Abstracts
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290031001 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Abstracts
WRITING SACRAL IR: AN EXCAVAT ION INVOLVING KÜNG, ELIADE,
AND ILLITERATE BUDDHISM Stephen Chan
This pap er attempts an exc avation, rather than a genealogy (since no genealogy of
conscious sacral IR exists) using Ha ns Küng, Mircea Eliade, and illiterate
Buddhism. The complete piece devolves to a methodology of ontology which is
other-worldl y, o r at least not We stern; and also makes a critique of exi sting
normative Inter national Relations theory. I try t o illustrate both the subje ctivity and
self-reflexive subjectivity of any search for truth, a nd to offset the orienta l stories
with knowledge from Western disciplines and thinkers outside IR. M ore to the
point, I try to illustrate the desirability of various truths, and how the multipli city
of them should be contextualised within a quest for good. Not only that, but the
telling of truths, and the q uest for goo d, estab lish an intersub jectivity whic h is
amenable to a hermeneutic s, as R icoeur sugge sted, most plausibly est ablished in
art and stories. But it is not enough merely to tell st ories. I am say ing here that, i n
its rush to seculari ty, IR has forgotten the need to tell stories that are sacral—that
are compositions to wards the sacred—and wh ich are reflectivities up on long and
different hi stories of establish ing the conditions of goodness and, yes, of truth/s. It
is t he methodol ogies of reflect ion that, I propose, exist in the world’s cultures as
sacral devices.
THE RECONT RUCTION OF RELIGIOUS ARENA IN THE FRAMEWORK OF
‘MULTIPLE M ODERNITIES’ S.N. Eisenstadt
This paper analyse s the far-reac hing resurgence of the religious dimension in the
contempora ry world, in the framewo rk of t he continu al development o f ‘multiple
modernities ’. It is a pa rt of the story of continu al develo pment and formati on,
constituti on and reconstit ution of a mu ltiplicity of cu ltural programs o f modernity
and of distinctiv ely modern in stitutional pattern s. Contemporary religio us
movements a ttempt to complete ly dissociate Westernisati on from modernity. The y
deny the monopoly or he gemony of Western modernity, and th e acceptance of t he
Western modern cul tural program as the epitome o f modernity. In the context o f
these new social mov ements, the confrontati on with the West doe s not take the
form of a search to bec ome incorporat ed into a hegemon ic—predominan tly
Western—civi lisation, but rather in attempt s to approp riate modernity on their own
distinctl y modern terms.
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