Cosmopolitanism, Religion and the Public Sphere

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.

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.

This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of globalization, religion and politics, and the sociology of religion.

Maria Rovisco is a Lecturer in Media and Film Studies at York St John University.She has published articles on the tradition of European films of voyage, cosmopolitanism and religion, and on the cultural borders of Europe and globalization.

Sebastian Kim holds the Chair in Theology and Public Life in the Faculty of Education and Theology at York St John University. His research interests include: public theology; world Christianity; theology of mission; community and identity; contextual theologies; religion and post-modern society.