Contending Modernities Articles

A Muslim Response to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium


Through his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis has inaugurated a constructive platform for Muslim leaders to enter into renewed dialogue with Catholics on critical questions facing both religious traditions. It is my view that Muslim leaders, in particular, need to do much more to reach out, engage, and embrace Pope Francis’ invitation to interfaith dialogue and solidarity. Read the full article »

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Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Modern World


Since his election in March 2013, Pope Francis has aroused enthusiasm and raised the hopes of many through the articulation and lived example of his vision of a Church open to dialogue with the modern world. Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, is no exception, delivering an even more explicit invitation for the Church to avoid entrenchment. Read the full article »

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The Secularization Debate in Indonesia and Egypt


MUN’IM SIRRY

Literature on the secularization debate seldom alludes to Muslim discussions of the issue. During the 1970s and 1980s Indonesia and Egypt witnessed public debates involving both proponents and opponents of secularization. While it is difficult to assess the extent of the impact of these public debates, the complexity of Muslim discussions of secularization in Islamic lands, and their engagements with Western scholarship, should not be overlooked. Read the full article »

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Orsi Contra Ecclesiam


In Citizens, Simon Schama’s narration of the French Revolution, he describes the revolutionary government’s suppression of the popular rebellion in the Vendée. Far more than a military maneuver, he recounts, the operation sought “the wholesale destruction of an entire region of France.” In a “sinister anticipation of the technological killings of the twentieth century,” the revolution’s armies exterminated women, children, entire villages, and ultimately some one third of the inhabitants of the region. Among the massacres’ chief targets was the Catholic Church….

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The Public Launch of Contending Modernities

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On Nov. 18 and 19, 2010, dozens of scholars, religious leaders, business people, and friends and alumni of Notre Dame gathered in New York for the inauguration of Contending Modernities. On Nov. 18, Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C., president of Notre Dame, introduced the keynote speakers: Shaykh Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt; Jane Dammen McAuliffe, president of Bryn Mawr College; and John T. McGreevy, professor of history and dean of Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters. The remarks of Shaykh Ali Gomaa and Jane Dammen McAuliffe are posted below; John McGreevy’s remarks are posted above.

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Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame

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I’m not a cheerleader for the Fighting Irish. (I certainly don’t look like one). I’m not even Roman Catholic or a Notre Dame alum. Nor am I a Muslim. I’m not “secular” either. So perhaps I’ll be forgiven for indulging in a little rah-rah for Notre Dame and its recently initiated project on Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim, Secular.

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Contending Modernities on The Immanent Frame


The Immanent Frame is a widely read blog on secularism and religion founded and edited by Jonathan VanAntwerpen of the Social Science Research Council. It recently asked outstanding scholars: What is gained by framing research on religion, secularity, and modernity in terms of “contending” modernities? What “new paths for constructive engagement” might emerge?

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“McFootball” in New York?: a Muslim Reaction to the CM Launch

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Before departing for the launch of “Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim, Secular,” I got another one of those random emails: “Tony Blair’s Sister-in-Law Converts to Islam,” apparently after having a spiritual experience in Iran. A few years ago, Tony Blair announced his own conversion to Catholicism. This prompted me to reflect that one never seems to hear announcements of anyone’s “conversion” to “secularism.”

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An Unlikely Conversation: a Catholic Reaction to the CM Launch

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A college president who is a Catholic and a scholar of Islam cautions that a scholarly project on Catholicism and Islam should not ignore “rapture-ready Christians,” Sufi Muslims, or Christian women who have joined the “Women Aglow” movement. A woman who converted from Catholicism to Islam while a teenager, then became a scholar of Islam and wears a head scarf to boot, criticizes modernity for attacking family and community.

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What is Contending Modernities?

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What is “Contending Modernities”? In a sentence, it’s an effort to confront the fact that the relationship between religion and modernity is a lot more complex than many people anticipated. This relationship has proven more complex in at least two ways. One largely unanticipated complexity is that religion has proven pretty resilient in the face of modernity in all its forms. Religion and secularity are surviving and thriving together, creating a vast diversity of modern ways of life.

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