David Golemboski’s Religious Pluralism and Political Stability: Obligations in Agreement investigates conflicts between citizens’ religious and political-legal obligations in contemporary pluralistic societies by analyzing the relevant literature and court cases from the perspective of political liberalism. As such conflicts generate an unstable political system, which is not sustainable, the question is of great importance. In this sense, political “stability” becomes the central focus of the book, which renders the book a significant source in the political theory scholarship. Despite occasionally reductionist and Eurocentric ideas stemming from its implicit claim of universality, the book offers a comprehensive and convincing analysis of the political-religious conflicts in the U.S. context. In this sense, as a substantial contribution to the relevant scholarship, it provides an important source for those interested in the intersections of religion, politics, law and political theory.
This review offers a comprehensive analysis of Dār al-Islām Revisited: Territoriality in Contemporary Islamic Legal Discourse on Muslims in the West by Sarah Albrecht, a study that explores the evolving interpretations of classical Islamic territorial concepts such as dār al-Islām and dār al-ḥarb in the context of postcolonial Muslim migration to the West. Based on her doctoral dissertation, Albrecht’s work bridges historical jurisprudence and contemporary discourse to examine how these concepts have been reappropriated by Muslim scholars, activists, and institutions to address issues of identity, authority, and legal belonging in a globalized world. The book is structured around a typology of four interpretive trends, ranging from strict traditionalists to reformist voices who seek to transcend geo-religious boundaries altogether. Through detailed historical analysis and contemporary case studies, Albrecht demonstrates how territoriality has shifted from a rigid legal category to a flexible and contested discursive tool. The review highlights the book’s central argument that the reconceptualization of territorial distinctions is not merely a doctrinal exercise but a vital response to the lived realities of Muslims in the West. It also underscores the implications of these debates for the discipline of fiqh, especially in light of the democratization of Islamic knowledge and the decentralization of legal authority beyond the traditional scholarly elite.
The use of social media, which has rapidly increased in recent years, directly or indirectly affects people's mental health. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of learned helplessness (LH) on social media-induced secondary traumatic stress (STS-SM) and the role of quality of life and religious coping in this relationship in Tiirkiye. This cross-sectional study sample consisted of 397 Turkish Muslim adults. The results revealed significant links among LH, negative religious coping (NRC), and quality of life with STS-SM. Moderation analyses revealed that perceived high quality of life moderated the positive effect of LH on STS-SM, whereas mediation analyses revealed that NRC partially mediated this relationship. The results support the idea that disturbing content on social media can trigger traumatic stress, especially among individuals who feel helpless and resort to negative religious coping, but perceived high quality of life has a buffering effect.
Compared with the Reform and Orthodox movements in the United States, Conservative Judaism has experienced the tension between tradition and change much more intensely. The "middle way" ideal has inevitably left the Conservative movement open to criticism in every period. Conservative Judaism, which remained the most popular movement in the United States from the last quarter of the 19th century -when it began to evolve into an institutional dimension- until approximately the end of the 20th century, is currently experiencing a period of crisis. This article, which aims to reveal the main reasons that played a role in the decline of the Conservative movement and to develop a framework for its future, examines both of these areas with reference to the founding ideology of the movement. Within this framework, the research has been conducted in the context of the vision of Judaism advanced by the movement's founding leader, Solomon Schechter (1849-1915). This main groundwork performs a critical function in helping to compare the idealized Conservative understanding of religion with the current state of the movement, thus helping to identify problematic points and to make forward-looking comments and predictions. The Conservative movement has not been able to evaluate the ongoing process of decline as part of a comprehensive research initiative from within the movement itself. It is hoped that this article will contribute to the literature as a critical study. Regarding the future of the movement, this article defends the thesis that establishing a close relationship with Orthodox Jews who have certain characteristics can play a vital role in the Conservative movement's recovery from its present state of crisis.
The history of philosophy reflects the tensions between the claim that the human mind is the mere perceiver of objective reality in the external world and the claim that the human mind is the founder of objective reality in the external world. Is the object perceived without any processing? Or is perception formed in the mind through certain processes? In classical philosophical psychology, including Avicenna's, the internal senses are referred to as the faculties that enable the relation between the purely rational and the purely material in the perception and movements of both celestial and human souls. The discussions about the imagination that occurred in this period are important not only because of the questions they raised but also because they highlighted areas of tension among fragmentation, difference, and individuality in the sensory realm and among simplicity, commonality, and generality in the rational realm. This article analyses how Avicenna's scheme of internal senses, and particularly compositive imagination, influenced his position on active perception. To this end, first, the scheme of internal senses, which originated with Avicenna, is considered. Second, Avicenna's redefinition of the functions of compositive imagination, especially with respect to active perception, is analyzed.
