Multi-Faith Spaces (MFSs) are a relatively recent invention that has quickly gained in significance. On the one hand, they offer a convenient solution for satisfying the needs of people with diverse beliefs in the institutional context of hospitals, schools, airports, etc. On the other hand, MFSs are politically significant because they represent the cornerstone of the public religion in Europe today, that is, multi-faith paradigm. Due to their ideological entanglement, MFSs are often used as the means to promote either a more privatised version of religion, or a certain denominational preference. Two distinct designs are used to achieve these means: negative in the case of the former, and positive in the latter. Neither is without problems, and neither adequately fulfils its primary purpose of serving diverse groups of believers. Both, however, seem to follow the biases and main problems of secularism. In this paper, I analyse recent developments of MFSs to detail their main problems and answer the following question: can MFSs, and the underlying Multi-Faith Paradigm, be classified as a continuation of secularism?
Over the last decade, representations of the rainbow were repeatedly disputed in Poland, revealing the country’s ongoing socio-political changes and its drift away from the generally liberal and secular values of the European mainstream. These cases show a political growth and an increasing social diffusion of Polish ‘national paleoconservatism.’ The aim of this article is to (1) discuss the intellectual roots of this distinct form of conservatism built upon the confrontational notions of national identity, patriotism, and Catholicism; (2) propose a novel concept in the studies of Polish politics (‘national paleoconservatism’); and (3) present the social diffusion of such conservatism based on conflicts over representations of the rainbow. By combining the historical and intellectual background with the contemporary case studies, the authors aim to facilitate a deeper understanding of the vitality of national conservative ideas among internationally unknown conservative intellectuals, who participate in a discursive ‘culture war’ against their liberal, progressive and secular opponents in present-day Poland. The ideological conflicts revolve around the meaning of Polish national identity, the essential character of the country’s culture, and the position of Poland within the framework of European integration.
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