Nonreligion in a Complex Future
-
Herausgegeben von:
Beaman Lauri G.
In recent decades, questions about who makes up a family, the role of biology in defining sex, and the origins of human life have been the source of deep social, moral, and legal controversies. This book focuses on the debates around same-sex marriage in seven countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States) and uses these debates to examine the demarcations and zones of transition between the religious and the nonreligious.
Specifically, in a context of moral and religious diversification resulting from, among other things, the decentering of Christianity, the book analyzes the narratives, languages, and meanings constructed in the debate over marriage as a legal institution. What imaginaries emerge in relation to sexuality or the family when the Christian foundation of marriage is put under scrutiny? One of the novelties of this book is the use of legal controversies as a lens to observe the work of religious and nonreligious narratives and the materialities they produce. Rather than prioritizing the description of the values or worldviews of the nonreligious, the proposal is to understand "nonreligion" as a product of discursive disputes and the narration of alternative imaginaries about marriage configurations.
A growing number of people across the western world are identifying as nonreligious. This book examines this shift through the lens of community gardens. We do not ask people what they believe in ways that are abstracted from their everyday lives. Rather, by focusing on gardening we enter the world of action—what people do, the practices of their everyday lives. Drawing on interviews from community gardeners in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Norway, Northern Ireland, and the United States, the book explores themes of community-building, ritual, ethics, and relationships with humans, non-humans, and the natural world, arguing for their conceptualization as ‘lifestances’.
The book reveals a shifting sensibility about the relationship between humans and the world around them. That relationship is shifting from a vertical relationship to a horizontal one; from a relationship of human dominance to a relationship of shared responsibility and equality. This is possible because there is an increasing recognition that the current hierarchical model, based in religious teachings and human exceptionalism, is untenable. Community gardens offer an ideal vantage point from which to explore these changes.
