This edited volume proffers a sociological outlook on the challenges contemporary societies face when states attempt to govern religious and cultural diversity and still protect freedoms of and from religion claimed by individuals, communities, and institutions. The collection of chapters brings readers into both theoretical discussions and empirical research. It illustrates how the promise of religious freedom has become a burgeoning social issue at the center of struggles over equity, inclusion, and cohesion in both public institutions and everyday interactions.
The book is divided into three parts: the states legal and political mechanisms governing religious freedom; the challenges of religious pluralism for public institutions and global communities; social perceptions of religious freedom as an indicator and criterion of human rights culture in society. An international group of authors provide reviews, case studies, and data-driven research for students, researchers and practitioners working in the sociology of religion.
Chapter
1. Roger Finke (Pennsylvania State University), Cross-national
research on religious freedom: Charting a research agenda.
Chapter
2. Adam
Possamai (Western Sydney University), Freedom of religion and fortress
Christianity in Australia.
Chapter
3. James T. Richardson (University of
Nevada), The judicialization fo religious freedom: A comparison between the
European courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chapter
4. Lene Kuhle (Aaurhus
University), The construction of religious diversity as a framework for
claims for religious freedom.
Chapter
5. Olga Breskaya and Giuseppe Giordan
(University of Padova), Fourteen predictors of social perception of religious
freedom.
Chapter
6. Sabrina Testa (Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités -
CNRS-EPHE), Between religious freedom and the secularity of the State:
Notions in dispute in secularist judicial activism in Brazil.
Chapter
7.
Nanlai Cao (Renmin University), Everyday religious freedom in the expansion
of Chinese Christianity in Europe.
Chapter
8. Maja Kaninska (University of
Ljubljana), Study on religious freedom, diversity of three social systems -
Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
Chapter
9. Giovanna Rech
(University of Trento), (In-)visibility of places of worship in two new
religions: A comparative analysis of heritagisation in Italy and France.-
Chapter
10. Marco Guglielmi and Stefano Sbalchiero (University of Padova),
Does sharing place of worship matter in enhancing interfaith dialogue?
Evidences from congregations in three Italian cities.
Chapter
11. Massimo
Introvigne (Center for Studies on New Religions), Scientology, brainwashing,
and religious freedom in post-Trump United States.
Chapter
12. Kirill
Lapitskii (Polish Academy of Sciences), Changes in religiosity and religious
identification in Russia after 1991: A religious economy approach.
Chapter
13. Álvaro Augusto Espinoza Rizo (Bielefeld University), Governmental
persecution against the Catholic Church: Reflections on the Nicaraguan case
2018-2022.
Chapter
14. Matteo Di Placido (University of Turin), Narendra
Modis deployment of yoga: Religious (un)freedom, right-wing governance and
biopolitics in contemporary India.
Chapter
15. Carlo Nardella (University of
Milan), Religious diversity, social conflict and symbolic change: The cult of
St. Anthony after Sri Lankas 2019 Easter bombings.
Olga Breskaya, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at University of Padova. Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, human rights and comparative study of religious freedom. She recently co-edited Religious Freedom. Thinking Sociologically (Routledge, 2023) and co-authored research articles: The Lautsi Legacy: A New Judgment on the Crucifix in Classrooms and the Multiculturalist Turn on Freedom of/from Religion in Italy (2022), Social Construction of Religious Freedom: A Comparative Study among Youth in Italy and Russia (2022), and Religious Freedom and Microsociology of Law: Thinking with Georges Gurvitch (2020)
Roger Finke is a distinguished professor of sociology, religious studies, and international affairs at the Pennsylvania State University and is the founder of the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theARDA.com). He has authored two award-winning books with Rodney Stark. His most recent books include The Price of Freedom Denied with BrianGrim (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Places of Faith: A Road Trip Across Americas Religious Landscape with Christopher P. Scheitle (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Faithful Measures: The Art and Science of Measuring Religion with Christopher Bader (New York University Press, 2017)
Giuseppe Giordan is a professor of sociology at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at University of Padova. His research interests include spirituality, religious pluralism, conversion, interfaith dialogue, Eastern Orthodoxy, and religious freedom. He has recently co-edited the volumes Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches (Brill, 2021), Global Eastern Orthodoxy. Politics, Religion, and Human Rights (Springer, 2020), Chinese Religions Going Global (Brill, 2021), and Interreligious Dialogue: From Religion to Geopolitics (Brill, 2019). He co-authored Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
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