Bücher der Reihe Dieux, Hommes et Religions / Gods, Humans and Religions

Terror attacks against Western symbols of power, suicide terrorism in Chechnya, or bombing of abortion clinics in the United States: these are a few of the violent religious outbursts that the media never seem to stop broadcasting. While these outbursts are mostly linked to Islamic extremism, it should however be acknowledged that every religion has its own violent side. Despite all the events the media are too prompt to show us, it would be dishonest and insensible not to accept that every religion has also a potential for religious peace building and communal renewal. How, can it be explained then, that religions sometimes react violently against the society surrounding them by trying to overthrow it, while at some other times they willingly help and try to build a better world for everyone? The University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp organised an interdisciplinary summer seminar in September 2005 and gathered senior scholars ¿ all experts in their own fields ¿ and junior scholars ¿ who will be the experts of tomorrow ¿ from all over the world, to discuss these burning issues. The seminar focused on miscellaneous topics all pointing towards the question of religion and society; like literalism and the Holy texts, the ambivalence of faith-based radicalism, the psychology of religion and terrorism, nationalism and religion and religious social movements.

The enactment of humanity begins with experiences and culminates in the effects of coping with experiences. Experience confirms the human potential, but indicates also its limitations, both in the sense that the absence of experiences undermines established modes of behavior, and that disregard and misunderstanding of experiences lead to distorted forms of personal and cultural relations. This book is an attempt to localize religion, as well as the study of religions, within the context of experiences and as a topic of philosophical inquiry. Focusing on the question of specifically religious experiences and investigating various models of the relationship between religion and experience, the study suggests that no specific experiences are needed to understand the emergence and development of religious traditions and attitudes. Assessing the implications of basic questions and attitudes in religious studies, it presents a theory of religion which is rooted in the internal dynamics of being human and cultural, and marked by a culture-oriented understanding of philosophy. The book concludes with a discussion of various phenomena which can be addressed as modes and forms of implicit religion, since they do not comply with expectations of traditional or explicit religion.

This collective book aims at examining in what terms, and to what extent, the "reception" of the Human Rights doctrine takes place in Eastern Orthodox countries, as well as in the Orthodox diaspora. A series of questions are raised regarding the resources and theological structures that are mobilized in the overall Human Rights¿ debate and controversy, the theological "interpretation" of Human Rights within the Eastern Orthodox spiritual tradition, and the similarities and/or divergences of this "interpretation", compared to the other Christian confessions. Special attention is given to the various Orthodox actors on the international arena, aside the national Orthodox churches, which participate in the Ecumenical dialogue, as well as the dialogue with the European and international institutions.Religious freedom, as a fundamental Human right, guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), constitutes a key-issue that contributes to broadening the reflections on the overall Human Rights-related problematic between East and West, by shading light on the more complex issue pertaining to the conceptualization and implementation of Human Rights in countries belonging to the Eastern Orthodox tradition.The present volume studies the diversity that characterizes the Orthodox theological traditions and interpretations regarding Human Rights, not only in terms of an "external", or a "strategical" approach of socio-political and ecclesial nature, but also through a reflexive analysis of theological discourses.

Si aujourd¿hui le pape François renonce à l¿expression d¿acte intrinsèquement mauvais, nombre de représentants officiels de l¿Église catholique continuent à l¿utiliser alors même que la crise des abus sexuels et de pouvoir en a montré les limites et les dérives possibles. Il fallait donc revenir sur l¿ancrage historique de la formule (et de ses variantes associées) afin de la déconstruire et d¿adapter sa formulation en la reliant à l¿exercice de la raison pratique qui préside à tout agir. Tel est précisément l¿objet de cet ouvrage qui désire participer à l¿effort du renouvellement du langage éthique. Mais cela devient l¿occasion de revisiter tous les grands thèmes de la théologie morale constamment invoqués : liberté, nature et loi naturelle, Écriture, tradition, sciences et théologie, critères de moralité, épikie, loi de gradualité, proportionnalité, principe du double effet.Aujourd¿hui, l¿acte humain ne peut plus être abordé comme isolé de son contexte historique, de ses conditions subjectives, de la pensée complexe¿ Pour dissiper les ambigüités, la notion d¿acte injustifiable à laquelle arrive l¿auteur de cet ouvrage au terme de son raisonnement est proposée pour articuler au mieux l¿altérité, la temporalité, la pluralité et la complexité systémique dans le discernement éthique. Avec une préface de Marie-Jo THIEL, Professeure à l¿université de Strasbourg, Directrice du Centre européen d¿enseignement et de recherche en éthique et Membre de l¿Académie pontificale pour la vie, ainsi qüune postface de Dominique JACQUEMIN, Professeur à l¿UCLouvain.