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@Modernities
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Contending Modernities is a global interdisciplinary research & education initiative examining Catholic, Muslim and secular interactions in the modern world.
University of Notre Dame
Joined October 2012
On Mamdani's victory in the democratic primary for NYC mayor, Sarah Eltantawi writes, “Islamophobia is one of the ideological currents that significantly undergirds our current world order. and his election disrupts the flow of that ideological current.”.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
Islamophobia is one of the ideological currents that significantly undergirds our current world order . . . and Zohran Mamdani’s election disrupts the flow of that ideological current.
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Mark Lewis Taylor writes of occupation and resistance in Silwan: "Maybe as we stood there in Silwan, we were watching 'slow genocide' as a structural process, while nearby, Gazans were experiencing genocide as a stark and brutal event.".
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
The eyes of Silwan represent the power of the dead for the living in Palestine.
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CM Co-Director Scott Appleby explores neotraditionalist Catholic critiques of Pope Francis among the laity, the clergy, and professionally organized groups for what they saw as too progressive and "pastoral" a pontificate. @KeoughGlobalND @AnsariUND
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
The U.S. Catholic community—numbering 53 million self-identified Catholic adults, or roughly one-fifth of the U.S. population—is complex and layered (as is the phrase “opposition to Pope Francis”).
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In the second part of their CM conversation, @eshurd and Hannah Strømmen discuss the role of masculinity in far-right movements today and the importance of focusing on affect when studying them.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
Taking affective investments seriously can be transformative for understanding the staying power of trends and tendencies in biblical reception.
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RT @UNDPress: RELIGION, MODERNITY, AND THE GLOBAL AFTERLIVES OF COLONIALISM is “a fine set of essays that together raise critical questions….
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In part one of this CM Conversation, @eshurd reflects on the various "biblical assemblages" that Hannah Strømmen investigates in _The Bibles of the Far Right_, focusing in particular on the role of "masculine maximalism" across far-right movements today.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
What does a focus on biblical assemblages together with the far-right allow us to see anew?
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Sarah Shortall reflects on why Francis's theology scrambles Left/Right divisions on US culture war issues, arguing that this was due to his prioritization of issues facing the Global South and to his Jesuit training.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
That Pope Francis seemed to resist the logic of the progressive/conservative binary is an indication of how ill-equipped we are to make sense of religious actors using categories derived from a...
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In her response to Yaacov Yadgar and William Cavanaugh's CM conversation, Atalia Omer reflects on the authors' conceptualization of idolatry, the relationship between Zionism and supersessionism, the limits of immanent critique, and more. @KrocInstitute .
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
Decolonial scholarship pushes the critique of the secular/modern beyond the analysis of idolatry by engaging with the question of religion and colonialism through a robust interrogation of racializ...
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William Cavanaugh interviews Yaacov Yadgar about _To Be a Jewish State_: "Nation-statism usurps tradition. The modern state must 'deal' with the traditions carried and practiced by those in the name of which the state claims sovereignty.".
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
I think it is a given that the multiplicity of human languages, traditions, practices, etc. diversify and enrich our ways of being in the world; this multiplicity is a good thing.
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In a conversation with Yaacov Yadgar, William Cavanaugh discusses his book, _The Uses of Idolatry_. Cavanaugh writes, "The myth that we are disenchanted is a form of self-congratulation used to marginalize those who do not fit the secular paradigm.".
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
The myth that we are disenchanted is a form of self-congratulation used to marginalize those who do not fit the secular paradigm
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Responding to posts on her book, Atalia Omer writes, "Positing the causality of violence in Palestine/Israel in terms of presumably competing religious claims contradicts centuries of interwoven communal life in the region." @KrocInstitute .
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
Is it possible to decolonize secularity and extract it from its nest in racialized modern and colonial formations?
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Faith-based organizations can challenge colonial ideologies that shape the peacebuilding “harmony industry," argues @ETomalin of @UniversityLeeds.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
By shifting our perspective, we can uncover pathways for more equitable, locally driven peace initiatives that challenge, rather than reinforce, colonial frameworks.
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In her poem, "God is Getting Tired," Thandi Gamedze writes, "It’s clear that God is getting tired / That God is tired / That God has been tired for twenty horrifying months / For 76 horrifying years".
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
It’s clear that God is getting tired
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RT @julie_s_c: Grateful for the opportunity to reflect in @Modernities on how resettling of Afrikaners and the shunning of South Africa mak….
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On #WorldRefugeeDay2025 read Julie Schumacher Cohen's reflections on resistance amongst religious leaders to the Trump administration's policy of admitting Afrikaner's as refugees to the US.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
The resettling of Afrikaners and the shunning of South Africa makes a mockery of refugee resettlement based on international norms and the claim of genocide.
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Drawing on Salim Vally’s concept of “inter-racist solidarity,” Thandi Gamedze analyzes the case of White Afrikaners being welcomed as refugees into the US and the operation of White Supremacy across South Africa, the US, and Palestine/Israel.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
In 1977, a few months prior to his arrest and subsequent murder by the South African apartheid state, Steve Biko,...
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Commentator Peter Beinart’s family viewed Israel as a place of security and flourishing. It wasn’t until he met Palestinians that he faced the level of brutality from a state that is completely unaccountable to them. CM recently hosted Beinart to discuss his new book.
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“Idolatry is when you say #Israel has an unconditional right to exist as a Jewish state with this particular political system, right? But the rights of #Palestinians to exist . that is negotiable." --Peter Beinart. #Gaza
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
Jews must now tell a new story to answer the horrors that a Jewish country has perpetrated, argues Peter Beinart.
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Next up in our series on Atalia Omer's _Decolonizing Religion and Peacebuilding_are J. P. Reed's reflections on agency, intersectionality, and pragmatism.
contendingmodernities.nd.edu
How does one get from religion-based peacebuilding practices that maintain existent orders of domination to peacebuilding practices that challenge and potentially transcend orders of domination?
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