New Publication I & II: Rajeev Bhargava on “Between Hope and Despair: 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India” and “Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China”

Our Senior Research Fellow Rajeev Bhargava recently edited two new publications: In his book “Between Hope and Despair: 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India”, he addresses India's collective ethical identity, which is under duress: Some groups believe that India is finally rediscovering its Hindu identity and becoming a great nation-state. For others, this change has brought us on the verge of losing our civilisational character of being inclusive but not any less Hindu. Rajeev argues that it is possible to bring these groups with divergent views to discuss each other's point of view. He believes that the legitimate concerns of all those disenchanted with the idea of an inclusive, pluralist India can actually be addressed within the basic framework of India's constitutional democracy.

Bhargava, Rajeev. Between Hope and Despair: 100 Ethical Reflections on Contemporary India. New Delhi: Bloomsbury India, 2022. 

In the anthology “Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China”, which Rajeev co-edited with Amitav Acharya from the American University, Daniel A. Bell from Shandong University, and Yan Xuetong from Tsinghua University, he gathers a coterie of experts in the field, analyzing profound political thinkers from these ancient regions whose theories of interstate relations set the terms for the debates today. This volume is the first work of its kind and is essential reading for anyone interested in the growth of China and India and what it means for the rest of the world.

Acharya, Amitav, Daniel A. Bell, Rajeev Bhargava, and Yan Xuetong, eds. Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China. California: University of California Press, 2023.

New Publication III: Mascha Schulz on “Global Sceptical Publics: From non-religious print media to ‘digital atheism’”

We would also like to point to the latest publication by our Junior Research Fellow Mascha Schulz. Together with Jacob Copeman, Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, she has edited the volume “Global Sceptical Publics: From non-religious print media to ‘digital atheism’”. This is the first major study of the significance of different media for the (re)production of non-religious publics and publicity. With some chapters focusing on locations hitherto barely considered by scholarship on non-religion, the book places in comparative perspective how atheists, secularists and humanists engage with media – as means of communication and forming non-religious publics, but also on occasion as something to be resisted.

Mascha herself contributes two chapters on “Non-religion, atheism and sceptical publicity” and “Performing the secular: street theatre and songs as ‘secular media’ in Bangladesh and West Bengal”, and the book also contains an afterword by our Senior Research Fellow Johannes Quack.

Copeman, Jacob, and Mascha Schulz, eds. Global Sceptical Publics: From Non-Religious Print Media to ‘Digital Atheism'. London: UCL Press, 2022.

New Publication IV: Christel Gärtner on “Faith, Authenticity, and Pro-Social Values in the Lives of Young People in Germany”

Increasing secularization, pluralization, and individualization have done much to weaken denominational identities and traditional religiosity in most Western countries since the 1960s, with the effect that—to echo Niklas Luhmann—being religious requires purely religious reasons. This also applies to young people, for whom religion is still an option, but precisely one option among others, and according to Charles Taylor quite a challenging one. In her article on “Faith, Authenticity, and Pro-Social Values in the Lives of Young People in Germany”, our Senior Research Fellow Christel Gärtner together with her co-author Linda Hennig, focuses on young people who actively engage with faith and religion, and who take up a different position with regard to religion than their peers during their adolescence. The authors argue that both the societal context and the life phase of adolescence or young adulthood make it likely that a person will base decisions regarding religion upon the criterion of authenticity.

Gärtner, Christel, and Linda Hennig. 2022. “Faith, Authenticity, and Pro-Social Values in the Lives of Young People in Germany.” Religions 13, no. 10 (2022): 962.