Read more
This book examines the growing diversity of religions and worldviews across South & Central Asia, and the factors affecting prospects for 'covenantal pluralism' in these regions. Going beyond banal appeals for mere 'tolerance', the theory of covenantal pluralism calls for a constitutional order of religious freedom and equal treatment combined with a culture of practical religious literacy and everyday virtues of engagement across lines of religious difference.
According to the Pew Religious Diversity Index, half of the world's most religiously diverse countries are in Asia. The presence of deep religious/worldview difference is often seen as a potential threat to socio-political cohesion or even as a source of violent conflict. Yet in Asia (as elsewhere) the degree of this diversity is not consistently associated with socio-political problems. Indeed, while religious difference is implicated in some social challenges, there are also many instances of respectful multi-faith engagement, practical collaboration, and peaceful debate.
Volume II offers a pioneering exploration of the prospects for this robust and non-relativistic type of pluralism in South & Central Asia. (Volume I examined East & Southeast Asia.) The chapters in these volumes originally appeared as research articles in a series on covenantal pluralism published by The Review of Faith & International Affairs.
List of contents
From Religious Plurality to Civic Solidarity in Asia: An Introduction to Volume II SECTION 1: SOUTH ASIA 1. Covenantal Pluralism in Pakistan: Assessing the Conditions of Possibility 2. Pluralizing Pluralism: Lessons from, and for, India 3. Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Nepal 4. Promoting Covenantal Pluralism amidst Embedded Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka 5. Barriers to Covenantal Pluralism in Bangladeshi Public Opinion 6. As Children of Adam: (Re)Discovering a History of Covenantal Pluralism in Afghan Constitutionalism 7. Pluralism and Peace in South Asia SECTION 2: CENTRAL ASIA 8. Can Covenantal Pluralism Grow in Central Asian Soil? Hopes and Hard Lessons from the Religious History of the Region 9. Legal Reform in Uzbekistan: Prospects for Freedom of Religion or Belief and Covenantal Pluralism 10. Religious Pluralism and State Paternalism in Kazakhstan 11. Authoritarian Governance and Ambiguous Religious Policy: An Uncertain Future for Covenantal Pluralism in Tajikistan 12. "Turkmen Islam" and the Paucity of Real Pluralism in Turkmenistan's Post-Soviet Nation-building 13. Building Pluralism in Central Asia: Outlining an Experiential Approach in Kyrgyzstan
About the author
Dennis R. Hoover (D.Phil., Oxford) is Editor of
The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, and an advisor to the Templeton Religion Trust. His recent books include
The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement, co-edited with Chris Seiple.
Summary
This book examines the growing diversity of religions and worldviews across South & Central Asia, and the factors affecting prospects for “covenantal pluralism” in these regions. The chapters originally appeared as research articles in the journal The Review of Faith & International Affairs.
