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The Proper Role of Religion: Nuancing Theorization of the Politics of Legitimating Human Rights

Mon, August 24, 10:30am to 12:10pm, TBA

Abstract

Revisions to theorization about the nature and impact of secularization and secularism (e.g., Casanova 1994; Asad 2003) are producing new realizations about the need to give greater reflection to naturalized assumptions within several areas of social scientific scholarship (e.g., Hurd 2008; 2012; Reilly 2011; Cady and Fessenden 2013). Scholarship theorizing the potential for international human rights standards to gain cultural legitimacy across contexts is one of these areas that need greater attention (e.g., Freeman 2004). This paper points out the need for deeper examination of how distinctive cultural models about religion within global culture (see Thomas 2001; 2004; n.d.) matter for efforts to promote the moral authority of specific human rights standards. In particular, it highlights and critiques theorization of the nature of institutionalized schemas about religion in “global civil society” as they are conceptualized by two largely opposed bodies of theory: World-Polity-Theory scholarship (e.g., Thomas 2001; 2004; n.d.) and scholarship building on Asad (2003). It argues that additional research focused on this area, which more fully brings these two bodies of scholarship into conversation, will push forward understanding about how these cultural models matter for the negotiation and cultural legitimation of international human rights standards.

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