TY - JOUR A1 - Becci, Irene A1 - Hafner, Johann Evangelist T1 - A New Synagogue, a Garrison Church, and a Mosque BT - how religious (re)building animates religious and secular life in postsocialist Potsdam JF - Space and Culture N2 - In postsocialist Potsdam, religious diversity has risen surprisingly in public life since 1990 although more than 80% of the residents have no religious affiliation. City and state authorities have actively embraced issues around immigration and integration as well as the promotion of religious diversity and interreligious dialogue and have linked this to the agenda of rejuvenating the city’s religious heritage. For years, negotiations have been going on about the need of a mosque, the reconstructions of a synagogue and the so-called “Garrison Church,” a landmark military church building. These initiatives have been dominating the public space for different reasons. They implied, beyond religion, questions of memory, identity, immigration, and culture. This article puts these three cases into perspective to offer a nuanced understanding of the importance of religious spaces in secular contexts considering city politics. KW - religion KW - Potsdam KW - postsocialist city KW - religious buildings KW - cultural diversity KW - Islam KW - Judaism KW - Protestantism Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/12063312221134572 SN - 1552-8308 SN - 1206-3312 VL - 26 IS - 2 SP - 215 EP - 228 PB - Sage Publications CY - Thousand Oaks, Calif. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Spiegel, Thomas Jussuf T1 - Is religion natural? BT - religion, naturalism and near-naturalism JF - International journal of philosophy and theology N2 - In this article I argue that the kind of scientific naturalism that tends to underwrite projects of naturalizing religion operates with a tacit conception of nature which, upon closer inspection, turns out to be untenable. I first distinguish an uninteresting modest naturalism from the more ambitious and relevant scientific naturalism. Secondly I survey three different kinds of attempting to naturalize religion: naturalizing the social aspect of religion, naturalizing religious experience, and naturalizing reference to the transcendent. Thirdly I argue that these projects operate with a conception of nature which is insufficiently clear. I suggest three ways of charitably explicating that tacit conception of what is natural before arguing that neither of these three positions works. Lastly I offer an irenic proposal: we would do good in giving up the scientific naturalism that underlies projects of naturalizing religion in order to embrace Lynne Rudder Baker's recently proposed notion of near-naturalism which allows the naturalist to retain a 'science first' attitude while avoiding problematic, overly restrictive notions of what is natural. KW - naturalism KW - religion KW - near-naturalism KW - liberal naturalism KW - naturalization Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/21692327.2020.1749717 SN - 2169-2327 SN - 2169-2335 VL - 81 IS - 4 SP - 351 EP - 368 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Deffa, Oromiya-Jalata T1 - The impact of homogeneity on intra-group cohesion: a macro-level comparison of minority communities in a Western diaspora JF - Journal of multilingual and multicultural development N2 - Contrary to earlier studies dealing with the cultural identity development of diasporic minorities, this paper assesses the impact of homogeneity on intra-group cohesion and ethnic orientation. To this end, Oromo-Americans, an ethnic group originally located within the national borders of Ethiopia, will be compared to Armenian-Americans, British-Pakistanis and Somali-Americans. Despite different circumstances, all four groups share the experience of displacement owing to war and destitution. Additionally, all groups are confronted with the ramifications of a visible minority status. In the process of comparing these groups, their degrees of homogeneity in regard to language and religion - central aspects of culture and cultural identity - will be examined and juxtaposed at a macro level. Based on the correlative relationship of group homogeneity and social cohesion, I argue that the more homogeneous a group is in terms of language and religion, the more close-knit it will be. Consequently, exiled minorities who share the same language and religion are more likely to develop and retain a strong ethnic orientation than groups who are heterogeneous with regard to language and/or religion. KW - minority groups KW - Homogeneity KW - ethnic orientation KW - group cohesion KW - religion KW - language Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2015.1072203 SN - 0143-4632 SN - 1747-7557 VL - 37 SP - 343 EP - 356 PB - Elsevier CY - Abingdon ER -