Cosmopolitanism Religion and the Public Sphere

<p>Although emerging scholarship in the social sciences suggests that religion can be a potential catalyst of cosmopolitanism and global citizenship few attempts have been made to bring to the fore new theoretical positions and empirical analyses of how cosmopolitanism -- as a philosophical notion a practice and identity outlook -- can also shape and inform concrete religious affiliations. Key questions concerning the significance of cosmopolitan ideas and practices – in relation to particular religious experiences and discourses -- remain to be explored both theoretically and empirically. </p><p></p><p>This book takes as its starting point the emergence of cosmopolitanism -- as a major interdisciplinary field -- as a springboard for generating a productive dialogue among scholars working within a variety of intellectual disciplines and methodological traditions. The chapter contributions offer a serious attempt to critically engage both the limitations and possibilities of cosmopolitanism as an analytical and critical tool to understand a changing religious landscape in a globalizing world namely the so-called ‘new religious diversity’ religious conflict and issues of migration multiculturalism and transnationalism vis-à-vis the public exercise of religion. The contributors’ work is situated in a range of world sites in Africa India North America Latin America and Europe.</p><p></p><p>This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of globalization religion and politics and the sociology of religion. </p><p></p>