Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: “God” is said. “God” is argued. “God” is lost. The anti-religion war is now in full swing with a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. Richard Dawkins’ 2006 published and controversial book The God Delusion contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist. Belief in a god qualifies as a delusion and faith in “God” is a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. Dawkins is hostile to all religions, in particular to fundamentalist Christianity and Islam. After the atrocities of 9/11 and in light of recent intellectual debates on religion, as in Dawkins’ The God Delusion, one of the main post-modern tribulations to be dealt with is the unrest emerging from the “God confusion.” The variety of personal experiences, understanding and symbolizations of divine reality in the contemporary world – or the lack of it - has created a world-wide religious tension. We are not only facing global theoretical clashes concerning the God question between various groups, but will have to face up to the huge practical implications, especially with implementing laws and degrees on a political level. There is a hunger for alternative perspectives, for analyzes that challenge supposedly universally accepted propositions. This paper provides such a perspective starting from the experiential openness to the divine in Voegelin, Etty Hillesum and Martin Buber, attempting to unveil the divine-human movements of the soul. According to Buber, the present crisis of deformed existence has entangled the human heart in an estrangement from God and human beings. In Buber’s view, at the heart of all genuine religiosity we have lost the opening up of everyday reality to dialogic relations with an eternal, absolute Presence or “Thou.” Voegelin is calling for a radical conversion to transcendent order. The Dutch mystic Etty Hillesum in her Letters and Diaries experiences God as the creative ground of existence, a timeless presence or “You” encountered within her “center” in the flow of life. The deepest reason for meeting this presence, according to these three thinkers, does not lie in the weakness of our irrationality but in the possibility of recovering a spiritual understanding of what gives meaning to our lives. Our personal reorientation to the divine is the first step to bring an elementary recognition of transcendent reality to our whole civilization. This paper is such an appeal to resist forgetfulness of God.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper is an analysis of policy relating to Charitable Choice. The charitable choice provision of the 1996 federal welfare reform law makes faith-based organizations eligible for government funds to provide social services. Black churches will undoubtedly be recipients of some of those funds. Few studies have been done on the role of the Black Church in the socio-economic mobility of African-Americans, or its social service role in the Black community. In this paper I will highlight the importance of the Black Church in the formulation and development of social domestic policy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper, I put forward what I take to be a plausible non-religious foundation for the idea of human rights. In particular, I make a procedural and practical argument here, one that steps back from arguments about a universal human nature. To do so, I look to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to claim that human rights represent a political consensus of overlapping ideas from cultures and communities around the world. It is not simply that no single tradition was victorious in setting out the foundation of human rights that others could accept, though it is true that none was; instead, the Declaration’s chief virtue is that everyone was able to agree upon and endorse a common foundation: the dignity of the human person. The nations of the world may disagree on a great many things – philosophical as well as practical – but they have all agreed on this important point: every human being is entitled to the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration by virtue of the inherent dignity that is common to us all. This idea can be embraced by those who subscribe to what Michael Perry calls a religious cosmology and also by those who do not. In constructing this consensus, then, we have succeeded in establishing a practical non-religious foundation upon which the idea of human rights can rest.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper analyzes Augustine's Confessions according to the analysis of intentional and participatory consciousness that Eric Voegelin presents in In Search of Order.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: What types of people are more likely to perceive that God controls their fate? Using data from a sample of 1,167 black and white elderly, we examine the effects of two forms of socioeconomic status (SES)—education and income—on the sense of divine control. We also explore whether or not those effects vary by race, as well as explanations for any race-contingent effects. Results indicate that education and income are associated negatively with the sense of divine control, although those effects are significantly stronger among whites. Adjustment for race-linked differences in religiosity reduces part of the race gap, but the effect remains significant. In contrast, we fail to find support for the deprivation-compensation hypothesis, which proposes that the disadvantaged seek out religion as compensation. Specifically, adjustment for an array of potential stressors (i.e., perceived unfair treatment, life events, economic hardship, health conditions, and neighborhood problems) has little effect on the race-contingent effects of SES. Taken together, our final model explains over half of the total variation in the sense of divine control. We discuss the implications of our findings for common assertions about race and class differences in religious precepts and practices and offer speculation about the persistence of SES-by-race effects irrespective of the degree of religiosity and stressors.