There are many similarities between the Christian concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Stoic concept of internal events, the Hebrew concept of 'awon (sin, punishment), and the existential concept of bad faith. All of these evidence a concern for an internalization of sin or bad faith, which is more common in Eastern than Western religions. These four views are contrasted with the English concept synne which represents the Western extemalization of sin or bad faith. This existential interpretation includes an exploration of 'awon in the Cain and Abel story as well as several reflections concerning the difference between bad faith and good faith.

The barriers that exist between theistic and non-theistic scholars, as well as between Christians and non-Christians, are a double tragedy. On the one hand, such barriers deprive both of the valuable contributions that each might make to the other. On the other hand, they contribute to the already devastating effects of the contentions and conflicts that exist in the pursuit of truth. This article analyzes the problem as to its fundamental causes, and offers recommendations as to its resolution.

This essay traces the development of the idea of religious liberty from its origins among the "Commonwealthmen" in seventeenth-century England to its embodiment in the United States Constitution. The Commonwealthmen believed that the theory of natural law-natural rights guaranteed civil liberties, including religious liberty, and that these natural rights should be protected by the state. The Commonwealthmen also believed in a fundamental constitution derived from the people rather than the state, and the concept of individual sovereignty.

This essay focuses on the attempts to give institutional expression to religion. It surveys various solutions articulated by theorists, ancient and modem, to address the sometimes uneasy relationship between religion and the polity. The emphasis then shifts to the statesmen-theoreticians who gave constitutional form to the American regime. The experiments contained in the early state constitutions are the primary focus. Contemporary expositions of American civil religion are viewed in light of the founding experience.

This essay offers a critical reinterpretation of Edward Bellamy's Utopian novel. Looking Backward, that focuses on the moral destructiveness of industrial capitalism, Bellamy's attempt to restore Christian values and republican traditions led him to confront his own religious upbringing revolting against harsh Calvinism as well as the feminization of Protestantism. These theological dilemmas were compounded by both his belief that the Church was corrupted by the dictates of the capitalists and his need to find a spiritual relation between the individual and the infinite outside the Church. He reached a resolution to his spiritual consternation through his fiction, most forcefully in Looking Backward, which approximated a new "Bible" for industrial America.

Now the rallying cry of resurgent democratic movements throughout the Soviet Empire, the riggt of national self-determination was first articulated in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and the League of Nations Covenant. Wilson's goals in defining the concept were to rejuvenate Western capitalism and liberalism, in order to ensure both justice and economic progress; and to offer a viable ideological alternative to revolutionary Russia. Wilson's policies sprang from a rejection of determinism; his views of Christian principles; and his admiration for the reforms of English Methodism. Through the concept of self-determination, Wilson brought a concern for social justice into the management of the international state system.

Before the advent of the Moral Majority, fundamentalists were noted for their absence from the socio-political arena. Though there were sporadic attempts, no fundamentalist social action organization had been successful until the Moral Majority came on the scene in 1979. Are Moral Majoritarians bothered by their recent involvement in social activism? What kinds of social action behaviors are they more likely to engage in? A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of Moral Majoritarians in a Midwestern Chapter to shed light on social action involvement It found that Moral Majoritarians prefer safe, democratic social behaviors to more radical actions, and that evangelism still takes priority over social activism.

This article examines the Christian factor as it relates to the socio-political responsibility and development in Nigeria, and postulates that the Churches in Nigeria fall into two major categories in relation to the state: Identificationism and Isolationism. The study contends that in order to adequately assess the specific roles the Churches play in nation-building, an institutional and functional definition of the Church is necessary. It concludes that the Churches do have a role to play in shaping the future of a nation, including prophetic referee, historico-cultural integrator, moral role model, social mobilizer, and spiritual and vocational mentor.

Globalization offers a comprehensive framework for addressing prospects for the peaceful evolution of people and societies in the Third Millennium, Global markets, trade and communications, along with science and technology, now drive social, economic, and political development, modernization, and cultural change. Globalization thus holds great promise of extending economic prosperity throughout the world. Paradoxically, globalization can also deepen the divisions between rich and poor nations, contribute to the revolution of rising expectations in the Third World, and exacerbate frustrations caused by the accelerated pace of socio-economic and political development and cultural change. The contemporary resurgence of religion reflects crisis of modemity--the loss of traditional anchoring of social, cultural, and ethical mores, self- and group identification and meaning. The key to a peaceful, democratic globalization is a successful modernization strategy which seeks to reconcile and conjoin the best elements of modernity and tradition, the individual and community, freedom and order, secularism and religion, democracy and authority.

Increasing globalization in the form of greater international trade and immigration has both costs and benefits. Market institutims and secure private property rights are conducive to higher economic growth, but some point out that higher growth must be weighed against alleged social instability and, perhaps, cultural degeneration. However, globalization may increase stability and cultural output. Polling data suggest that antitrade, anti-migration views pose a political challenge to economic and cultural exchange. People are skeptical of the rapidity of change coming with globalization, which leads to backlashes that slow the process. Negative effects of globaltation include increases in prostitution, for example, and perceived alienation from the global culture There are tensions between economic change arul cultural vibrancy. Nonetheless, greater international integration and accompanying economic growth increase cultural diversity.

"Soft power" proponents endorse it as the superior alternative to the exercise of "hard power." This essay argues that the projection of soft power, culturally defined, has unintended negative consequences in relations with Islam in particular and traditional societies in general. Hostile reaction in the Muslim world is rooted in opposition to cultural modemtation and Western-driven globalization, and in the specifics of Islamic religious foundational sources and subsequent interpretations. But Islam, too, projects soft power in its own globalization drive. And therein lies one of Islam's yet to be fully understood and appreciated weaknesses as extreme interpretations of Islam, and theological homogenizing tendencies in particular, clash with the cultural diversity of Muslim societies. It is a weakness that can be leveraged for policy purposes.

Serious study of terrorism requires a proper understanding of why individuals turn extremism md what motivates them to join terrorist organizations. This essay analyzes socio-economic, cultural, religious, and psychological dimensions in a comprehensive framework gauging the "root causes" of terrorism The analysis is based on data collected from Pakistan-based organtations serving as allies of Al-Qaeda. The results indicate that almost all sample resporuients involved in terrorism were unmarried males exposed to fundamentalist teachings of the Qur'an. All believed that if they sacrificed themselves for the sake of their religion, they would be blessed with paradise in life after death. The essay employs relevant models in order to identify empirically the effects of education, an individual's age, household income, and rural or urban residence. The resulting evidence on the individual level suggests that both higher standards of living and education are negatively associated with participation in terrorist activities.

Peyami Safa, a twentieth-century novelist, journalist and intellectual, and one of the major personalities of conservatism in Turkey, encouraged Muslim and Christian believers to search for common ground and shared values that would yield a happy, virtuous way of life. His novel, The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noraliya, features character, Noraliya, who epitomizes the common ground between Islam and Christianity as a guide to peace of mind for individuals lost in the maze of modemity. Safa's literary construct is rooted in both religious inclination and admiration for the modem mind. Drawing on the main elements of the novel, this essay focuses on those features that reflect Safa's idea of a personal mysticism reached through religion, as well as interreligious dialogue, Safa's approach exemplifies Turkey's unique position in the Muslim world, inviting comparison arui appreciation of the nuances among the historical manifestations of Islam.

Since the end of the Balkan conflict of the 1990s, Croatia has been in the process of becoming a new society. As part of this transition, the Croatian news media are aspiring to practice a more democratic and professional journalism promoting an open forum. As Croatia looks forward to joining the European Union, nationalism remains a challenge for objective news reporting. How can the Croatian news media help toward this new society and its need for more unity? The news media play a central role in presenting the debates, remembering there is no room for biased reporting or hate speech, and that all should be treated equally regardless of nationality, race, class or gender. This essay draws on John Stuart Mill's concepts of freedom of the press, character building and tolerance, and concludes that open-minded Croatian students who study and are trained in Western-style journalism that stresses independence and freedom of expression are the country's best hope for transforming Croatian media via truthful, fair, and balanced news reporting in the future.

Modem warfare has a devastating effect on the well-being of children, especially those described as child soldiers. These children are taken out of their safe environment, their rights are violated, and they are subjected by warlords to all forms of suffering that not befit any stage of their life. Their experiences distort their personal development and disrupt family and community life. This essay explores the impact of war on children in a globalized world with particular focus on Sierra Leone and Uganda, two countries in Africa with prolonged wars. Efforts by various organizations and agencies to rehabilitate and reintegrate these children are commendable, but more preventive measures entailing political, economic, andl cultural changes are needed that provide young people with productive opportunities. Contemporary means of communication sensitive to indigenous cultures are also needed to complement folk media and empower people to demobilize and reintegrate child soldiers as well as prevent child soldiering.

An important intellectual challenge posed by globalization is how Enlightenment science interacts with traditional non-Western worldviews. This essay analyzes a key facet this challenge: the union of Darwinism with traditional conservative values. Political scientist Larry Amhart proposes that Darwinism provides a biological fouruiation for conservative notions of human nature, traditional morality, family values, private property, limited govemment, and the like. A foundation for his view is an Enlightenment claim that the laws of nature arui material causes are sufficient to produce "emergent" human minds capable of the kind of free will consistent with moral responsibility. Yet Amhart's stance implies determinism of the mind and the disintegration of morality. As such, members of the global community who hold conservative values need to re-examine the parameters of Enlightenment science in light of a more traditional view, which has a richer understanding of the human mind, will, and moral responsibility.

With its varied definitions, globalization evokes both skepticism and optimism. This essay explores how globalization relates to secularization and culture, in particular Christianity, It analyzes major aspects of this relationship: man as a globalizing being communication and obedience, and the global village in its historic, contemporary, and eschatological dimensions, Christianity has many tools at its disposal that can be used to enhance co-habitation as an enriching experience in a globalizing world. Some of these tools may be found in the traditional rituals of the Christian Church, while others are embedded in Christian doctrines, St. Irenaeus' doctrine of recapitulation is of special relevance for globalization. These tools need to be re-discovered, reassessed, and put to work. The essay proposes a type of globalization that enriches human life and dignity, and that integrates and builds unity and hope.

The United States and Westem Europe are on the edge of a cultural collapse brought about to a large degree by the mass media of entertainment, along with public schools and other institutions of mass cultural diversion, USA Today notes that 70 percent of Americans are unable to name the Ten Commandments. In a culture where physical health is a higher priority than spiritual vitality, another survey found that more Americans are familiar with the specific ingredients in a McDonald's hamburger than know the individual commands that comprise the Ten Commandments. Many Christian parents are concemed about the influence of media violence on their children, but do not know what to do about it. The good news is that there are effective ways to teach children to be media-wise. Specifically, there are five pillars of media wisdom that will help build the culture-wise family. Theodore Roosevelt said that if we educate a man's mind but not his heart, we will get an educated barbarian. Cultural and media wisdom involves educating the heart so that it will make the right decisions.

This essay proposes that while a "Christian" democracy may be too idealistic, liberal democracy presupposes transcendent moral and spiritual norms, in particular a Judeo-Christian foundation for human dignity and human rights. A Biblical understanding of human nature as fallible and imperfect susceptible to worldly temptations, emphasizes free choice and personal responsibility, and the imperative to limit the temporal exercise of power by any man or institution. Maritain's concept of integral or Christian humanism is founded on personalism, the unique value and dignity of each human being created in the image of God, and the need for community. The major challenge for literal democracy is how to reconcile individual freedom with socio-economic-political-legal institutions and processes which require the constraint of man-made laws and the exercise of authority and power The essay condudes that perhaps the major legacy of the American founding is the notion of the priority of liberty which offers the best prospects for conjoining reason and faith, the secular and the sacred, Athens and Jerusalem, The priority of liberty also animates Maritain's vision of a "Christianly-inspired" personalistic society capable of advancing both individual human flourishing and the common good.

Jacques Maritain's concept of ttte personalistic society describes a democratic unity of the body politc that mitigates the tension between the material and spiritual aspects of human existence. This unity, grounded in the principles of natural law, makes possible in our terrestrial existence a communion of good living and a rectitude of life--what Maritain calls the bonum honestum. The good he envisions both facilitates and reacts the ideals of an integral Christian humanism, but it necessarily requires for its realization the infusion of Christian ideals into the body politic. It is crucial to Maritain that the process by which this infusion occurs allow for a wide participation of diverse actors, bothh religions and non-religious. But it is also crucial that they are able to converge from their different perspectives into an agreement on "Christianly inspired" practical principles that will subsequently guide public policy. This essay argues that the collective character of the moral personally represented by Maritain in this unity describes a problematic corrtext tor public dialogue that risks undermining the social and political pluralism it presupposes.