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Institut für Philosophie Institut für Philosophie

Univ.-Prof. i. R. Dr. Hans Köchler Univ.-Prof. i. R. Dr. Hans Köchler

602004

Religion und Gewalt

SE 2

keine Angabe

keine Angabe

Englisch

Since the end of the bipolar world order of the Cold War, international relations have been increasingly determined by tensions along religious lines. Samuel Huntington's essay of 1993 apparently has set the tone for a new discourse on civilization as a source of international conflict. With the demise of the ideological rivalry of the East-West conflict, new enemy stereotypes are being created on the basis of religious identification. On the one hand, religion is being used as a tool to justify violence; on the other, violent means are applied to remodel religious identity according to the secular principles of another civilization. Entire religions are being demonized as threats to international peace; Huntington's dictum of the "bloody borders of Islam" is proof of this tendency. In this context, the term "fundamentalism" is mainly used in a polemical sense. However, the renaissance of religious awareness and the search for civilizational identity by a religious community are not necessarily identical with an aggressive attitude towards other religions or civilizations. A clear distinction has to be made between actual and perceived threats emanating from a given religion or civilization. If this distinction is not made, the "clash of civilizations" may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Specific questions/ topics: Investigation into the violence-proneness of religions: hermeneutical questions / the problem of hermeneutical bias Religious violence or violent religion? -- Case studies of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism Christianity and violence: the "rationale" of the crusades The "rationale" and the political interpretation and instrumentalization of jihad Monotheistic religions and tendency to violence: Does a correlation exist? Belief in absolute truth and proneness to violence: psychological questions Religious violence and the war on terror: distinguishing cause and effect The "global war on terror" and the stereotyping of Islam Western political correctness in the context of the "global war on terror": the image of Islam versus the self-image of Western society The ideological assumptions underlying the notion of the "clash of civilizations" Return of the sacred into 21st century politics? − Philosophical assessment of a current diagnosis The disparity between the secularized world view of technological civilization and the religious world view of traditional societies: assessment of conflict potential Religious enemy stereotypes and the justification of war in the 21st century: Post-September 11 conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) The Palestine conflict and its impact on Muslim-Western and/or Muslim-Christian relations Case studies of conflict situations with an inter-religious dimension (former Yugoslavia, India, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, Nigeria, etc.) Case studies of intra-religious conflict situations (e.g. Iraq)

The working languages of the seminar are English and German. Each participant has to choose a specific subtopic. The list of subtopics will be established in the course of the preparatory session. On each subtopic a lecture is to be presented which will be followed by a question and answer session. A summary of the presentation should be handed out at the beginning of each lecture meeting. A written paper on the topic of the lecture is to be delivered until the end of February 2007. An information visit to South-East Asia (Malaysia) is planned for the middle of January. The visit will be an integral part of the seminar's programme. Two participants shall prepare a briefing document for the visit. (Their briefing document will be in lieu of a seminar paper.) Participation in the regular weekly sessions (October to December) and in the information visit (approx. one week in January) is mandatory.

http://hanskoechler.com/koechler-lv-ws2006-07.htm#(II)

Seminar with information visit to South-East Asia. In co-operation with Mag. Jodok Troy and Dr. Andreas Oberprantacher. Interdisciplinary seminar for students of philosophy, theology, and political science. Personal registration required.
Beginn: 3.10.2006