Religion, Protestants and national identity: a response to the March 2009 issue

Durkheim and National Identity in Ireland

“…(Durkheim, 1992, pp. 116-17) Most of the literature on ethnic nationalism has noted its predisposition to passion and violence (Kedourie, 1993;Greenfeld, 1993;Nairn, in Hall, 1998;Dingley, 2013), while enlightened nationalism has been noted for its rationalism, tolerance, non-violent individualism, and utilitarian ideas of happiness. Thus, again Durkheim predates the literature on nationalism when discussing law and the modern state: "A duty to be directed towards the law, (ensuring) that the law is aggressive and expansive should become peaceful, moral and scientific" (Durkheim, 1996, p. 50).…”

“…Sociologists of religion (Bruce, 1994(Bruce, , 1989Dingley, 2013) note the importance of religion to ethnic identity in Ireland and Bruce (2000) especially warns against ignoring peoples religious beliefs. However, attempts to utilize social theory to explain the relationship between religion and socio-political behavior are few, apart from limited efforts to apply Weber and Tawney, but, as Kennedy observes (1996, pp.…”

Sectarian dynamics of multicultural norms and the law in Lebanon: warning for the future of Northern Ireland

“…22 Consequently Islam places an imperative on a culture of submission to an order and community will and those who do not conform become seen as a threat or impurity, i.e. they defy the will of Allah (With reference to Northern Ireland, Catholicism is similarly grounded in Aristotelian philosophy, known as Scholasticism, Dingley, 2013). The same degree of moral and social conformity has not been stressed in Lebanese Christianity, which has traditionally tended to emphasise resistance to Muslim incursion and dominance, something they continually referred to in interviews.…”