartens - did not until the 1930s become a concern of the Government. In 1943 the Swedish Riksdag for the first time passed a bill that gave child-care institutions a Government subsidy. This thesis deals with the Government's and the parliamentary commissions' attitudes to child-care institutions. Which type of institution ought to receive a subsidy? And for what reasons? The main argument for child-care institutions has always been that they could stimulate a sound development, for the child's own good and for society's. From the 1930s and into the 1950s most participants in the child-care debate stated that the kindergarten or part-time institutions for the pre-school child from the age of three and upwards was the preferable type. Day nurseries for children, even infants, of families were both parents had to work might be necessary but were to be seen as an emergency solution. From the mid-60s the attitu-de changed. Step by step full-time day nurseries became the institutions that were given priority by the Government. This change in attitude presupposes that the notion of the child changed as well. But it did not change in a vacuum. Borrowing an explanatory model from sociologist Johan Asplund, the thesis treats the child as a "figure of thought", placed between a super-structural discourse on child-care and society's basic, material conditions. Important changes at the level of discourse have been the attitude to modern, industrial society, e.g. the necessity of learning to live and work in a society which is complex, highly specialized and in constant change, and the debate on women's emancipation. At the level of material conditions, the most conspicious change is that more and more women have entered the labour market. The changing notion of the child can be understood as the effect of an influence from discourse and base on the "figure of thought". At the same time, the "figure of thought" in-fluenced the discourse. Thus, a child-care system for the benefit of child and woman and labour market could be established, and harmony could be created, at least in the discourse.

Ethics is of vital importance to the Swedish educational system, as in many other educational systems around the world. Yet, it is unclear how ethics should be dealt with in school, and prior research and evaluations have found serious problems regarding ethics in education. The field of moral education lacks clear and widely accepted definitions of key concepts, and these ambiguities negatively impact both research and educational practice. This thesis draws a distinction between three approaches to ethics in school – the descriptive ethics approach, the value transmission approach, and the inquiry ethics approach – and studies in what way (if at all) they are prescribed by the national curriculum for the Swedish compulsory school, how they relate to students’ moral reasoning about technology choices and online behaviour, and what pedagogical merits and disadvantages they have. Hopefully, this both contributes to reducing the ambiguities of the field, and to answering the question of how ethics should be dealt with in education.The descriptive ethics approach asserts that school should teach students empirical facts about ethics, such as what views and opinions people have. The value transmission approach holds that school should mediate some set of predefined values to the students and make sure the students come to accept these values. The inquiry ethics approach is the view that school should teach students to reason and think critically about ethics and to engage in ethical inquiry.The role of ethics in the curriculum has not been studied in light of the above distinction, in prior research, and such an investigation is undertaken here. The results suggest that ethics has a prominent, but complicated, role in the Swedish national curriculum. Although no explicit distinction is drawn or acknowledged in the curriculum, all three approaches are prescribed throughout the curriculum, albeit to different degrees. In the general section of the curriculum, the value transmission and inquiry ethics approaches are more extensively prescribed than the descriptive ethics approach. It was found that most of the syllabi contained explicit references to ethics, while some only contained implicit references to ethics, and two syllabi lacked references to ethics altogether. In the syllabi, the inquiry ethics approach is the most dominant, both in the sense of being present in the most syllabi, and in the sense of being more strongly prescribed in many of the syllabi where several approaches occur. The value transmission approach has the weakest role in the syllabi. In total, the inquiry ethics approach is the approach most strongly prescribed by the curriculum. But prior research has shown that inquiry ethics is very rarely implemented in the classroom. In this thesis, it is found that the inquiry ethics and the value transmission approaches are incompatible, given certain reasonable interpretations, which makes the finding that inquiry ethics is rarely implemented less surprising, since value transmission is practiced in schools.The students, in their moral reasoning about technology choices, reasoned in accordance with several classical normative theories – including consequentialism, deontological ethics and virtue ethics – and in doing so, they expressed reasoning that in the discussion is found to be in conflict with the values of the value foundation in the curriculum. These findings complement earlier findings, for example that students in their actions contradict the value foundation, by adding that such conflicts also exist in their reasoning. The existence of these conflicts is found to be problematic for a value transmission approach.Many of the students defended very restrictive views on disclosing personal information online, and prior research as well as the present data has shown that adults typically hold views that are very similar to these, concerning how they think that young people ought to act online. On the other hand, youths’ actual online behaviour, as reported in earlier studies, differs considerably from this. In line with this, the students also seemed to endorse a form of private morals view, according to which moral choices are simply up to one’s own taste, which would yield an escape exit from the restrictive views mentioned above, and permit any behaviour. In the discussion, it is argued that this is the result of an attempt at value transmission from the grown-up community, probably including teachers, which might seem to work, since the students claim to hold certain views, but which likely instead constitutes a false security, since these values are not actually accepted, but only paid lip service to, and the adults are therefore wrong in their belief that the students are protected by a certain set of values (that they think the students are upholding), since the students in fact do not uphold, and therefore do not act based upon, these values. This situation risks making the students more vulnerable than had no value transmission attempt been taken in the first place. Hence, the attempted value transmission runs the risk of counteracting its purpose of helping the students acquire a safe online behaviour.Throughout the moral reasoning mentioned above, extensive variations in the students’ reasoning were found, both interpersonally and intrapersonally, both in the decision method and in the rightness criterion dimensions, as well as in between the dimensions. The existence of such variations is a novel finding, and while possible applications in future research are discussed, it is also noted that this existence constitutes a reason to question the successfulness of both the value transmission and the inquiry ethics endeavours of the educational system.The results and discussions described above highlight the importance of investigating the merits of the different approaches. Several arguments that arise from the material of this thesis are presented, evaluated and discussed. The ability of each approach to fulfil some alleged key aims of ethics education is scrutinised; their abilities to educate for good citizenship, to educate for quality of life of the individual, and to facilitate better educational results in other subjects are all investigated, as well as the ability of each approach to help counteract the influence from online extremist propaganda aimed at young people and to promote safe online behaviour in general.It is concluded that the inquiry ethics approach has the strongest support from the material of this thesis. Some consequences for school practice are discussed, and it is concluded that changing the role of ethics in the curriculum would be beneficial, downplaying the role of value transmission and further increasing, and making more explicit and clear, the role of inquiry ethics. It is also shown that there are strong reasons for the inclusion of a new subject in the Swedish compulsory education with special focus on ethics. Some possible causes, and some consequences, of this is discussed.
Godkänd; 2016; 20160518 (vikvik); Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen, Namn: Viktor Gardelli Ämne: Pedagogik / Education Avhandling: TO DESCRIBE, TRANSMIT, OR INQUIRE Ethics and technology in school Opponent: Gudmundur Frimannsson, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Island, Ordförande: Professor Eva Alerby Institutionen för konst, kommunikation och lärande Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 2 september 2016, kl. 10.00 Plats: D770, Luleå tekniska universitet

I have for my one year master's thesis worked on arranging and cataloging the archives from the missions stations of Musana, Congo-Brazzaville and Sundi-Lutete, Congo-Kinshasa, belonging to the Swedish Missions Church (Svenska Missionskyrkan). The archives contained records written in Swedish, French and Kikongo, from primarily the years 1910 until 1961. Records have though been found that adhere from both prior to and after these years. These archives are deposited at the Swedish National Archive and it was therefore important to take the opinions and regulations of both parties into consideration, as well as relying onto archival theory.

The archives were initially scattered and had in some parts been organized by an archivist without formal schooling. The major difficulties in this work has therefore been to establish the provenance – to which creator the documents belonged to, and also to decide to which degree the principle of the original order should play a part. After considering different theories, I decided to respect the secondary order for the correspondence, since rearranging it would disrupt the concordance in the work already done by researchers.

To still make the archives accessible for the users in its existing order it required me to be aware of whom the user of the archive is, probable areas of research and how these archives are used. This information was then used when writing the archival description and the scope notes in the inventory. I have also taken decisions based on what is practically possible; it has because of regulations not been possible to physically bring the archive to one unit. Also, the circumstances of a shared custody of the archives also determined, in practice, how the inventory could be written.

This is a one year master's thesis in Archival Science, at the university of Uppsala, Spring semester of 2010.

I begin by offering an account of two key strains in the history of philosophical dealings with death. Both strains initially seek to diminish fear of death by appealing to the idea that death is simply the separation of the soul from the body. According to the Platonic strain, death should not be feared since the soul will have a prolonged existence free from the bodily prison after death. With several dramatic modifications, this is the strain that is taken up by much of the mainstream Christian tradition. According to the Epicurean strain, death should not be feared since the tiny pthesiss that make up the soul leave the body and are dispersed at the moment of death, leaving behind no subject to experience any evil that might be associated with death. Although informed by millennia of further scientific discovery, this is the strain picked up on by contemporary atheistic, technologically advanced mankind. My primary goal is to demonstrate that philosophy has an often-overlooked alternative to viewing death in terms of this ancient dichotomy. This is the alternative championed by Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Heidegger. Although both thinkers arise from the Christian tradition, they clearly react to Epicurean insights about death in their work, thereby prescribing a peculiar way of living with death that the Christian tradition seems to have forgotten about. Despite the association of Kierkegaard and Heidegger, there is a fundamental difference between them on the subject of death. In Being and Time Heidegger seems to rely on the phenomenology of death that Kierkegaard provides in texts such as "At a Graveside." It is interesting to notice, however, that this discourse, especially when seen in the light of Kierkegaard's more obviously religious works, might only be compelling to the aspiring Christian. If so, then perhaps there is a tension in both Heidegger's "methodologically atheistic" appropriation of Kierkegaard's ideas about death, and Heidegger's attempt to make these ideas compelling to the aspiring human. My secondary goal is to determine whether Heidegger takes the "existential philosophy of death" too far when he incorporates it into his early ontological project.

Ämnesdidaktiken kräver kunnande i både ämne och pedagogik och en god förankring i praktisk verklighet. Varför, hur och vad brukar betecknas som de grundläggande didaktiska frågorna. Varför skall man lära sig filosofi? Hur - Vilka alternativa undervisningsstrategier finns? Vilka viktiga vägval ställs filosofiläraren inför? Hur stimulerar man elevernas intresse för ämnet filosofi? Hur väljer man ut ur filosofins stora skattkammare, ett stoff för undervisning i ämnet?

Syftet med denna uppsats är

• diskutera de didaktiska frågorna i filosofiämnet utifrån ”Hur-frågan”.
• genomföra arbetsformer inom det problembaserade lärandet under ämnesblocket ”Etiska frågor”.
• analysera hur elevernas intresse för filosofi stimuleras och eventuella negativa attityder till ämnet förändras inom det problembaserade lärandet.

Uppsatsförfattaren har senare bytt efternamn först till "Nilel" och sedan till "Högman".

My dissertation lays out some of the chief philosophical precursors to Jonathan Israel's Radical Enlightenment. It investigates the principal question of Will Durant's The Age of Voltaire: "How did it come about that a major part of the educated classes in Europe and America has lost faith in the theology that for fifteen centuries gave supernatural sanctions and supports to the precarious and uncongenial moral code upon which Western civilization has been based?" The aim of this project is both broad and specific: the first is to provide a general history of the philosophical precursors to the Radical Enlightenment up until the early modern period, and the second is to highlight one of these precursors in detail, which I do in the large Spinoza part. With the assistance of a great deal of scholarship in philosophy of religion, history of philosophy, theological analysis, biblical criticism, and historiography, my dissertation contends that the major philosophical precursors against orthodox faith in revelation and for the Radical Enlightenment have been derived primarily from several forces. I present some of the general arguments of some of the pre-Socratics and Greek philosophers, especially Socrates and Plato, emphasizing their rationalist and non-theological thinking. Then I point out how some of this Greek philosophical literature led to new philosophical and theological elements in some of the teachings of the Church Fathers, some of the medievals, and some of the scholastics, up to the early modern period. The core of my argument, however, begins to pick up steam at the Renaissance. With the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the early Enlightenment New Philosophy, everything changes. Renaissance textual criticism of ancient texts leads to the beginnings of some genuine biblical criticism. The explosion of naturalist-leaning explanations of nature via Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes and many others in the Scientific Revolution leads many to wonder if God is needed. The rejection of Aristotelian and Scholastic metaphysics by the New Philosophers, most notably, Descartes, undermine what for many provided the philosophical underpinnings for the Church and theology. And then "the most unkindest cut of all," the revolutionary historical and textual criticism of the Bible (by many early Enlightenment philosophers, especially Spinoza) which utterly undermines and refutes Judaism and Christianity.

As the twentieth century dawned in the western world, there were voices both inside and out of the Christian Church that began to question religion's central place in man's daily life. Had humanity finally progressed to the point where religion was no longer necessary? Had we at long last developed the characteristics and perspectives that religion had attempted to engrain within us? Or were the rules and regulations of religion still needed to ensure the continued advancement of civilization? This is a study of two opposing voices in that debate: theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and ethicist Paul Ramsey. What follows is my attempt to examine, explain, and expound upon the philosophies of both men in an endeavor to more fully understand their perspectives and the implications each has for civilization and religion as we move now firmly into the twenty-first century and beyond.

INTRODUCTION: THE SEARCH FOR THE GOD OF ABRAHAM TEXT AND HISTORY: THE FORMATION OF THE ABRAHAMIC DEITY Recent years have seen substantial changes in the study of ancient Israelite religion. These changes have created ample work for scholars of religious studies and related fields as virtually all disciplines have something to say about recent archaeological and scholarly developments concerning Yahwism and its early development. In this scholarly milieu, it is difficult to present anything that is wholly new, but certainly possible to enter a spirited discourse about ancient questions. To discuss the origins and evolution of the Abrahamic deity—as I shall—necessitates drawing from many disciplines because discussion of this deity pervades all discourses on ancient Israelite religion. Accordingly, I will draw from scholarly tools characteristic of the disciplines of history, linguistics, and archaeology. The bulk of my argument, however, will be centered around the biblical texts themselves. Though the historicity of these texts is highly suspect, they nevertheless provide valuable historical information that, if engaged with carefully, can aid in understanding the origin and evolution of one Yahweh of Canaan.

This report is based on a field study that was carried out in India. The aim of this field study is to find out how the religious education is carried out at Jiva Public School in Faridabad. The questions that are tried to be answered are if the teachers at this school integrate religious education in some of their subjects, if they see any problems performing this kind of education and what attitudes teachers’ have towards religious education.

In the presentation of previous research, opinions of several international researchers regarding religious education and their thoughts about how a good religious education can be designed will be made.

The empirical material has been assembled by doing qualitative semi-structured interviews with teachers at the school mentioned above. This kind of method suits well the aim and questions since the focus will be on trying to understand these teachers way to reason and act. When describing the methods, other problems that can occur during a field study are presented.

The results are presented in text but also in diagrams, so that the reader can get a good overview. In the analysis and discussion the results will refer to the previous research.

While analysing the empirical material a result was that a majority of the teachers did not integrate religious education in some of their subjects. They did not see it as their task and they meant that it is less important to get absorbed about people’s different beliefs since India is a secular state. You should not give any religion preference so why should you discuss about religions in your teaching? The focus should instead be on acceptance and to teach the pupils to respect each other no matter what. The teachers that did integrate religion in their subjects did this by celebrating religious festivals within the school. Only two teachers practised “ordinary” lessons when teaching about religions.

Denna uppsats baseras på en fältstudie som har utförts i Indien. Syftet med fältstudien är att undersöka hur religionsundervisningen ser ut på Jiva Public School i Faridabad. Frågeställningarna som ska försöka besvaras är hur lärare på denna skola integrerar religionsundervisning i något av sina ämnen, om de kan se några problem med att utföra denna typ av undervisning och hur lärarnas inställning till religionsundervisning ser ut.

I avsnittet Tidigare forskning redovisas flera internationella forskares syn på just religionsundervisning och hur de tycker att bra religionsundervisning kan vara utformad.

Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare på ovannämnda skola. Denna metod passar syftet och frågeställningarna bäst eftersom fokus kommer att ligga på att försöka förstå dessa lärares sätt att diskutera och agera. I metodavsnittet kommer också andra relevanta problem man som forskare kan ställas inför då en fältstudie skall utföras att tas upp.

Resultatet presenteras i löpande text, men också med diagram för att göra det hela mer överskådligt samt lättförståeligt. I analys- och diskussionsavsnittet kommer resultatet att knytas till den tidigare forskningen.

Vid analysen av det empiriska materialet visade det sig att de flesta lärare inte integrerar religion i något av sina ämnen. Detta på grund av att de ansåg att det inte var deras uppgift. De menade också att det var mindre viktigt att fördjupa sig i vad andra människor har för trosuppfattning eftersom Indien är en sekulär stat. Ingen religion skall ha företräde och varför skall man då diskutera religion i sin undervisning? Istället borde fokus ligga på acceptans och att lära eleverna att bara respektera varandra utan vidare. De lärare som däremot integrerade religion i sina ämnen gjorde detta genom att fira olika religiösa högtider på skolan. Endast två lärare använde sig av ”traditionella” lektioner då de undervisade om religion.

This chapter addresses the role of religion and belief in university teaching and learning. In some subjects, of course, religion is simply a topic of relevance, as in history and in religious studies itself. In others, it is a cultural legacy to be decoded and understood. In others again, it embodies the opposite of the rational, scientific method that predominates in higher education, and in relation to which practically all other disciplines have cut their teeth. As such, it is an utter irrelevance. In some cases, this produces hostility against all religious ideas. This is likely to feel painful for some students, who can feel uncomfortable when hearing lecturers be rude or offensive about their beliefs or about belief in general. In the social sciences, unlike race, gender, or sexual orientation, religion has rarely been a variable. The question of the place of religion and belief in university disciplines was explored in the project Reimagining Religion and Belief for Policy and Practice. The study analysed nine arts, humanities, and social science disciplines, including anthropology, cultural studies, geography, philosophy, religious studies, social policy, social work, sociology, and theology.

This chapter places Schelling’s philosophy in the context of the general historical turn of German Idealism. It notes the many phases of Schelling’s career and his move from an early highly systematic approach that stresses the non-scientific character of history, toward a later more aesthetic and nuanced teleological approach that shows an appreciation for history, including religion and mythology, precisely because of its open and not entirely rational character. Following the interpretation of Odo Marquard and Dieter Jähnig, the chapter argues for the continuing relevance of Schelling’s philosophical notion of history, and also explains how its idealism in no way undermines its basically objective orientation.

Ours is an age of pervasive political turbulence, and the scale of the challenge requires new thinking on politics as well as public ethics for our world. In Western countries, the specter of Islamophobia, alt-right populism, along with racialized violence has shaken public confidence in long-secure assumptions rooted in democracy, diversity, and citizenship. The tragic denouement of so many of the Arab uprisings together with the ascendance of apocalyptic extremists like Daesh and Boko Haram have caused an even greater sense of alarm in large parts of the Muslim-majority world. It is against this backdrop that M.A. Muqtedar Khan has written a book of breathtaking range and ethical beauty. The author explores the history and sociology of the Muslim world, both classic and contemporary. He does so, however, not merely to chronicle the phases of its development, but to explore just why the message of compassion, mercy, and ethical beauty so prominent in the Quran and Sunna of the Prophet came over time to be displaced by a narrow legalism that emphasized jurisprudence, punishment, and social control. In the modern era, Western Orientalists and Islamists alike have pushed the juridification and interpretive reification of Islamic ethical traditions even further. Each group has asserted that the essence of Islam lies in jurisprudence (fiqh), and both have tended to imagine this legal heritage on the model of Western positive law, according to which law is authorized, codified, and enforced by a leviathan state. “Reification of Shariah and equating of Islam and Shariah has a rather emaciating effect on Islam,” Khan rightly argues. It leads its proponents to overlook “the depth and heights of Islamic faith, mysticism, philosophy or even emotions such as divine love (Muhabba)” (13). As the sociologist of Islamic law, Sami Zubaida, has similarly observed, in all these developments one sees evidence, not of a traditionalist reassertion of Muslim values, but a “triumph of Western models” of religion and state (Zubaida 2003:135). To counteract these impoverishing trends, Khan presents a far-reaching analysis that “seeks to move away from the now failed vision of Islamic states without demanding radical secularization” (2). He does so by positioning himself squarely within the ethical and mystical legacy of the Qur’an and traditions of the Prophet. As the book’s title makes clear, the key to this effort of religious recovery is “the cosmology of Ihsan and the worldview of Al-Tasawwuf, the science of Islamic mysticism” (1-2). For Islamist activists whose models of Islam have more to do with contemporary identity politics than a deep reading of Islamic traditions, Khan’s foregrounding of Ihsan may seem unfamiliar or baffling. But one of the many achievements of this book is the skill with which it plumbs the depth of scripture, classical commentaries, and tasawwuf practices to recover and confirm the ethic that lies at their heart. “The Quran promises that God is with those who do beautiful things,” the author reminds us (Khan 2019:1). The concept of Ihsan appears 191 times in 175 verses in the Quran (110). The concept is given its richest elaboration, Khan explains, in the famous hadith of the Angel Gabriel. This tradition recounts that when Gabriel appeared before the Prophet he asked, “What is Ihsan?” Both Gabriel’s question and the Prophet’s response make clear that Ihsan is an ideal at the center of the Qur’an and Sunna of the Prophet, and that it enjoins “perfection, goodness, to better, to do beautiful things and to do righteous deeds” (3). It is this cosmological ethic that Khan argues must be restored and implemented “to develop a political philosophy … that emphasizes love over law” (2). In its expansive exploration of Islamic ethics and civilization, Khan’s Islam and Good Governance will remind some readers of the late Shahab Ahmed’s remarkable book, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Ahmed 2016). Both are works of impressive range and spiritual depth. But whereas Ahmed stood in the humanities wing of Islamic studies, Khan is an intellectual polymath who moves easily across the Islamic sciences, social theory, and comparative politics. He brings the full weight of his effort to conclusion with policy recommendations for how “to combine Sufism with political theory” (6), and to do so in a way that recommends specific “Islamic principles that encourage good governance, and politics in pursuit of goodness” (8).