Interfaith Development Efforts as Means to Peace and Witness

Backues, Lindy

doi:10.1177/0265378809103383

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Why are there attempts to be “culturally sensitive” in these cross‐cultural encounters (cf. Backues 2009; Gramby‐Sobukwe and Hoiland 2009)? Why has modern missiology become anthropologically informed?…”

Section: Contributing To the Anthropology Of Fbosmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropology of Faith and Development: An Introduction

Hefferan

Fogarty

2010

NAPA Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Contributing To the Anthropology Of Fbosmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Anthropology of Faith and Development: An Introduction

Hefferan

Fogarty

2010

NAPA Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Engaging the Religiously Committed Other: Anthropologists and Theologians in Dialogue

Meneses¹,

Backues²,

Bronkema³

et al. 2014

Current Anthropology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropology has two tasks: the scientific task of studying human beings and the instrumental task of promoting human flourishing. To date, the scientific task has been constrained by secularism, and the instrumental task by the philosophy and values of liberalism. These constraints have caused religiously based scholarship to be excluded from anthropology's discourse, to the detriment of both tasks. The call for papers for the 2009 meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) recognized the need to "push the field's epistemological and presentational conventions" in order to reach anthropology's various publics. Religious thought has much to say about the human condition. It can expand the discourse in ways that provide explanatory value as well as moral purpose and hope. We propose an epistemology of witness for dialogue between anthropologists and theologians, and we demonstrate the value added with an example: the problem of violence.Since its inception, anthropology has been engaged in two main tasks. The first is the scientific task of seeking to understand the full dimensions of the nature and expressions of humankind. The second, based on the first, is the instrumental task of using those understandings to press for processes, projects, and policies that will protect and nourish the best of that nature and its expressions.It is our contention that the depth of anthropology's perspective on humanity, and therefore the relevance of its instrumental uses, has been constrained by the modernist epistemological assumptions and commitments that have generally governed Western academic discourse. In particular, the commitments to secularism and to liberalism, operating in the background of the discourse, have led to the exclusion of religiously based perspectives as intellectually coequal. That exclusion has resulted in a limiting of the theoretical and practical insights available for the advancement of anthropology's perspective in the contemporary world.

show abstract

Faith-based Diplomacy and Interfaith Dialogue

Blakemore

2019

BRP Dipl. Foreign Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars are seeking to identify how to integrate faith into diplomacy constructively. Proponents of faith-based diplomacy recognise that incorporating faith into peacemaking activities assists in alleviating identity-based conflict and religiously motivated violence in the contemporary international system. A promising strategy within the scope of faith-based diplomacy is interfaith dialogue. The study and practice of interfaith dialogue have been reinvigorated since the advent of 9/11, and yet the link between interfaith dialogue and diplomacy remains underdeveloped. The cases of Indonesia and the United States show that states can effectively use interfaith dialogue to achieve policy objectives, and yet some policies are detrimental to achieving goals. Faith-based diplomacy and interfaith dialogue can be innovative diplomatic perspectives useful in addressing contemporary global issues.

show abstract

Interfaith Development Efforts as Means to Peace and Witness

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

The Anthropology of Faith and Development: An Introduction

The Anthropology of Faith and Development: An Introduction

Engaging the Religiously Committed Other: Anthropologists and Theologians in Dialogue

Faith-based Diplomacy and Interfaith Dialogue

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About