Religion in Times of Crisis,

The book was a joint venture between the ASR and the European Sociological Association’s (ESA) Sociology of Religion Research Network and features chapters by scholars who are members of both associations.

The book includes chapters by current ISE PhD student Vladimir Kmec and ISE Belfast alum Joram Tarusarira, who is completing his doctoral studies at the University of Leipzig.

Each chapter explores how religion is alive and well all over the world, especially in times of personal, political, and social crisis. Even in Europe, long regarded the most “secular” continent, religion has taken centre stage in how people respond to the crises associated with modernity, or how they interact with the nation-state. Scholars working in and on Europe offer fresh perspectives on how religion provides answers to existential crisis, how crisis increases the salience of religious identities and cultural polarization, and how religion is contributing to changes in the modern world in Europe and beyond. Cases from Poland to Pakistan and from Ireland to Zimbabwe, among others, demonstrate the complexity and ambivalence of religion’s role in the contemporary world.

This Friday, 15 August, from 1.00-2.30 pm, Gladys Ganiel will take part in an editor meets critics discussion at the ASR’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

The session was organised by Series Editor William Swatos of Baylor University and the discussants are Giuseppe Giordan, University of Padua, Anthony J. Blasi, University of Texas–San Antonio, and Lynn Davidman, University of Kansas.

The Table of Contents is as follows:

Preface: Of Crises and Challenges (William H. Swatos, Jr, Baylor University)

Introduction: Religion in Times of Crisis (Gladys Ganiel, Heidemarie Winkel, Christophe Monnot)

Part I: Religion and the Crisis of Modernity

Music, Branding and the Hegemonic Prosumption of Values of an Evangelical Growth Church (Tom Wagner, Royal Halloway University)

Religion as a Response to the Crisis of Modernity: Perspectives of Immigrants in Ireland (Vladimir Kmec, Trinity College Dublin)

The Electronic Frontier of Catholicism in Poland: An Answer to the Crisis of Religious Community? (Marta Kolodziejska, University of Warsaw)

“I Doubt. Therefore, I Believe”: Facing Uncertainty and Belief in the Making (Anne-Sophie Lamine, Strasbourg University)

Part II: Religion, Crisis and the Nation-State

Religion in Times of Crisis in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of Churches in Manicaland and its Theodicy of Liberation (Joram Tarusarira, University of Leipzig)

Religion, Homosexuality, and Contested Social Orders in the Netherlands, the Western Balkans, and Sweden (Mariecke van den Berg, David J. Bos, Marco Derks, R. Ruard Ganzevoort, Milos Jovanovic, Anne-Marie Korte) and Srdjan Sremac)

Parliamentary Hereticization of the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan: The Modern World Implicated in Islamic Crises (Ali Qadir, University of Tampere, Finland)

Being Recognizable in Order to Overcome the Crisis: The Ambivalence of Islamic Actors’ Struggle for Visibility in France and Switzerland (Christophe Monnot, University of Lausanne and Alexandre Piettre, Diderot University)

From Haskalah to Reinterpretation of Tradition: A Crisis in American Reform Judaism in the 21^st Century (Martina Topic, Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Zagreb, Croatia)

Dr Wilson served in the security forces during the Troubles, and later in corporate counsel in London. In 1998 he facilitated the historic accommodation between the Apprentice Boys and the Bogside Residents.  His doctorate was on the origins of the Orange Order, and his most recent research was a case study of the 2012/13 loyalist flags protest.

Thanks to Brian O’Neill and Benedikt Quosigk for photographs)

Gerry Conlon of the Guilford Four to speak.

Human right Lawyer Gareth Peirce also invited.

Date:                     Friday 29 November

Time:                     7.00 p.m.

Venue:                 Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin

Contact:               isedir@tcd.ie

An Evening with Emmanuel Jal:

The story of a child soldier from southern Sudan who became a musician, actor, author and global ambassador for peace.

Date:           Thursday 28 November, 2013
Time:           7.00 p.m.
Venue:              Synge Theatre, Arts Building,
Trinity College Dublin 2.

In a lecture entitled The Scandal of the Cross: Sexualised Violence, Torture and Public Theology, Dr David Tombs, Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity, will use both ancient and modern sources to examine crucifixion as a form of state terror torture and sexualised violence.

Organised by the Confederal School of Religions, Theology and Ecumenics and Trinity Long Room Hub as part of the Religion (s), Ethics and Cultural Engagement Lecture Series, the lecture will take place in Trinity Long Room Hub, Fellows’ Square, on Wednesday, November 13th, 3013 at 6pm.

Speaking in advance of the lecture, Dr Tombs commented:

“St. Paul’s description of the cross as ‘a scandal’ (1 Cor. 1.23) is widely known. Christians around the world are familiar with it, and many recall it each year on Good Friday. But what exactly made the cross a scandal, and why is it relevant to a Christian response to sexualised violence in conflicts today?”

“In this lecture I will present 15 years of research on why the cross was so scandalous in the ancient world. I will look at why the most critical element in the scandal has been unspeakable for two millennia, and why this has profound relevance to a church concern about sexualised violence in conflicts around the world today.

“My research suggests that ‘the scandal of the cross’ is a scandal of sexualised violence, and it is also scandalous for theologians and churches to have been silent on this for so long. In in response to reports of widespread conflict-related sexualised violence (including Central America in the 1980s, Bosnia and Africa in the 1990s and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the last decade) the central symbol of Christianity needs to be seen in a new way. It challenges theologians to find ways to speak of the cross in ways that will break the silence and taboo, and yet do so in a way that affirms the dignity of victims of sexualised violence past and present. It points to how this might be done in three areas of theological thought: the humanity of Christ; the unspoken memories of Eucharist; and the good news of resurrection.”

 

Media Contact:
Fiona Tyrrell, Press Officer for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin | E tyrrellf@tcd.ie |T: + 353 1 8964337.

A Public Meeting and a Film Screening

Tuesday, December 3rd 2013, 6pm – 9pm

Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin

(on main Trinity campus, the old ‘Physiology’ building, beside Department of Zoology and facing rugby pitch – enter Lincoln Place Gate)

PLACES ARE LIMITED – PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE AT irishpeaceforum@gmail.com / 085 156 2980

Since the military victory of the Sri Lankan government over the LTTE in May 2009, there is on-going militarisation in the predominantly Tamil-speaking North and East regions of Sri Lanka. On the northern peninsula alone the force density is 200 soldiers per 1000 civilians. This exceeds the force density in Chechnya, Kashmir and Iraq (during the early stage of occupation). Of the 18,000 square kilometres of the entire region nearly 8,000 have been fully acquired by the Sri Lankan security forces. The Sri Lankan government has undertaken massive structural changes in the region including establishing Sinhala settlements, military cantonments and Sinhala Buddhist shrines and by acquiring key economic and commercial centres of the region. Nearly 25,000 tombstones of LTTE combatants have been demolished and any public remembrance of the dead has been banned. In the aftermath of the war, the military is also reported to have killed workers, fishermen and other demonstrators in the southern parts of the island who protested against the government. What kind of ‘international pressure’ will work?

______________________

Chair:   Denis Halliday

Former Assistant Secretary General of the UN

Speaker 1:  Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam

A leading Tamil parliamentarian during the 2002 peace process and a lawyer whose father was assassinated by ‘unknown gunmen’ in 2000

Speaker 2:   Kumaravadivel Guruparan

A leading civil society activist and a lecturer at the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

______________________

Film:   Sri Lanka: Killing Fields II

The second of three documentaries produced by Channel 4 which reveals evidence that civilians, hospitals, no fire zones and other ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) marked places were targeted by the security forces killing thousands of civilians in the last phase of the war in 2009.

______________________

Organised by: International Peace Studies Programme – ISE/TCD; Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL) and Pax Christi Ireland.

Funded by: The Robert & Kezia Stanley Chapman Trust.     

The Politics of Memory in Chile
Thursday 14 November 2013
Refreshments from 6.00pm, speeches from 6.30pm.
Chair: Prof. David Tombs, Director of Trinity’s Centre for Post-Conflict Justice
Speaker: Dr. Cara Levey, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University College Cork
Respondent: Prof. Cath Collins, Professor of Transitional Justice, University of Ulster

Book: Cath Collins, Katherine Hite and Alfredo Joignant (eds), The Politics of Memory in Chile: From Pinochet to Bachelet (Boulder, CO: First Forum Press 2013)

Venue: Irish School of Ecumenics
Room G06, Irish School of Ecumenics and Loyola Institute Building
Trinity College Dublin
Details at www.tcd.ie/cpcj
Directions at www.ecumenics.ie/contact-us
Email tombsd@tcd.ie

		Conflict Resolution & Reconciliation Students on Tour of Belfast VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Last week students enrolled in the ‘Reconciliation in Northern Ireland’ module on the Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation had a group tour of Belfast, encompassing both the East and West of the city. Students attended the re-launch of ‘For God and His Glory Alone’ at Skainos in East Belfast before touring the lower Newtownards Road and then parts of West Belfast. The tour is designed to familiarise students with the city, to introduce them to how murals and political symbols are used to express identity, to point out landmarks important in the Troubles and peace process, and to explore how violence has shaped geography and architecture.

		Lunch with Community Partners 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This year students are working with Interaction Belfast, The Dock, the 4 Corners Festival, Peace Players, Platform for Change, Skainos/East Belfast Mission, and the WAVE Trauma Centre.

“We really appreciate the opportunity our partner organisations provide for our students to learn about how reconciliation work happens on the ground,” said Dr Gladys Ganiel, coordinator of the Community Learning and Reflective Practice module. “It allows students to see first-hand the challenges that remain in peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, while at the same time experiencing the good practices that these organisations are already engaged in.”

(Thanks to Sue Foy for the photographs)