Authenticity and Religion in the Pluralistic Age (eBook)

A Simmelian Study of Christian Evangelicals and New Monastics

Francesca E.S. Montemaggi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
236 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-4985-5743-6 (ISBN)

Infos

This book uses an innovative and original theoretical framework for the understanding of Christian consciousness in the age of pluralism, drawing on Georg Simmel’s social theory as well as philosophers such as Heidegger, Beauvoir, Sartre, Ferrara, and MacIntyre and classical and contemporary sociologists and anthropologists.

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This book provides an original concept of authenticity to illuminate the transformation of Christian consciousness in the increasingly more secular and pluralistic culture of Western societies. The present work is unique in offering an in-depth study of Simmel's sociology and philosophy in dialogue with an ethnographic account of contemporary Christians. It develops original concepts drawing on Simmel's writings on individuality and religion and connecting them with classical and contemporary scholarship in sociology and philosophy. The theoretical framework is illustrated through an analysis of the narratives and practices of Christians in an evangelical church in the UK and several New Monastic communities in the UK, US, and Canada. The book proposes an understanding of belief as relational and experiential and a concept of authenticity, as self-transcendence articulated in dialogue with religious tradition and the Other. Religious tradition is developed through an on-going process of interpretation and sacralization of what is considered within and without the tradition's boundaries. The book also proposes an innovative approach to the study of morality by distinguishing between a people-centered ethic (ethic of compassion) and a norm-centered ethic (ethic of purity) to account for the the different ways in which Christians engage with the Other. This allows an exploration of the relationship between ethics and the making and breaking of boundaries in a given community. The case studies in this book show that committed Christians attempt to reconcile commitment to their tradition with the value of inclusiveness and to affirm their moral and religious identity as a distinctive moral lifestyle, not superior, but of equal worth to those of non-Christians.

Autor

Francesca Montemaggi, PhD, is researcher in the fields of sociology and anthropology of morality and religion.

Inhalt

Introduction: Cultivating Authenticity in the Pluralistic AgeChapter 1: Authenticity, Modernity, and ReligionChapter 2: Crossing Boundaries in the FieldChapter 3: The Relational Sociology of Georg SimmelChapter 4: Belief as Experiential and RelationalChapter 5: Authenticity, Self-Transcendence, and RelationalityChapter 6: Authenticity and TraditionChapter 7: Sacralization—Marking the Boundaries of AuthenticityChapter 8: Relational AuthenticityChapter 9: The New Monastic Cultivation of AuthenticityChapter 10: Authenticity in Pluralistic TimesAppendix: The 12 Marks of a New MonasticismBibliography

Produkt-Details

• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Makrosoziologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• Schlagworte: anthropology of morality • Anthropology of Religion • authenticity • Beauvoir • Christianity • Evangelicals • Ferrara • Georg Simmel • German sociologist • Heidegger • MacIntyre • Morality • neo-Kantian approach • new monastics • pluralism • Religion • Sartre • Social Theory • sociological antipositivism • Sociology of Religion
• ISBN-10: 1-4985-5743-0 / 1498557430
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4985-5743-6 / 9781498557436