INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON HUMANISTIC IDEOLOGY

STUDIES INTO THE NATURE AND ORIGIN

OF HUMANISTIC IDEAS
VOL. 2 NO. 2 AUTUMN – WINTER 2009
TOPICS: REASON AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Cover: Dana Sugu

Photo: © Horia-Mihai Gligor
This issue of The International Journal on Humanistic Ideology was published wit
h the financial support of Dinu Patriciu Foundation.

SCIENTIFIC BOARD
Editor in Chief:
Dr. Mihaela GLIGOR, Department of Humanities, “George Bariţiu” History Institute
, The Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Executive-Editors:
Dr. Keith Hitchins, Department of History, University of Illinois, USA
Dr. Norman Girardot, University Distinguished Professor, Religion Studies Depart
ment, Lehigh University, USA
Dr. T.N. Madan, Honorary Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, Universi
ty of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Dr. Mac Linscott Ricketts, Emeritus Professor on Religion, Louisburg College, No
rth Carolina, USA
Dr. Michael Freeden, Professor of Politics, University of Oxford and Fellow of M
ansfield College, Oxford; Director, Centre for Political Ideologies, University
of Oxford, England
Members:
Dr. David McLellan, Emeritus Professor of Political Theory, Politics and Interna
tional Relations, University of Kent, UK; Dr. James Gordon Finlayson, Department
of Philosophy, University of Sussex, UK; Dr. Giovanni Casadio, Professor, Catte
dra di Storia delle Religioni, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Universit
à di Salerno, Italy; Dr. Virgil Drăghici, Associate Professor, Department of Phi
losophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca
, Romania; Dr. Atashee Chatterjee Sinha, Reader in Philosophy, Center of Advance
d Study in Philosophy, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; Dr. Liviu Antonesei,
Professor, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, “Alexandru Ioan C
uza” University, Iaşi, Romania; Dr. Mathew Humphrey, Reader in Political Philoso
phy, School of Politics & IR, University of Nottingham, UK; Dr. Santosh Kr. Sing
h, Department of Sociology, Govt. College for Girls, Sector 11, Panjab Universit
y, Chandigarh, India.

ISSN: 1844 – 458X

I. Gligor, Mihaela (ed.)

© 2009, Mihaela Gligor

Babeş-Bolyai University For subscripti

ons:
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y@gmail.com
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isticideology.blogspot.com/
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http://www.editura.ubbcluj.ro/

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
ON HUMANISTIC IDEOLOGY

Studies into the Nature and Origin

of Humanistic Ideas

Vol. 2 No. 2 Autumn – Winter 2009

REASON AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Edited by Mihaela GLIGOR

CLUJ UNIVERSITY PRESS

2009

CONTENTS
Editorial
Mihaela GLIGOR:
Reason and Religious Identity. The problem ………………....………..... 7
The Topics: Reason and Religious Identity
Amartya SEN:
The Reach of Reason ………………………...………...………...…..…. 13
Wolfgang WELSCH:
Nietzsche on Reason ……………………...……………………..……… 37
Piyali PALIT:
Reasoning and Religious Identity.
A Formal Approach……………………...……………………..…..…… 51
Michael DUSCHE:
Modernity, Nation-State and Islamic Identity Politics………………..… 63
Atashee Chatterjee SINHA:
Identity, Religion and Morality …………………………………………. 81
Liviu ANTONESEI:
The Phenomenology of Eliade
and Archaic and “Exotic” Religious Identities..…..………………........101
Sarunya PRASOPCHINGCHANA and Dana SUGU:
Distinctiveness of the Unseen: Buddhist Identity ……………………....115
Reviews
Namit ARORA:
Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian:
Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity,
Penguin Books, 2005, 409 pp,
ISBN: 0-141-01211-0.……………………………..……………...…... 145
Santosh Kr. SINGH:
Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice,
Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2009, 468 pp,
ISBN: 978-1-846-14147-8.………………….…………………………. 157
Michel ESPAGNE:
Ursula Wokoeck, German Orientalism:
The Study of the Middle East and Islam from 1800 to 1945,
London and New York: Routledge, 2009, 352 pp,
ISBN: 978-0-415-46490-1…………………………………………….. 161
Asghar Ali ENGINEER:
Rudolf C. Heredia, Changing Gods:
Rethinking Conversion in India,
Penguin Books India, 2007, 400 pp,
ISBN: 0-14-310190-0. .………………………..…………..…...…........ 165
Mihaela GLIGOR:
Michael Dusche, Identity Politics in India and Europe,
New Delhi, SAGE, 2010, 375 pp,
ISBN: 978-81-321-0304-2 .……………………………..…………….. 171
Prabhleen Kaur PABLA:
Gezim Alpion, Encounters with Civilizations:
From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa
Chapel Hill, NC, Globic Press, 2009, xxiv + 303 pp,
ISBN: 978-0-9801896-2-9 ..………………………………...………… 179

Contributors…………………..……………………………………………... 183