4152 - Religion and Contested Understandings of Social Justice (Cosponsored with the Association for the Sociology of Religion)

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

How do different religious traditions draw on their symbolic and ideological resources to define, advance, and pursue social justice in the world? Conversely, how do different movements who understand themselves to be working for social justice draw on religious traditions (or cultural and symbolic resources drawn from them) in order to frame, mobilize, and organize? This panel will explore these questions drawing on empirical work (ethnographic, interpretive, historical, and other) and theoretical frameworks (whether sociological or theological) to draw sharp parallels and distinctions between approaches to social justice, how the understandings behind them are contested, and how religious dynamics shape societal outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Special Session

Session Organizer

• Richard L. Wood, University of New Mexico

Presider

• Richard L. Wood, University of New Mexico

Individual Presentations

• Left and Right Populist Views of Social Justice: Religious and Quasi-religious - Ruth Braunstein, University of Connecticut

• Malcolm X and Martin: Rival African-American Views of Justice and their Reverberations today - Bryan Massengale, Fordham University

• Between community and sectarianism: Calling out and the religious discipline of prefiguration - Mario Venegas, University of Texas-Austin

Discussant

• Richard L. Wood, University of New Mexico