Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs
The Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) was established at Boston University by sociologist Peter Berger in 1985 as the first center in the United States focused on the role of religion in global affairs.[1] CURA has sponsored 140 research projects in over 40 countries leading to the publication of over 145 books. CURA research has been sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Metanexus Institute, among others. BU has sponsored numerous workshops and conferences as well as countless public lectures.[2][3]
In 2015, CURA was reorganized and became part of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. In 2017, CURA launched the Colloquium on Religion and World Affairs to workshop papers by scholars from BU and outside.[4] CURA has served as both a research and policy center.[5]
History[edit]
Peter Berger came to Boston University in 1982 as University Professor of Sociology and Theology. Three years later, Berger founded a assembled a team of social scientists to a research center focused on the comparative exploration of the role of religion in society. Originally named the Institute for Economic Culture, Berger changed the name of the center to the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA).[6] In 2009, Berger stepped down as director and anthropologist Robert Hefner stepped in.[7]
CURA has sponsored over 140 research projects in countries across the globe. Major themes have included economic culture and religious and cultural pluralism. In an interview, Berger pointed out that CURA also sponsored "pioneering" research on the worldwide spread of Pentecostalism.[8] Major figures in social science research on religion such as David Martin, Nancy Ammerman, David Martin (sociologist), Michael Novak, Robert Wuthnow, and Max Stackhouse have participated in CURA-sponsored research projects.[9] CURA faculty serve as important resources for media and government discussion of issues of ethics and religion.[10] CURA publishes the Yearbook of International Religious Demography[11] and the World Religion Database.[12]
Notable CURA Publications[13][edit]
- Jeremy Menchik, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
- Robert P. Weller, Global Religious Changes and Civil Life in Two Chinese Societies: A Comparison of Jiangsu and Taiwan, Rutledge, 2015.
- Peter L. Berger, The Many Altars of Modernity: Toward a Paradigm for Religion in a Pluralist Age, De Gruyter Mouton, 2014
- Robert W. Hefner, Ed., and Peter L. Berger (Afterword), Global Pentecostalism in the 21st Century, Indiana University Press, 2013
- Rubin, Jeffrey W., Sustaining Activisim: A Brazilian Women’s Movement and a Father-Daughter Collaboration, Duke University Press Books, 2013.
- Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim, The World’s Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013
- Adam B. Seligman and Robert P. Weller, Rethinking Pluralism: Ritual, Experience, and Ambiguity, Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Robert W. Hefner, Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World, Indiana University Press, 2011.
- Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- Peter Berger, Ed., Between Relativism and Fundamentalism, Cambridge, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
- Jonathan Imber, ed., Markets, Morals & Religion, New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, 2007.
- Robert Hefner and Muhammad Zaman, eds., Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2007.
- Nancy Ammerman, ed., Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Stephen Prothero, ed., A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
- Robert Hefner, ed., Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2004.
- Peter Fromkin and Jonathan Imber, eds., In Search of the Nonprofit Sector, New Brunswick, NJ, Transaction Publishers, 2004.
- Peter L. Berger and Samuel P. Huntington, eds., Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity In the Contemporary World, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Robert Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2000.
- Robert Weller, Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan, Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1999.
- Nancy Smith-Hefner, Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diaspora Community, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998.
- Robert Wuthnow, Loose Connections: Joining Together in America’s Fragmented Communities, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1998.
- Robert Hefner (ed.), Market Cultures: Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms, Boulder Colorado, Westview 1998.
- Adam Seligman, The Problem of Trust, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1997.
- Nancy Ammerman, Congregation and Community, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1997.
- David Martin, Forbidden Revolutions: Pentecostalism in Latin America, Catholicism in Eastern Europe, London, SPCK, 1996.
- Michael Novak, ed., To Empower People: From State to Civil Society, Washington, AEI Press, 1996.
- Max Stackhouse, ed., Christian Social Ethics in a Global Era, Nashville, Abingdon, 1995
- Marilyn Halter, New Migrants in the Marketplace: Boston’s Ethnic Entrepreneurs, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1995.
- Charles Dellheim, The Disenchanted Isle: Mrs. Thatcher’s Capitalist Revolution, New York, Norton,1995.
- Ashis Gupta, Indian Entrepreneurial Culture, New Delhi, Wishwa Prakashan, 1994.
- Thomas Langston, Ideologues and Presidents: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
- Peter Berger, ed., The Capitalist Spirit: Toward a Religious Ethic of Wealth Creation, San Francisco, ICS Press, 1990.
- David Martin, Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America, Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.
CURA Directors[edit]
- Peter Berger - 1985-2009
- Robert W. Hefner - 2009-2017
- Timothy Longman - 2017-
References[edit]
- ↑ Charles T. Mathewes, "An Interview with Peter Berger," The Hedgehog Review Spring/Summer, 2006, pp. 152-161.
- ↑ http://www.bu.edu/cura/
- ↑ https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/institute-on-culture-religion-and-world-affairs
- ↑ http://www.bu.edu/cura/colloquium-schedule/
- ↑ https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/organizations/institute-on-culture-religion-and-world-affairs
- ↑ Joseph Berger, "Peter Berger, Theologian who Fought 'God Is Dead' Movement, Dead at 88," New York Times, June 29, 2017.
- ↑ https://aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/people/Robert_W_Hefner
- ↑ Charles T. Matthews “An Interview with Peter Berger,” The Hedgehog Review, Spring/Summer, 2006, p. 158.
- ↑ http://www.bu.edu/cura/publications/
- ↑ http://boston.cbslocal.com/tag/institute-on-culture-religion-and-world-affairs/
- ↑ Brian J. Grim, Todd M. Johnson, Vegard Skirbekk, and Gina A Zurlo, ads., Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2017, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017.
- ↑ http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/1128/05-2009
- ↑ http://www.bu.edu/cura/publications/
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