Papers
From the Frontier: Religion and International Development
Short Essay originally presented to the Canadian Association for Studies International Development (CASID)
This essay is a revised version of a memorial paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Studies in International Development in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Farokh Afshar, (1945-2007), proposed a new vision for development studies that critically examined the issues, opportunities and challenges relating to spirituality and ethics in international development. From my own journey with development and theological studies, this paper seeks to further the conversation by making an empirical case for the inclusion of religion in development studies while proposing a hermeneutical framework for deepening development thinking beyond the “empiricism of the senses and the reasoning of the mind.”
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The Full Has Never Been Told:Theology and the Encounter with Globalization.
Draft Chapters Available Upon Request
Thesis Abstract
My thesis, The Full Has Never Been Told: Theology and the Encounter with Globalization, is an investigation of the encounter between religion and globalization. An important insight I am investigating is the theoretical significance of the 'deterritorialization' of symbols as the primary, long run driving force of economic/political/social globalization.
My research hypothesizes that if leading social scientific theorists of globalization are correct in their assessment of the importance of communication and symbolic exchanges to globalization (eg. Malcolm Waters, Roland Robertson, Peter Beyers, Niklas Luhmann), then a hermeneutic of liberation that is attentive to symbol and myth is a critical analytic tool for reflection on globalization. Paul Ricoeur's work on symbol and myth (esp. Symbolism of Evil will contributes to our understanding of this encounter by introducing the tools of hermeneutics to social scientific discourse with the advantage of locating globalization as both the text and context of theological and social scientific analysis.
Previous research and field work with Rastafari of Jamaica contributes to reflections on this encounter through Rastafari's interpretation of the symbolic importance of word/sound/power. My previous work with Rastafari and more recent scholarship situate Rastafari as a grass-roots example of a hermeneutic of hope and imagination that recharges theological language through the re-enactment, re-enforcement and re-embodiment of symbol and myth.
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