Religion and politics Books

Book SynopsisMixing religion and public diplomacy can produce volatile results, but in a world in which the dissemination and influence of religious beliefs are enhanced by new communications technologies, religion is a factor in many foreign policy issues and must be addressed.Trade Review"This volume is a significant addition to a meager corpus: scholarly works on the importance of religion to public diplomacy. As Professor Seib notes, religion is - somewhat incredibly - still too often seen as tangential to the work of diplomacy. This group of essays will help change that dynamic." - Thomas F. Farr, Director, The Religious Freedom Project, Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction; Philip Seib 1. Why Religion Matters in the World; Brie Loskota and Richard Flory 2. Pope John Paul II, Radio Free Europe, and Faith Diplomacy; Daniel Hall 3. Vatican Diplomacy in Vietnam and China; Lan Chu 4. China's Faith Diplomacy; Juyan Zhang 5. Public Diplomacy and Transnational Blasphemy Controversies; Najeeba Syeed-Miller 6. Muslims' Online Faith Diplomacy; Mohammed el-Nawawy 7. The Minaret Referendum and Switzerland's Proactive Public Diplomacy; Ambassador Johannes Matyassy and Seraina Flury 8. Capturing the World's Attention: Buddhist Media Diplomacy in Myanmar; Diane Winston 9. Shaping the Narrative of Religious Freedom; Liora Danan Conclusion; Philip Seib

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Book SynopsisDr Michele Grossman, AM is Professor and Research Chair in Diversity and Community Resilience at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, where she leads the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies.Dr H.A. Hellyer FRHistS is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, and also a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC.

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Book SynopsisThe second half of the twentieth century was marked by a startling number of religious conversions among American celebrities. Rebecca Davis reveals how the contradictory pressures to conform to a specific vision of Americanism and to celebrate the freedom of religion made conversions both attractive and threatening to the American public.

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Book SynopsisEmily Anderson is Assistant Professor of History at Washington State University, USA.Trade ReviewAnderson uses sources such as personal notebooks and diaries to great effect ... A solidly researched and sympathetically written work of scholarship. * American Historical Review *Anderson portrays a fascinating journey of interwoven lives and dreams on a sweeping scale ... manag[ing] to capture the often overlooked Christian dimension of imperial Japan. * English Historical Review *[W]ell-researched and engaging ... [A] thought-provoking and interesting book that deserves a wide audience among both those interested in the intellectual and religious history of Meiji and Taisho Japan and specialists in colonial and imperial studies. * Monumenta Nipponica *Anderson’s research provides numerous insights into Christian history in Japan before 1945 … [She] has given us a well-researched and original investigation into a part of Japanese history too long neglected. * Japan Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: All Roads Lead to Annaka: The Place of Imperial Christianity in Japan’s Modern History 1. The Problem of Two Masters: The Imperial Rescript on Education and the Quandary of Japanese Christians 2. Fields Ready for Harvest: Russo-Japanese War as Holy War 3. Nation without Borders: Casting a Vision for a Transnational Church 4. Making Koreans Japanese: A Gospel for Japan’s New Colonial Subjects 5. After the March First Movement: The “Korean Problem” Just Beyond Empire’s Edge 6. Becoming a Small Country: The Imperial Countryside Imagined as the Kingdom of God 7. Following in Abraham’s Footsteps: Building an Imperial Christian Utopia in Manchukuo Bibliography Index

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Trade ReviewPraise for If Nuns Ruled the World “In an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes. And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns.” —Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times “Piazza writes vividly about hardworking women who devote their time and energy to making other people’s lives better. The result is a readable, informative look at how nuns, as flawed and human and real as they may be, also have a calling and a faith, and they use that to create change in the world. . . . If Nuns Ruled the World is a little bit of a crowd pleaser and a little bit subversive, and it opened up my eyes to the everyday heroism of some amazing women.” —Flavorwire “Anybody looking to argue there is a place for Catholicism in the modern world should just stand on a street corner handing out Piazza’s book. By sharing the chills-inducing tales of the women toiling in ways most of us could never fathom, she has given oxygen to that flickering flame that is the Church's reputation in the U.S.” —The Daily Beast “Fascinating profiles of 10 women determined to make a difference. Piazza successfully updates the image of black-garbed brides of Christ to strong, proactive and, yes, devout women intent on addressing social ills and tending to souls the Catholic church seems to shun, like gays and lesbians. Piazza delivers a controversial and important book.” —Daily News (New York) “This affecting collection of journalistic pieces by Piazza . . . goes a very long way toward dispelling any notion of nuns as conformist knuckle-whackers. . . . Accessibly written, these ten portraits should speak to many students and church groups.” —Library Journal

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Book SynopsisChristianity and Culture in the City: A Postcolonial Approach offers an introduction to the broad diversity of contemporary Christianities in a rich, complex, changing, and challenging city context. Cruz focuses upon a variety of changing communities with dynamic and striking cultural experiences, and the volume provides both scholarly and practical insights as to how Christianities in the city relate to and transform city institutions and communities that are undergoing dramatic shifts and invite opportunities for intentional study.This book offers a provocative interdisciplinary examination to shed light upon the ways in which diverse city communities appropriate Christianity to better engage their economic, cultural, political, and religious environment. A post-colonial theoretical framework will help inform how Christianity serves to empower and reinvent fragmented, oppressed, and struggling city populations. The reader is offered various conceptual, theoretical, and pragmatic insiTrade ReviewCity life is complicated. Religious expressions within cities are even more difficult to ascertain. Cruz brings together scholars who explore marginalized religious spaces within cities to discover that what people claim to believe in theory, what they say about their faith, and how they live out that faith can be quite incongruent. Most religious scholars miss this because they fail to consider the complicated ethnic, cultural, and political realities of the everyday. As a corrective, this book provides us with a liberative critical reflection on the praxis of the disenfranchised. -- Miguel A. De La Torre, professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies, Iliff School of TheologySamuel Cruz is a major prophetic voice who understands that urban Christian visions and witnesses constitute much of the best of our future! -- Cornel West, Union Theological SeminaryTable of ContentsIntroduction Samuel Cruz Chapter 1: The Use of Roman Catholic Material Culture, Ritual, and Devotional Practices in Haitian Vodou in the Greater Newark, New Jersey Area: The Urban Context. Peter Savastano Chapter 2: Between the Runway and Empty Tomb: Bodily Transformations and Christian Praxis in New York City’s House Ball Community. Edgar Rivera Chapter 3: Praying Aloud, in Spanish, in the South Bronx Nicolas Dumit Estevez Chapter 4: Troubling the Waters: Intimate Violence and the Church-Breaking the Hold of Shame and Secrecy Michelle L. Nickens Chapter 5: Revelation 12-13: A Guerilla Reading Charlene Sinclair Chapter 6: The Church, the City, and Its Mission in the 21st Century: A View from the Margins Elieser Valentin Chapter 7: Conclusion: A Praxis of Integral Liberation in a (Post) Colonial World A Critical and Compelling Conversation David Traverzo

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Book Synopsis

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