The Role of Religions in Multiple Modern Societies: The Global South

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of our call for papers for our Special Issue, entitled "The Role of Religions in Multiple Modern Societies: the Global South", in Religions. We invite and encourage you to submit contributions for this Special Issue.

This Special Issue focuses on the role of spirituality and religion in the multiple modernities of the 21st century, with particular attention to the Global South.

Historical conceptions of religion and traditional theories of secularization, rooted in Western perspectives, fail to explain the persistence of religion, particularly in non-Western contexts. Instead, there is a global resurgence of spiritual vigor and the revitalization of religious traditions, particularly in countries in the Global South in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Moreover, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and ancient Eastern religious traditions are experiencing novel dynamics, and they are even being rediscovered by Westerners.

Alternative forms of religious expression and spirituality are re-emerging alongside established religions, including other forms of occultism, mysticism, and disruptive beliefs with magical and mystical elements.

While official, highly structured religions continue to play a specific role in the public sphere (Casanova), alternative forms of religious expression and spirituality are on the rise.

In central modernities, with highly developed economies and societies, conventional religions still have a discreet but important role, as seen in the influence of fundamentalist Christian groups in the United States and the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian conflict. Likewise, the churches still have a relevant role in many contexts of peripheral modernities, such as the evangelicals in Brazilian politics or the churches in many conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, without forgetting the relevance of the mullahs in the politics of many Islamic countries.

However, alternative currents of religious expressions and spiritualities are unfolding, surpassing the influence of historic churches. Lived religions, ethnic syncretism, ancient animisms, and other popular forms of spirituality are gaining visibility after centuries of being disregarded. Therefore, the theoretical framework of the sociology of religions needs to be revised to encompass the multiplicity of modernities and the diverse religious expressions arising worldwide.

Many authors, including Jaspers, Eisenstadt, Bellah, Berger, Beriain, Preyer, Dawson, Hefner, Smith, Spikard, Kamali, etc., have discussed multiple modernities with religions as a crucial element. However, consensus on the concept still needs to be improved, and it remains an open debate. Most studies on religions and multiple modernities have focused on the main axial civilizations and societies, with most analyses coming from authors in the global North and Christian traditions. This Special Issue calls for contributions from colleagues who preferably research non-Christian traditions or autochthonous or syncretic Christianity and explore cases in the "Global South," including Africa, the Islamic world, India, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The primary objective is to adapt theoretical frameworks and expand our knowledge to understand the complexities of current modernities and their interactions with religions.

The Special Issue invites proposals on two major areas associated with the theme of multiple forms of religions and religiosity in the Global South: the controversial role of established conventional religions in the political field and the multiplicity of non-institutional religious expressions within the framework of modernization processes in developing countries.

The Special Issue aims to examine how traditional and other ways of expressing religions and spiritualities (in an extensive conceptualization) serve ancient and new functions and their interaction with institutional dimensions, and how popular religions and lived expressions fulfill different roles in the Informational post-industrial and globalized societies, especially in peripheral modernities in the South, given the challenges of the 21st Century.

Contributions must be from the field of social sciences encompassing the current study of religious and cultural phenomena. In addition, the Special Issue welcomes articles based on recent empirical and ethnographic research or theoretical and epistemological debates supported by sociological and historical data.

Religions would like to provide discounts or fee waivers to scholars who do not have enough funding, are based in the Global South, and are the paper's first authors. After acceptance and before the Special Issue goes online, authors may apply, and Religions will check and apply for a fee waiver if possible.

Prof. Dr. Cristian Parker
Prof. Dr. Daniel Gutiérrez Martínez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• multiple modernities and religion
• role of religions in the global south
• religion and politics in the global south
• lived and popular religions in the global south
• modernization and religions
• diverse emerging religious and spiritual expressions
• framing modernity through religious belief