Why Do Religious Forms Matter?: Reflections on Materialism, Toleration, and Public Reason, (Hardcover)

<p>In <i>Why Do Religious Forms Matter?</i>, Pooyan Tamimi Arab<i> </i>reflects on the Early Modern roots and contemporary relevance of a materialist perspective on the politics of religious diversity.</p><p>Taking as a starting point the insight that religions manifest in myriad sensible forms--in architecture, in images, in the use of objects in rituals, and in distinctive ways of speaking--Tamimi Arab traces to Spinoza the material-religion approach prevalent in anthropology and religious studies. It is in Locke's political philosophy, however, that forms are tied to toleration--understood as a neutrally applied civil right--which Tamimi Arab discusses through contemporary case studies of mosque construction, amplified calls to prayer, and the right to ritual slaughter.</p>Going beyond the Enlightenment criticism and toleration of religions, the book concludes with an inclusive reading of Rawls's ideal of public reason, which assumes forms of discourse--religious and non-religious--to always be several. Religious forms thus turn out to be indispensable to liberal democracy itself. <p></p><p></p>

• Why Do Religious Forms Matter?: Reflections on Materialism, Toleration, and Public Reason, (Hardcover)
• Author: Palgrave MacMillan
• ISBN: 9783030957780
• Format: Hardcover
• Publication Date: 2022-03-05
• Page Count: 139