The Importance of Understanding the Sociology of Religion

http://hds.harvard.edu/news/2016/01/20/importance-understanding-sociology-religion#

The Importance of Understanding the Sociology of Religion

Warren Goldstein is a sociologist of religion teaching at HDS. While his research aims to develop a critical sociology of religion as a "new paradigm" in the sociology of religion, he is more broadly interested in the development of a critical paradigm in the study of religion as a whole.

Stand up to hatred

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/458257/stand-up-to-hatred

Stand up to hatred 

Published: 20 Jan 2015 at 06.00 

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/458257/stand-up-to-hatred. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Credit a top US diplomat for raising the issue of fast-growing religious intolerance in our region. Tom Malinowski, an official of the human rights office of the US State Department, made his comments... 

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/458257/stand-up-to-hatred. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

In The Wake Of The Charlie Hebdo Attack, This Buddhist Teacher Is Advocating For 'Responsible Speech'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/12/charlie-hebdo-buddhism_n_6458144.html

In The Wake Of The Charlie Hebdo Attack, This Buddhist Teacher Is Advocating For 'Responsible Speech'

HuffPost Live 

LSE: Innovation, Violence and Paralysis: How do Minority Religions Cope with Uncertainty?

Inform Winter Seminar

Innovation, Violence and Paralysis: How do Minority Religions Cope with Uncertainty?

Date - Saturday, 7 February 2015; 9.30am – 5.00pm
Location – New Academic Building, London School of Economics

Registration is now open and can be done using a credit/debit card through PayPal or by posting a booking form and a cheque payable to 'Inform' to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE. Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 19 January 2015 are £38 each (£18 students/unwaged). Tickets booked after 19 January 2015 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged). 

What happens when groups lose control of their own destiny? Whether it leads to violence, as in the case of Aum Shinrikyo’s response to a potential police investigation in 1995, or to non-violent innovations, as found in minority religions following the death of their founders or leaders, uncertainty and insecurity can lead to great change in the mission and even teachings of religious groups. What does it take to bring back certainty? This seminar will explore how minority religions and their members work with notions of uncertainty and insecurity.

9.30 - 10.00         REGISTRATION

10.00 - 10.05       Eileen Barker (Founder and Honorary Research Fellow, Inform) Welcome and Housekeeping

10.05 - 10.15       Kim Knott (Professor of Religious and Secular Studies in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University) Introduction

10.15 - 10.45       Graham Macklin

10.45 – 11.15      Titus Hjelm (Lecturer, UCL) Paradoxes of Religious Legitimacy and Authenticity in an Age of Expediency

11.15 – 11.40      TEA/COFFEE

11.40 – 12.10      Suzanne Newcombe (Research Officer at Inform) Certain Beliefs and Uncertain Evidence: The Case of Shugden

12.10 – 12.40      TBC

12.40 - 13.10       Dawn Marie Gibson (Lecturer, Royal Holloway, University of London) Uncertain times in the Nation of Islam’s Past and Present

13.10 - 14.10       LUNCH

14.10 - 14.40       George Sieg (Adjunct Professor, University of New Mexico)

14.40 - 15.10       Anthony Fiscella (Doctoral Student, Lund University) Moving Mountains: From Colonial Orders to Universal Change

15.10 - 15.40       TEA/COFFEE

15.40 – 16.10      David Robertson Conspiracy Theories as Response to Uncertainty in Minority Religions

16.10 – 16.50      GENERAL PANEL DISCUSSION

What is happening in Myanmar Buddhist circles ?

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/18/myanmar-women-object-proposed-restrictions-interfaith-marriage/

What is happening in Myanmar Buddhist circles ?