Religion and politics Books

Book SynopsisUndoing Babel is the first extensive examination of the development of the Babel narrative amongst Anglo-Saxon authors from late antiquity to the eleventh century.Trade Review"Major’s surprising larger point [of this work] is how the story of Babel proves less foundational than one would expect…[This] is a detailed study that impressively brings out the handling of [various biblical texts] across a wide range of retellings throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, even as Major convincingly demonstrates that there may be less at stake in those retellings than meets the eye." -- Jonathan Wilcox * The Review of English Studies, New Series, 1-2 *"Undoing Babel, wide-ranging yet everywhere sensitive in its analyses, is a fascinating window not only on the fate of Genesis 10-11 in Anglo-Saxon England, but also on wider movements in the ecclesiastical, political, and literary landscapes, presenting a clear picture of both the idiosyncrasies of individual authors and the ways they fit into broader interpretive trends." -- Matthew D. Coker, St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford * Notes and Queries, vol 66 no 1, March '19 *"[Major’s book] results in a detailed study that impressively brings out the handling of biblical texts across a range of retellings throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, even as he convincingly demonstrates that there may be less at stake in these retellings than meets the eye." -- R. M. Luizza * Journal of English and Germanic Philology, July 2019 *"Undoing Babel offers a substantial contribution to this field. It will be a very useful book for students, too, and will appeal to readers interested in Christian history, in ethnicity, language, and origins in the early medieval period, and in the reception of the Bible in English more broadly." -- Carl Kears, King’s College London * Modern Philology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Genesis 10-11 Introduction 1 Early Jewish and Christian Antiquity 2 Latin Christian Antiquity 3 The Early Anglo-Saxon School at Canterbury 4 Bede and Alcuin 5 Alfred the Great and the Literature of his Reign 6 The Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries 7 The Biblical Poems of Junius 8 Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisCatholic Education in the Wake of Vatican II is the first work dedicated to the effects of the Second Vatican Council on catholic education in various national and cultural contexts.Trade Review"There are two or three very good chapters on Catholic schools in Spain and France detailing and providing us with valuable historical expositions. The book also addresses some key issues challenging Catholic education and provides some interesting insights." -- James Arthur, University of Birmingham * The Catholic Historical Review vol. 104 no. 2, Spring 2018 *"The chapters of Catholic Education in the Wake of Vatican II are well researched, well written, and have the capacity to significantly augment one’s understanding of the permanent and dramatic change that took place in Catholic education in the twentieth century." -- K.M. Gemmell, University of British Columbia * Historical Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction Rosa Bruno-Jofre and Jon Igelmo Zaldivar Emerging Issues and Approaches in the Analysis of Catholicism and Education: Fifty Years after Vatican II PART I. The Theological Framework: From Objectivity to Subjectivity and the Varied Strands Chapter 1 Michael Attridge From Objectivity to Subjectivity: Changes in the 19th and 20th Centuries and Their Impact on Post-Vatican II Theological Education PART II. The Relationship between Church and State Chapter 2 Bernard Hugonnier and Gemma Serrano Going to the Past: A Longue Duree Analysis of Catholic Education and the State in France Chapter 3 Carlos Martinez Valle Active Methods and Social Secularization in School Catechesis during the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975): A Transfer in a Cultural System in Change Chapter 4 Pauli Davila and Luis M. Naya Garmendia Turning Need into a Virtue: The Adjustment to the Educational Demands of the Religious Congregations: The Case of De La Salle in the Basque Country, Spain Chapter 5 Rosa Bruno-Jofre The Sisters of the Infant Jesus in Bembibre, Leon, Spain, during the Second Stage of Francoism (1957-1975): The School with No Doors PART III. The Processes of Re-signification of Missions Chapter 6 Rosa Bruno-Jofre and Jon Igelmo Zaldivar Ivan Illich, the Critique of the Church as It: From a Vision of the Missioner to a Critique of Schooling Chapter 7 Elizabeth Smyth From Serving in the Missions at Home to Serving in Latin America: The Post-Vatican II Experience of Canadian Women Religious Chapter 8 Heidi MacDonald Women Religious, Vatican II, Education, and the State in Atlantic Canada Chapter 9 Rosa Bruno-Jofre The Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM) in Canada, the Long 1960s, and Vatican II: From Carving Spaces in the Educational State to Living the Radicality of the Gospel PART IV. Changes in Curriculum and the Catholic Classroom after Vatican II Chapter 10 Joe Stafford The Conditions of Reception for the Declaration on Christian Education: Secularization and the Educational State of Ontario Chapter 11 Cristian Cox and Patricia Imbarack Catholic Elite Education in Chile: Worlds Apart PART V: Catholicism and Aboriginal Education in Canada Chapter 12 Lindsay Morcom Balancing the Spirit in Aboriginal Catholic Education in Ontario Chapter 13 Chris Beeman Indigenous Education as Failed Ontological Reconfiguration PART VI: Religious Renewal and Public Pedagogy Chapter 14 William Pinar "The Scandalous Revolutionary Force of the Past": On Pasolini's The Gospel According to Saint Matthew Conclusion Carlos Martinez Valle and Gemma Serrano Conclusion - Catholicism and Education: Points of Intersection, Opposition, and Configuration Contributors

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Book SynopsisBringing a new dimension to the literature on educationalization, this book is grounded in historical research, curricular analysis, and philosophical reflection.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Problematizing 'Educationalization' Rosa Bruno-Jofré, Queen’s University Part One: Contesting Views of Processes of Educationalization at the Intersection with Christianity 1. The Dignity of Protestant Souls: Protestant Trajectories in the Educationalization of the World Daniel Tröhler, University of Vienna 2. Multiple Early Modernities and "Educationalization": Reframing the Confessional Debate on Education, Politics and Religion in Early Modern Europe Carlos Martínez Valle, Universidad Complutense de Madrid 3. Catholicism and "Educationalization" Rosa Bruno-Jofré, Queen’s University 4. Antigonish, or an "Education that is not Educationalization" Adam Josh Cole, Queen’s University Part Two: Catholicism, Spirituality, and Educationalization 5. Educationalization of the Modern World: The Case of the Loretto Sisters in British North America Elizabeth Smyth, University of Toronto 6. Women Religious’ New Educational Approaches in the Global South, 1968-80 Heidi MacDonald, University of New Brunswick 7. The Educationalization Process and the Roman Catholic Church in North America during the Long Nineteenth Century Joseph Stafford, Queen’s University 8. The Educationalization in the Spanish Second Republic and the Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain in 1932 Jon Igelmo Zaldívar, Universidad Complutense de Madrid 9. Waldorf Education and the Educationalization of Spirituality in the Plural Context in Late Twentieth-century Spain Patricia Quiroga Uceda, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia Part Three: Educationalization and the Right to Education/Schooling 10. Educationalization, Schooling, and the Right to Education Felicitas Acosta, Universidad General Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina Part Four: Educationalization and Democratic Spaces in the Digital Era 11. Educationalization as Technologization William Pinar, University of British Columbia 12. Countering Patterns of Educationalization: Creating Digital Tools for Critical Evidence-based Thinking Ana Jofré, SUNY Polytechnic, Utica Part Five: Educationalization as a Tool of Colonization and its Counter-dimension in Indigenous Educational Agendas: Limits and Possibilities 13. Educationalization in Canada: The Use of Native Teacher Education as a Tool of Decoloniality Bonita Uzoruo, Queen’s University 14. Indigeneity and Educationalization Chris Beeman, Brandon University 15. Capuchin Missions in Mapuche Territory: The Education of an Original People in Chile from 1880 to 1930 Sol Serrano, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Macarena Ponce de León, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Concluding Analysis: Turning the Problem on its Head: Looking to New Critical Directions Adam Josh Cole, Queen’s University and Ian McKay, McMaster University List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn The Growth of Minds and Cultures Vanderburg shows how the culture of a society underlies its science, technology, economy, social structure, political institutions, morality, religion, and art.Trade Review"The book is meticulously researched, using extensively the work of Piaget, Kuhn, Toynbee, and Jung among others, as well as the ideas related to open systems theory." -- Dirk Leemans Canadian Book Review Annual "...the very ambition of this book commends it to the attention of anyone interested in the complex relation between modern science and technology, on the one hand, and the traditional notions of culture, society, and history, on the other." -- Hayden White ISIS: A Journal of the History of Science SocietyTable of ContentsForeword Preface Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Our Senses and the World Chapter 3 The Structure of Experience Chapter 4 The Development of Mind Chapter 5 Language Chapter 6 Individual Diversity Chapter 7 Cultural Unity Chapter 8 Culture and History Envoi Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn The Givenness of Desire, Randall S. Rosenberg examines the human desire for God through the lens of Lonergan’s concrete subjectivity. Rosenberg engages and integrates two major scholarly developments: the tension between Neo-Thomists and scholars of Henri de Lubac over our natural desire to see God and the theological appropriation of the mimetic theory of René Girard, with an emphasis on the saints as models of desire. With Lonergan as an integrating thread, the author engages a variety of thinkers, including Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean-Luc Marion, René Girard, James Alison, Lawrence Feingold, and John Milbank, among others. The theme of concrete subjectivity helps to resist the tendency of equating too easily the natural desire for being with the natural desire for God without at the same time acknowledging the widespread distortion of desire found in the consumer culture that infects contemporary life. The Givenness of Desire investigates our paradoxical Trade Review‘This volume is a valuable resource for any scholar interested in the desire for self-transcendence and the natural desire for God.’ -- J.M. Meinert * Choice Magazine vol 55:05:2018 *"Rosenberg has achieved something rare: a genuine and sympathetic conversation among neo-Scholastics, Lonergan, Girard, and la nouvelle théologie. The result is a valuable and immensely stimulating book, funded by terrific insight, for a theologically sophisticated readership." -- Jeremy D. Wilkins * Horizons: The Journal of the College of Theological Society *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements INTRODUCTION PART ONE: DE LUBAC, RESSOURCEMENT, AND NEO-THOMISM CHAPTER 1: De Lubac’s Lament: Loss of the Supernatural CHAPTER 2: Ressourcement and Neo-Thomism: A Narrative under Scrutiny, A Dialogue Renewed PART TWO: A LONERGAN RETRIEVAL: PURE NATURE TO CONCRETE SUBJECT CHAPTER 3: The Erotic Roots of Intellectual Desire CHAPTER 4: Concretely-Operating Nature: Lonergan on the Natural Desire to See God CHAPTER 5: Being-in-Love and the Desire for the Supernatural: Erotic-Agapic Subjectivity PART III: MIMETIC DESIRE, MODELS OF HOLINESS, AND THE LOVE OF DEVIATED TRANSCENDENCE CHAPTER 6: Incarnate Meaning and Mimetic Desire: Saints and the Desire for God CHAPTER 7: The Metaphysics of Holiness and the Longing for God in History: Thérèse of Lisieux and Etty Hillesum CHAPTER 8: Distorted Desire and the Love of Deviated Transcendence CONCLUSION

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Book SynopsisFor millions of Catholic believers, pilgrimage has offered possible answers to the mysteries of sickness, life, and death. The Persistence of the Sacred explores the religious worldviews of Europeans who travelled to Trier and Aachen, two cities in Western Germany, to view the sacred relics in their cathedrals. The Persistence of the Sacred challenges the narrative of widespread secularization in Europe during the long nineteenth century and reveals that religious practices thrived well into the modern period. It shows both that men were more active in their faith than historians have realized and how clergy and pilgrims did not always agree about the meaning of relics. Drawing on private ephemeral and material sources including films, photographs, postcards, correspondence, and souvenirs, Skye Doney uncovers the enduring and diverse sacred worldview of German Catholics and argues that laity and clergy had very different perspectives on the meaning of pilgrimageTrade Review“An eminently readable and very fruitful study.” -- Jonathan Sperber, University of Missouri * Catholic Historical Review *“The work offers readers new, engaging ways of thinking about German Catholicism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and provides a glimpse into the world of everyday German Catholics and their attempts to navigate the practice of their religious faith in the modern world.” -- Beth Griech-Polelle, Pacific Lutheran University * German Studies Review *“Offering a tightly bounded history of Catholic pilgrimages to Trier and Aachen, Skye Doney has ably foregrounded how Catholicism in Germany, both as an institutional religion and as a mass movement of millions, sought to straddle faith and empirically-based science.” -- Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Flinders University * Journal of Religious History *Table of ContentsArchive Abbreviations Acknowledgments Select Dates in German Catholicism: 1813–1939 Introduction 1. What They Practiced: Prayer, Songs, and Processions 2. Modern Miracles 3. The Sacred Economy 4. Rending Religiosity: Johannes Ronge and the 1840s Trier Controversy 5. Clerical Crossroads: Medical Verifiability of the Sacred 6. Historical Authenticity as Presence Conclusion: Verifying Presence Appendix 1: Selected Pilgrim Songs in Translation, 1839–1933 Appendix 2: Daily Pilgrim Totals in 1891 Appendix 3: Daily Pilgrim Totals in 1933 Appendix 4: Holy Coat Songs in Trier Hymnal, 1846–1955 Appendix 5: Pilgrimage Dates Appendix 6: 1933 Trier Pilgrimage Sick Pilgrim Complaints Appendix 7: 1867 Aachen Closing Ceremony Procession Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe separate school question is a continuing controversy in Canada - a variation on the classical issue in western history of church-state relations in education, heightened by the conflict between French and English. In this carefully researched work, Dr Lupul investigates the school question in the North-West Territories in the late nineteenth century before the division of the area into the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This was an impotant development in Canada's educational, political, and religious history. The last quarter of the nineteenth century was an era of intense nationalism that embraced the political principles of the primacy of the state and the need for a common school system for all children. In the North-West the Roman Catholic Church has exercised a dominant influence on social development up to the mid-1870s , which it was most unwilling to relinquish to the state and its vanguard of Anglo-Protestant settlers. In this scrupulously objective account, D

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Book SynopsisHow do specific secular and religious ideologiessuch as nationalism, neoliberalism, atheism, Pentecostalism, Tablighi Islam, and shamanismgain popularity and when do they lose traction? To answer these questions, Mathijs Pelkmans critically examines the trajectories of a range of ideologies as they move into the post-Soviet frontier in Central Asia. Ethnographically rooted in the everyday life of a former mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan, Fragile Conviction shows how residents have dealt with the existential and epistemic crises that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Residents became enchanted by the truths of Muslim and Christian missionaries, embraced the teachings of neoliberal and nationalist ideologues, and were riveted by the visions of shamanic healers. But no matter how much enthusiasm and hope these ideas first engendered, the commitment to any of them rarely lasted very long.Pelkmans finds that there is an inverse relationship between the tenacity andTrade ReviewRooted in the author's deep understanding of Kyrgyz society, this is a complex, well-structured and nuanced text.... Readers will come away from the book with a very clear understanding of modern small-town Kyrgyzstan and the nuances governing its society. * LSE Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Ideational Power in Times of TurmoilPart I: Uncertain Times and Places1. Shattered Transition: The Reordering of Kyrgyz Society2. Condition of Uncertainty: Life in an Industrial WastelandPart II: Dynamics of Conviction3. What Happened to Soviet Atheism?4. Walking the Truth in Islam with the Tablighi Jamaat5. Pentecostal Miracle Truth on the Frontier6. The Tenacity of Spiritual Healing and Seeing Conclusion: Pulsation and the Dynamics of Conviction

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Book SynopsisThe Politics of the Headscarf in the United States investigates the social and political effects of the practice of Muslim-American women wearing the headscarf (hijab) in a non-Muslim state. The authors find the act of head covering is not politically motivated in the US setting, but rather it accentuates and engages Muslim identity in uniquely American ways.Transcending contemporary political debates on the issue of Islamic head covering, The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States addresses concerns beyond the simple, particular phenomenon of wearing the headscarf itself, with the authors confronting broader issues of lasting import. These issues include the questions of safeguarding individual and collective identity in a diverse democracy, exploring the ways in which identities inform and shape political practices, and sourcing the meaning of citizenship and belonging in the United States through the voices of Muslim-American women themselves.<Trade ReviewThose who are looking at the identity construction and citizenship practices of Muslim-American women will find this book useful for understanding the intersection of religion and politics in the lives of American Muslim women. This book also illuminates several research areas such as American Islam, Islam and politics, and Muslim women in a minority context. * Choice *Featuring interviews as well as quantitative data, this book is an excellent assessment of the experience of Muslim-American women who wear the hijab.... This is an important read for those interested in understanding the unique experiences of Muslim women in America today. * Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual *Offers notable results to interpret the role of religion in the current political environment in the United States. * Reading Religion *This book provides an immense amount of data and is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the veil. * Ethnic and Racial Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Islamic Head Covering 2. Unity amid Diversity? 3. Visibly Different 4. Islamic Ethics and Practices of Head Covering in American Political Life 5. Head Covering and Political Participation 6. Citizenship without Representation Conclusion and Implications

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Book SynopsisOrder out of Chaos explains why Iraqis turned to the mosque after state collapse. In 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq destroyed the Bathist state. Despite this the citizens of Basra established predictable routines of daily life and social order as the familiar and customary structures of state-imposed order collapsed. What enabled individuals in Basra to work together to produce order amid anarchy? The answer: the Friday mosque. A week after the regime fell, Shii imams introduced Friday congregational prayers and associated sermons for the first time in most places since the 1950s. These sermons facilitated the spread of common knowledge and coordination, both locally and nationally, and contributed to the emergence of a relatively cohesive imagined community of Iraqi Shia that came to dominate Iraq''s political order.Combining rational choice approaches, ethnographic understanding, and GIS analysis, David Siddhartha Patel reveals the interconnecTable of Contents1. Order, Authority, and Identity 2. The Sanctions-Era Roots of Postinvasion Developments 3. Collapse 4. The Emergence of Local Orders 5. The Geography of Order 6. Ayatollahs' Networks and National Authority 7. The Limits of Sunni Religious Authority 8. Beyond Basra and Beyond Sermons

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Book SynopsisThe Basque Seroras explores the intersections between local community, women''s work, and religious reform in early modern northern Spain. Amanda L. Scott illuminates the lives of these uncloistered religious women, who took no vows and were free to leave the religious life if they chose. Their vocation afforded them considerably more autonomy and, in some ways, liberty, than nuns or wives.Scott''s archival work recovers the surprising ubiquity of seroras, with every Basque parish church employing at least one. Their central position in local religious life revises how we think about the social and religious limitations placed on early modern women. By situating the seroras within the social dynamics and devotional life of their communities, The Basque Seroras reconceives of female religious life and the opportunities it could provide. It also shows how these devout laywomen were instrumental in the process of negotiated reform during the Counter-Reformation.Trade ReviewScott's deep dive into three centuries of notarial and diocesan archives is truly impressive. Her writing is crisp and concise. Scott admirably succeeds in reconstructing the history of a group of exceptionally autonomous women who found purpose, esteem, and economic stability in the spaces between the religious and the secular. * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *Through meticulous archival research, Scott crafts a compelling narrative of the lives of seroras from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The varied source materials—church records, criminal records, notarial documents, and legal cases—enable her to piece disparate accounts into a detailed history of how the seroras were critical to local religious life and reform * Early Modern Women *As Amanda Scott's excellent study shows, the seroras reveal how timeless concerns coexist with and extend beyond great institutional change. In this study of seroras, Scott combines discussions pertinent to church reform, alongside institutional, social, and women's history, in order to depict habits similar to but distinct from what many scholars know. This book is an excellent contribution to all those fields, but remains, like the seroras themselves, interesting and valuable as a rare English-language study of early modern Basque life. * Renaissance and Reformation *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Basque Seroras and Lay Female Religious Life in the Early Modern World 2. "Her Duty and Obligation": Selecting and Employing a Serora 3. Local Religion and Tridentine Reform in the Early Modern Basque Country 4. "Nothing More Certain Than Death": Seroras and Their Communities through Their Testaments 5. The Virgin, the Witch, and the Widow: Suspicion and Transgression in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 6. Conflict and Community in the Seventeenth Century 7. From Seroras to Sacristans: Reforms in the Eighteenth Century Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWhen American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad led them to engage more deeply in foreign policy activism at home. Lauren Frances Turek tracks these trends and illuminates the complex and significant ways in which religion shaped America''s role in the lateCold War world. In To Bring the Good News to All Nations, she examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy lobbying groups in the United States beginning in the 1970s, assesses the effectiveness of Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favored regimes, and considers how those same groups promoted the imposition of economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that stifled evangelism.Using archival materials from both religious and government sources, To Bring the Good News to All Nations links the development of evangelical foreTrade ReviewThis work is a welcome addition to the growing literature on religion and US foreign policy. * Choice *To Bring the Good News to All Nations is a thoughtful, lucidly written study of how activist networks are built and exert influence at the nexus of international and domestic politics. The book adeptly treats conservative evangelicals and their beliefs with sensitivity even while still evaluating them critically, providing a model for other scholars interested in similar topics. * Passport *Lauren Frances Turek's 2020 study, To Bring the Good News to All Nations, provides the basis for a more complete and accurate assessment of the inspirations, aims, and achievements of the movement. * First Things *Well researched, insightful, and solidly documented, To Bring Good News to All Nations is a significant scholarly achievement. * International Journal of Frontier Missiology *[T]his volume, which is richly researched and well organized, is a timely and valuable contribution to existing studies on the American Christian Right. * Idées d'Amériques *Lauren Frances Turek's new book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on evangelical Christianity and U.S. foreing relations. * The Review of Faith & International Afffairs *Lauren Turek's To Bring the Good News to All Nations is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning subfield of the religious history of U.S. foreign relations, bringing to light the poorly understood contours of white U.S. evangelical engagement with U.S. foreign policy in the 1970s and 1980s. With impressively detailed and careful archival, textual, and other media-related research, Turek breaks clichés, unlocks impasses, and fills misleading silences in conventional narratives of the rise of the Religious Right. * Church History *Turek succeeds in demonstrating how powerful evangelical networks influenced U.S. foreign policy. The book provides an important analysis of the development of evangelical human rights that is becoming even more relevant as the inheritors of this tradition have taken charge of the State Department. Turek's analysis also suggests the ways that a globally-focused Cold War politics defined white U.S. evangelicalism. * Diplomatic History *Extensively researched and well-written, To Bring the Good News to All Nations makes a convincing case for the role of American evangelicals in international affairs. [T]he book is a wide-ranging work that greatly adds to our understanding of the role of religion in the last two decades of the Cold War. * Religion, State & Society *[The book] is a deeply researched, cogently argued, and utterly compelling study of conservative Protestant 'influence' on American foreign policy. Turek's work is an important reminder to historians of religion that state power, political economy, and international exchange are never absent from religion's work in the world. * Religion *Turek is careful to show that U.S. evangelicals were not mere promoters of American interests overseas. Neither did they always speak in one voice. Turek's book invites readers to take a critical look at the present and future of evangelical human rights advocacy. * The Review of Faith and International Affairs *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Defining and Defending Rights 1. A Global Shift in Missionary Christianity 2. The Communications Revolution And Evangelical Internationalism 3. Religious Freedom and the New Evangelical Foreign Policy Lobby 4. Fighting Religious Persecution behind the Iron Curtain 5. Supporting a "Brother in Christ" in Guatemala 6. The Challenge of South African Apartheid Conclusion: Evangelical Foreign Policy Activism Ascendant

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Book SynopsisRussia''s Entangled Embrace traces the relationship between the Romanov state and the Armenian diaspora that populated Russia''s territorial fringes and navigated the tsarist empire''s metropolitan centers.By engaging the ongoing debates about imperial structures that were simultaneously symbiotic and hierarchically ordered, Stephen Badalyan Riegg helps us to understand how, for Armenians and some other subjects, imperial rule represented not hypothetical, clear-cut alternatives but simultaneous, messy realities. He examines why, and how, Russian architects of empire imagined Armenians as being politically desirable. These circumstances included the familiarity of their faith, perceived degree of social, political, or cultural integration, and their actual or potential contributions to the state''s varied priorities.Based on extensive research in the archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Yerevan, Russia''s Entangled Embrace reveals that the Russian goveTrade ReviewThis informative book offers a history of the place of Armenians within the tsarist empire in the long 19th century. It adds to a burgeoning scholarly literature on Russia as a multiethnic empire, drawing on careful archival research to sharpen the understanding of the ways in which the vast empire managed its remarkable diversity. * Choice *A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the Armenians or the Caucasus, of Russian domestic and nationalities policy, and of Russian foreign policy. Of interest to academic and general readers alike. * The Russian Review *Stephen Badalyan Riegg's case study of the Armenians within the Russian empire clearly demonstrates the fluidity and complexity of imperial policies and relationships. In so doing, this work provides a powerful illustration of the new imperial history's desire to understand empire as a myriad of tensions and inconsistencies, and challenges the reader to think comparatively about the relationships in a multi-ethnic empire. * The Middle Ground Journal *Armed with a rich arsenal of primary and secondary sources, Riegg methodically explains the evolution of this relationship from 1801 to 1914, which is not an easy feat. This careful study will make readers wonder how the Russo-Armenian relationship evolved from then on. * Slavic Review *Russia's Entangled Embrace will remain one of the foremost monographs on the synchro-nous development of Armenian nation-building and Russian empire-building in the South Caucasus, as well as a very good case study of the maintenance of rule in an empire's shattering multiethnic borderland on the eve of the First World War. * Comparativ *Stephen Riegg's work is a strong, pioneering contribution to the study of the Armenian community in imperial Russia. * Slavonic and East European Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Embrace of an Empire, 1801-1813 2. Armenians in the Russian Political Imagination, 1814-1829 3. Integration and Reorientation: Religious and Economic Challenges in 1830-1856 4. The Recalibration of Tsarist Policies toward Armenians inside and outside Russia 1857-1880 5. The Shining of the Sabers: Ebbing Symbiosis, Rising Strife, 1881-1895 6. Nadir and Normalization, 1896-1914 Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWhat explains differences in soldier participation in violence during irregular war? How do ordinary men become professional wielders of force, and when does this transformation falter or fail? Regular Soldiers, Irregular War presents a theoretical framework for understanding the various forms of behavior in which soldiers engage during counterinsurgency campaignscompliance and shirking, abuse and restraint, as well as the creation of new violent practices.Through an in-depth study of the Israeli Defense Forces'' repression of the Second Palestinian Intifada of 20002005, including in-depth interviews with and a survey of former combatants, Devorah Manekin examines how soldiers come both to unleash and to curb violence against civilians in a counterinsurgency campaign. Manekin argues that variation in soldiers'' behavior is best explained by the effectiveness of the control mechanisms put in place to ensure combatant violence reflects the strategies and preferences of mTrade ReviewThis is a well-written, notable contribution to military sociology and security studies. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Production and Restraint of Military Violence 1. Participation in Counterinsurgency 2. Narrating Conflict and Violence: Ex-Combatant Accounts as Data 3. IDF Counterinsurgency in the Second Intifada 4. The Production of Strategic Violence 5. The Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Violence 6. The Production and Control of Opportunistic Violence 7. Beyond Israel: Counterinsurgent Violenceand Restraint in Comparative Perspective Conclusion: Violence and Restraint in Counterinsurgency

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Book SynopsisWhen is a war a holy crusade? And when does theology cause Christians to condemn violence? In American Crusade, Benjamin Wetzel argues that the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I shared a cultural meaning for white Protestant ministers in the United States, who considered each conflict to be a modern-day crusade. American Crusade examines the holy war mentality prevalent between 1860 and 1920, juxtaposing mainline Protestant support for these wars with more hesitant religious voices: Catholics, German-speaking Lutherans, and African American Methodists. The specific theologies and social locations of these more marginal denominations made their ministries highly critical of the crusading mentality. Religious understandings of the nation, both in support of and opposed to armed conflict, played a major role in such ideological contestation. Wetzel''s book questions traditional periodizations and suggests that these three wars should Trade ReviewThis well-written, powerfully argued book demonstrates the almost incestuous link between politics, power, and religion. * Choice *American Crusade is a fascinating history about how Christian duty and patriotic citizenship became intertwined during the three major wars between 1860 and 1920. It is a multisided history that draws on counterexamples to show that while these were prevailing ideas of the time, they were also challenged and shaped by marginalized groups within the United States. * H-net *Overall, though, Wetzel's engaging book makes a convincing case that this was a distinctive era of Protestant thought, one in which the mainline sanctified the nation's military endeavors, but in the process, spurred other Christians to offer new visions of the nation. * AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES *

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Book SynopsisEveryday Religiosity and the Politics of Belonging in Ukraine reveals how and why religion has become a pivotal political force in a society struggling to overcome the legacy of its entangled past with Russia and chart a new future. If Ukraine is ground zero in the tensions between Russia and the West, religion is an arena where the consequences of conflicts between Russia and Ukraine keenly play out. Vibrant forms of everyday religiosity pave the way for religion to be weaponized and securitized to advance political agendas in Ukraine and beyond. These practices, Catherine Wanner argues, enable religiosity to be increasingly present in public spaces, public institutions, and wartime politics in a pluralist society that claims to be secular. Based on ethnographic data and interviews conducted since before the Revolution of Dignity and the outbreak of armed combat in 2014, Wanner investigates the conditions that catapulted religiosity, religious insTrade ReviewWanner shines a light on the entanglement of religion and politics both during and after the revolution. * Choice *

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Book SynopsisOrder out of Chaos explains why Iraqis turned to the mosque after state collapse. In 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq destroyed the Bathist state. Despite this the citizens of Basra established predictable routines of daily life and social order as the familiar and customary structures of state-imposed order collapsed. What enabled individuals in Basra to work together to produce order amid anarchy? The answer: the Friday mosque. A week after the regime fell, Shii imams introduced Friday congregational prayers and associated sermons for the first time in most places since the 1950s. These sermons facilitated the spread of common knowledge and coordination, both locally and nationally, and contributed to the emergence of a relatively cohesive imagined community of Iraqi Shia that came to dominate Iraq''s political order.Combining rational choice approaches, ethnographic understanding, and GIS analysis, David Siddhartha Patel reveals the interconnecTable of Contents1. Order, Authority, and Identity 2. The Sanctions-Era Roots of Postinvasion Developments 3. Collapse 4. The Emergence of Local Orders 5. The Geography of Order 6. Ayatollahs' Networks and National Authority 7. The Limits of Sunni Religious Authority 8. Beyond Basra and Beyond Sermons

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Book SynopsisWhen American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad led them to engage more deeply in foreign policy activism at home. Lauren Frances Turek tracks these trends and illuminates the complex and significant ways in which religion shaped America''s role in the lateCold War world. In To Bring the Good News to All Nations, she examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy lobbying groups in the United States beginning in the 1970s, assesses the effectiveness of Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favored regimes, and considers how those same groups promoted the imposition of economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that stifled evangelism.Using archival materials from both religious and government sources, To Bring the Good News to All Nations links the development of evangelical foreTrade ReviewThis work is a welcome addition to the growing literature on religion and US foreign policy. * Choice *To Bring the Good News to All Nations is a thoughtful, lucidly written study of how activist networks are built and exert influence at the nexus of international and domestic politics. The book adeptly treats conservative evangelicals and their beliefs with sensitivity even while still evaluating them critically, providing a model for other scholars interested in similar topics. * Passport *Lauren Frances Turek's 2020 study, To Bring the Good News to All Nations, provides the basis for a more complete and accurate assessment of the inspirations, aims, and achievements of the movement. * First Things *Well researched, insightful, and solidly documented, To Bring Good News to All Nations is a significant scholarly achievement. * International Journal of Frontier Missiology *[T]his volume, which is richly researched and well organized, is a timely and valuable contribution to existing studies on the American Christian Right. * Idées d'Amériques *Lauren Frances Turek's new book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on evangelical Christianity and U.S. foreing relations. * The Review of Faith & International Afffairs *Lauren Turek's To Bring the Good News to All Nations is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning subfield of the religious history of U.S. foreign relations, bringing to light the poorly understood contours of white U.S. evangelical engagement with U.S. foreign policy in the 1970s and 1980s. With impressively detailed and careful archival, textual, and other media-related research, Turek breaks clichés, unlocks impasses, and fills misleading silences in conventional narratives of the rise of the Religious Right. * Church History *Turek succeeds in demonstrating how powerful evangelical networks influenced U.S. foreign policy. The book provides an important analysis of the development of evangelical human rights that is becoming even more relevant as the inheritors of this tradition have taken charge of the State Department. Turek's analysis also suggests the ways that a globally-focused Cold War politics defined white U.S. evangelicalism. * Diplomatic History *Extensively researched and well-written, To Bring the Good News to All Nations makes a convincing case for the role of American evangelicals in international affairs. [T]he book is a wide-ranging work that greatly adds to our understanding of the role of religion in the last two decades of the Cold War. * Religion, State & Society *[The book] is a deeply researched, cogently argued, and utterly compelling study of conservative Protestant 'influence' on American foreign policy. Turek's work is an important reminder to historians of religion that state power, political economy, and international exchange are never absent from religion's work in the world. * Religion *Turek is careful to show that U.S. evangelicals were not mere promoters of American interests overseas. Neither did they always speak in one voice. Turek's book invites readers to take a critical look at the present and future of evangelical human rights advocacy. * The Review of Faith and International Affairs *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Defining and Defending Rights 1. A Global Shift in Missionary Christianity 2. The Communications Revolution And Evangelical Internationalism 3. Religious Freedom and the New Evangelical Foreign Policy Lobby 4. Fighting Religious Persecution behind the Iron Curtain 5. Supporting a "Brother in Christ" in Guatemala 6. The Challenge of South African Apartheid Conclusion: Evangelical Foreign Policy Activism Ascendant

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Book SynopsisLiminal Minorities addresses the question of why some religious minorities provoke the ire of majoritarian groups and become targets of organized violence, even though they lack significant power and pose no political threat. Günes Murat Tezcür argues that these faith groups are stigmatized across generations, as they lack theological recognition and social acceptance from the dominant religious group. Religious justifications of violence have a strong mobilization power when directed against liminal minorities, which makes these groups particularly vulnerable to mass violence during periods of political change.Offering the first comparative-historical study of mass atrocities against religious minorities in Muslim societies, Tezcür focuses on two case studiesthe Islamic State''s genocidal attacks against the Yezidis in northern Iraq in the 2010s and massacres of Alevis in Turkey in the 1970s and 1990swhile also addressing discrimination and violence agai

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Book SynopsisIs religion a source of political stability and social continuity, or an agent of radical change? This question, so central to contemporary conversations about religion and extremism, has generated varied responses over the last century. Taking Jewish and Islamic education as its objects of inquiry, Mandatory Separation sheds light on the contours of this debate in Palestine during the formative period of British rule, detailing how colonial, Zionist, and Palestinian-Muslim leaders developed competing views of the form and function of religious education in an age of mass politics. Drawing from archival records, school syllabi, textbooks, newspapers, and personal narratives, Suzanne Schneider argues that the British Mandatory government supported religious education as a supposed antidote to nationalist passions at the precise moment when the administrative, pedagogic, and curricular transformation of religious schooling rendered it a vital tool for Zionist and Palestinian leaders. This study of their policies and practices illuminates the tensions, similarities, and differences among these diverse educational and political philosophies, revealing the lasting significance of these debates for thinking about religion and political identity in the modern Middle East.Trade Review"Mandatory Separation sheds welcome light on a crucial aspect of the British Mandate for Palestine, education for mass politics among both Jews and Muslims. Through this discussion, Suzanne Schneider exposes some of the essential foundations for the decades of conflict in Palestine and Israel that have followed. An important and timely work."—Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University"Brilliantly weaving together British, Zionist, and Palestinian Arab sources, Suzanne Schneider reveals the roots of national politics in the continuities, disjunctures, and struggles among the educators and reformers who saw the schools of Palestine as ground zero in their efforts to construct the ideal modern citizen. Mandatory Separation shows that the intertwining of religion and national politics in Israel/Palestine today is neither new nor eternal."—Liora R. Halperin, University of Washington"The book's novelty lies in its inclusion of education in [its] analytical framework, seeking to examine how two separate national communities operated under and interacted with the same system. Schneider reveals how, instead of promoting understanding, British colonial educational policy adopted and promoted a mandatory separation between the two communities....The book is articulate, straightforward and fun to read—a must read for scholars of the Palestine Mandate, the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, and British colonial history."—Yoni Furas, Middle East Journal"Schneider's book provides a compelling case study of how "religion" was defined and produced in a semi-colonial context in Palestine, and how those efforts connected with earlier labors concerning Judaism in Europe and Islam in the Levant. She also effectively argues that despite the determined portrayal in archival documents of religions as known, stable, and fixed categories, the reality in Palestine was that "religion," and specifically "Judaism" and "Islam," continued to escape and confound fixity. Her focus on education helps elucidate how "religious education" was produced as a particular category of knowledge, in which direct, unmediated access to scripture for the purpose of understanding its edifying moral lessons was privileged over studying the exegetical traditions."—Andrea Stanton, Reading Religion"In Mandatory Separation: Religion, Education, and Mass Politics in Palestine, Suzanne Schneider astutely identifies an underexplored set of questions regarding the nature, political aims, and internal contradictions of British Mandate education policy...Adding to an important body of literature, Mandatory Separation offers new ways of understanding questions of economy, education, and settler colonialism in the study of British Mandate Palestine."—Hanna Alshaikh, Journal of Palestine StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Politics of Denial 1. Religious Education in the Modern Age 2. Educational Modernity in Palestine 3. Education and Community under Sectarian Rule 4. New Schooling for an "Old" Order 5. The Boundaries of Religious Knowledge 6. Border Clashes Conclusion: The Invisible Cross

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Book SynopsisLess and less Christian demographically, America is now home to an ever-larger number of people who say they identify with no religion at all. These non-Christians have increasingly been demanding their full participation in public life, bringing their arguments all the way to the Supreme Court. The law is on their side, but that doesn't mean that their attempts are not met with suspicion or outright hostility. In Our Non-Christian Nation, Jay Wexler travels the country to engage the non-Christians who have called on us to maintain our ideals of inclusivity and diversity. With his characteristic sympathy and humor, he introduces us to the Summum and their Seven Aphorisms, a Wiccan priestess who would deck her City Hall with a pagan holiday wreath, and other determined champions of free religious expression. As Wexler reminds us, anyone who cares about pluralism, equality, and fairness should support a public square filled with a variety of religious and nonreligious voices. The stakes are nothing short of long-term social peace.Trade Review"Timely, trenchant, and tremendously engaging, Our Non-Christian Nation is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary battles over religion's role in our national politics and culture." -- Phil Zuckerman * author of Living the Secular Life *"In this brilliantly erudite and hugely entertaining romp through recent religious and legal history, Jay Wexler shows why, as our country becomes more religiously diverse, non-Christians need to get their voices heard and Christians need to help repair the wall between church and state. A marvelous read." -- Michael Shermer * Skeptic magazine *"What would it mean to take seriously the idea of religious diversity in the public sphere? Jay Wexler tells the stories of Wiccans, Muslims, and other religious and non-religious groups outside the mainstream who show what existing constitutional doctrine means in practice. The picture he paints provokes us to think differently about what that doctrine should be." -- Mark Tushnet * Harvard Law School *"In this fine book, Jay Wexler urges humanists, atheists, Satanists, and members of minority religious traditions to take advantage of a fascinating new phenomenon: the opening of public space to a variety of beliefs and institutions. His compelling account of 'belief' in public life will be of interest to the deeply religious as well as those who cringe at the very thought of religion. I highly recommend it." -- Anthony B. Pinn * author of Humanism: Essays on Race, Religion and Cultural Production *"A zesty, opinionated assessment of how non-Christians should actually behave....With curiosity and openness, Wexler performs the action that he advocates: that is, making heard a 'cacophony' of voices in public life so that different viewpoints get brought to the fore." -- Dan Friedman * Los Angeles Review of Books *"A fascinating read, and a wonderfully hopeful one...For anyone who feels marginalized as a pagan, nonbeliever, or just not a Christian, it's a manifesto for effective and often hilarious resistance." -- Houston Chronicle"Wexler...has made a timely, at times funny, and compelling piece of reportage looking at a variety of religious groups, as well as a strong argument for the importance of a pluralistic society." -- The Boston Globe"[T]his book was written for the general public, which often struggles to understand the jurisprudence surrounding religious freedom. Even professors of religious studies often need help in this area....Wexler's writing makes this book ideal for getting undergraduates interested in these issues." -- Joseph Laycock * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *"[An] artfully presented, quite accessible, guide to major legal issues faced by minority faiths in America...recommended for all interested in such topics." -- James T. Richardson * Nova Religio *"Wexler's greatest strength is his ability to describe current case law in readily digestible terms, making his work an ideal resource for undergraduates interested in religion and American politics. . .[T]his work can serve as an ideal entry point into important classroom conversations regarding the place of religions, especially minorities, in American law, as well as how both public and legal discourses have shaped the role of religion in American life." -- Savannah Finver * Religious Studies Review *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction chapter abstractThis chapter presents the main themes, issues, and arguments of the book. After an opening vignette describing the efforts of the Satanic Temple to erect a veterans monument in a small Minnesota town, the chapter introduces the First Amendment, particularly the Establishment Clause and the concept of separation of church and state as set out by the Supreme Court. It traces demographic changes in the country's religious makeup that have rendered the nation far less Christian and more secular than at previous times in its history. After a discussion of the issue of defining religion, the chapter sets forth the book's primary argument—namely, that a religiously diverse public square is preferable to one dominated by Christianity. One: Mummies, Monuments, and Monotheism: Religious Displays as Government Speech chapter abstractThis chapter discusses the constitutional doctrine of government speech under the First Amendment as it relates to the erection of religious monuments on public property. It does so, first, by describing and evaluating cases concerning the constitutionality of various Ten Commandments monuments under the Establishment Clause, and particularly the case of Van Orden v. Perry, which upheld such a monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. The chapter goes on to discuss the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of the small religious group known as the Summum, located in Salt Lake City, to have a Utah town erect a monument to its "Seven Aphorisms" in a park next to the community's Ten Commandments monument. The author's trip to visit the Summum and understand its mummification practices is described. Two: Pagans, Pentacles, and Pluralism: Religious Displays in the Public Forum chapter abstractThis chapter contrasts the government speech doctrine discussed in chapter 1 with the more minority-friendly First Amendment free speech doctrine known as the designated public forum. Under this doctrine, if the government designates a part of its property for private speech, including religious speech, it may not exclude speech on the basis of the viewpoint that is expressed by that speech. After explaining the doctrine, the chapter describes the successful efforts of Pagans and Wiccans, under the leadership of Wiccan priestess Selena Fox and through litigation brought by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow Pagans buried in national cemeteries to have pentacles displayed on their headstones. The chapter also describes the author's visit to Fox's Circle Sanctuary in Wisconsin to participate in a Veterans Day event. Three: Secularism, Statehouses, and School Boards: Prayers and Invocations before Government Bodies chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the historical practice of prayer-giving before legislatures and other government bodies, as well as the Supreme Court's treatment of the practice in, most recently, the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway. Under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, the Court has held that legislative prayer and other religious invocations before government bodies are constitutional so long as the government has a policy of antidiscrimination—i.e., it will not discriminate on the basis of religion when inviting or allowing people to pray before meetings. The chapter investigates specifically the invocation given before the monthly town meeting of the Town of Greece (New York) by an Atheist who had previously sued the town unsuccessfully. The author's trip to witness this invocation is described. Four: The Satanic Temple: Taking It to a Whole 'Nother Level chapter abstractThis chapter takes an in-depth look at the key player in the phenomenon described in the book, namely the Satanic Temple. The chapter provides a brief history of Satanism, including a discussion of the Romantic Satanists, a literary movement in the eighteenth century that was the first to recover the symbol of Satan as a positive figure. The chapter also discusses the rise of the Church of Satan in the Bay Area in the 1960s, as well as the so-called Satanic Panic of the 1980s, in which people were wrongly accused of crimes committed in the name of Satan. The chapter then relates the history and doctrine of the Satanic Temple and describes its efforts to give legislative invocations and place monuments on public property (including its nine-foot-tall bronze monument to Baphomet). Five: Muslims, Money, and Middle Schools: Government Funding of Religion chapter abstractThis chapter investigates the issue of government funding of religion. After a brief foray into the Establishment Clause in this area, including a discussion of the important voucher school case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the chapter describes how some minority religious groups such as the Unification Church and the Church of Scientology have received public funding for their programs. The chapter also relates how Christian legislators in several states have objected to the inclusion of Islamic schools in their proposed voucher programs and then investigates these Islamic schools through the author's trip to the Al-Iman School in North Carolina. Six: Atheists, the Antichrist, and After-School Clubs: Religious Activities in the Public Schools chapter abstractThis chapter concerns the activities of religious groups in the public schools, one of the most controversial issues in church-state law, given the importance of these schools to the formation of future citizens. At the outset, the chapter explains the First Amendment law governing this area, including cases about teaching alternatives to evolution in the biology curriculum. Next, the chapter examines a series of cases in which the Supreme Court has held that if public schools open their facilities to after-school clubs, they may not exclude religious clubs, such as Good News Clubs, from using those facilities. After laying out the law, the chapter then examines efforts by Atheists, the Satanic Temple, and others to distribute religious literature and to start their own after-school clubs in the public schools. Conclusion: Conclusion chapter abstractThe concluding chapter begins with a brief recap of the four key descriptive points that the book has advanced and then proceeds to argue that the movement to increase minority participation in American public life is one that should be celebrated and continued. Specifically, the chapter argues that a religiously cacophonous public square is preferable to an entirely Christian one because it is more consistent with American ideals of free expression and diversity of ideas as enshrined in the First Amendment, because it may promote a more educated citizenry with regard to religion, and because this improved education may result in greater social peace. The chapter also considers potential counter-arguments and pitfalls of encouraging an increased role for religion in the public square, including the possibility that anti-liberal or parody organizations will seek to participate in public life.

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Book SynopsisPracticing Sectarianism explores the imaginative and contradictory ways that people live sectarianism. The book's essays use the concept as an animating principle within a variety of sites across Lebanon and its diasporas and over a range of historical periods. With contributions from historians and anthropologists, this volume reveals the many ways sectarianism is used to exhibit, imagine, or contest power: What forms of affective pull does it have on people and communities? What epistemological work does it do as a concept? How does it function as a marker of social difference? Examining social interaction, each essay analyzes how people experience sectarianism, sometimes pushing back, sometimes evading it, sometimes deploying it strategically, to a variety of effects and consequences. The collection advances an understanding of sectarianism simultaneously constructed and experienced, a slippery and changeable concept with material effects. And even as the book's focus is Lebanon, its analysis fractures the association of sectarianism with the nation-state and suggests possibilities that can travel to other sites. Practicing Sectarianism, taken as a whole, argues that sectarianism can only be fully understood—and dismantled—if we first take it seriously as a practice.Trade Review"Bringing together a set of brilliant reflections on the landscapes of everyday sectarianism in Lebanon, Practicing Sectarianism will be an invaluable resource for anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in the making and meanings of community in the modern Middle East and beyond. A truly splendid book."—Andrew Arsan, University of Cambridge"This ambitious volume puzzles through the everyday lives of sectarianism to offer exciting, and at times counter-intuitive, findings about this complex discourse of power and identity. Bringing together top anthropologists and historians, Practicing Sectarianism draws on the best of both disciplines to reframe the question of sect and sectarianism in Lebanon and beyond."—Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University"Practicing Sectarianism subtly kills the concept that won't die, situating sectarianism at once in material reality and in dynamic social construction. Provocative, incisive, grounded in lived realities, the book delivers a powerful antidote to those who see Lebanon simplistically through the lens of religion. A necessary read."—Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis"A crucial criticism of the everyday practices and discrepant experiences of sectarianism by a range of brilliant scholars."—Ussama Makdisi, Rice UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Practicing Sectarianism in Lebanon —Lara Deeb, Tsolin Nalbantian, and Nadya Sbaiti 1. No Room for This Story: Education and the Limits of Sectarianism during the Mandate Era —Nadya Sbaiti 2. Negotiating Citizenship: Shi'i Families and the Ja'fari Shari'a Courts —Linda Sayed 3. The Archive Is Burning: Law, Unknowability, and the Curation of History —Maya Mikdashi 4. Donating in the Name of the Nation: Charity, Sectarianism, and the Mahjar —Reem Bailony 5. Along and beyond Sect? Olfactory Aesthetics and Rum Orthodox Identity —Roxana Maria Arãs 6. From Murder in New York to Salvation from Beirut: Armenian Intrasectarianism —Tsolin Nalbantian 7. Inequality and Identity: Social Class, Urban Space, and Sect —Joanne Randa Nucho 8. When Exposure Is Not Enough: Sectarianism as a Response to Mixed Marriage —Lara Deeb

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Book SynopsisPracticing Sectarianism explores the imaginative and contradictory ways that people live sectarianism. The book's essays use the concept as an animating principle within a variety of sites across Lebanon and its diasporas and over a range of historical periods. With contributions from historians and anthropologists, this volume reveals the many ways sectarianism is used to exhibit, imagine, or contest power: What forms of affective pull does it have on people and communities? What epistemological work does it do as a concept? How does it function as a marker of social difference? Examining social interaction, each essay analyzes how people experience sectarianism, sometimes pushing back, sometimes evading it, sometimes deploying it strategically, to a variety of effects and consequences. The collection advances an understanding of sectarianism simultaneously constructed and experienced, a slippery and changeable concept with material effects. And even as the book's focus is Lebanon, its analysis fractures the association of sectarianism with the nation-state and suggests possibilities that can travel to other sites. Practicing Sectarianism, taken as a whole, argues that sectarianism can only be fully understood—and dismantled—if we first take it seriously as a practice.Trade Review"Bringing together a set of brilliant reflections on the landscapes of everyday sectarianism in Lebanon, Practicing Sectarianism will be an invaluable resource for anthropologists, historians, and all those interested in the making and meanings of community in the modern Middle East and beyond. A truly splendid book."—Andrew Arsan, University of Cambridge"This ambitious volume puzzles through the everyday lives of sectarianism to offer exciting, and at times counter-intuitive, findings about this complex discourse of power and identity. Bringing together top anthropologists and historians, Practicing Sectarianism draws on the best of both disciplines to reframe the question of sect and sectarianism in Lebanon and beyond."—Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University"Practicing Sectarianism subtly kills the concept that won't die, situating sectarianism at once in material reality and in dynamic social construction. Provocative, incisive, grounded in lived realities, the book delivers a powerful antidote to those who see Lebanon simplistically through the lens of religion. A necessary read."—Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis"A crucial criticism of the everyday practices and discrepant experiences of sectarianism by a range of brilliant scholars."—Ussama Makdisi, Rice University"The volume as a whole is crucial for Middle East collections and highly beneficial for all study of contemporary sectarianism. Essential."—K. Tölölyan, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Practicing Sectarianism in Lebanon —Lara Deeb, Tsolin Nalbantian, and Nadya Sbaiti 1. No Room for This Story: Education and the Limits of Sectarianism during the Mandate Era —Nadya Sbaiti 2. Negotiating Citizenship: Shi'i Families and the Ja'fari Shari'a Courts —Linda Sayed 3. The Archive Is Burning: Law, Unknowability, and the Curation of History —Maya Mikdashi 4. Donating in the Name of the Nation: Charity, Sectarianism, and the Mahjar —Reem Bailony 5. Along and beyond Sect? Olfactory Aesthetics and Rum Orthodox Identity —Roxana Maria Arãs 6. From Murder in New York to Salvation from Beirut: Armenian Intrasectarianism —Tsolin Nalbantian 7. Inequality and Identity: Social Class, Urban Space, and Sect —Joanne Randa Nucho 8. When Exposure Is Not Enough: Sectarianism as a Response to Mixed Marriage —Lara Deeb

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Book SynopsisOne of the most enigmatic figures in history, Nostradamus - apothecary, astrologer and soothsayer - is a continual source of fascination. Indeed, his predictions are so much the stock-in-trade of the wildest merchants of imminent Doom that one could be forgiven for forgetting that Michel de Nostredame, 1503-1566, was a figure firmly rooted in the society of the French Renaissance. In this bold new account of the life and work of Nostradamus, Denis Crouzet shows that any attempt to interpret his Prophecies at face value is misguided. Nostradamus was not trying to predict the future. He saw himself, rather, as 'prophesying', i.e. bringing the Word of God to humankind. Like Rabelais, for whom laughter was a therapy to help one cope with the misery of the times, Nostradamus thought of himself as a physician of the soul as much as of the body. His unveiling of the menacing and horrendous events which await us in the future was a way of frightening his readers into the realisation that inner hatred was truly the greatest peril of all, to which the sole remedy was to live in the love and peace of Christ. This inspired interpretation penetrates the imaginative world of Nostradamus, a man whose life is as mysterious as his writings. It shows him in a completely new dimension, securing for him a significant place among the major thinkers of the Renaissance.Trade Review"This study by the distinguished historian of Renaissance France, Denis Crouzet, is a milestone in studies of Nostradamus for two reasons: its attention to the sixteenth century context of the prophecies, and its 'anti-interpretation', arguing that the meaning of the texts 'is always left hanging in the air'."Peter Burke, University of Cambridge "In this very subtle and thought-provoking book Denis Crouzet makes sense of Nostradamus precisely by accepting his deliberate obscurity. The extraordinary violence and disquieting imagery of his quatrains can be compared with the paintings of Bosch, portraying a world turned upside down where sin and cruelty presage divine punishment. Crouzet skillfully weaves this into a broader understanding of the spiritual and emotional imaginary of the Reformation era, when all old certainties seemed to be melting down, amidst terrifying human savagery."Robin Briggs, All Souls College, University of OxfordTable of ContentsTranslator�s Preface Introduction. Fragments of History 1. The Place Beyond Words 2. A Self-Contradictory Utterance 3. Treasures Beneath an Oak Tree 4. A Would-Be Astrophile 5. Thresholds Dependant on Subjectivity 6. An Evangelist Cogito 7. �For the Common Profit of Mankind� 8. �A Burning Mirror� 9. Divine Light 10. From the All to the One 11. The Word of Creation 12. An Episteme of Reason 13. Sacredness and Nothingness 14. The Energetics of Obscurity 15. Powers of Evil 16. Man Against Man 17. All the Sins of the World 18. The Horror that Invites Horror 19. Faith: Trial and Tribulations 20. From Alpha to Omega 21. The Philology of Angst 22. The Panic Paradox 23. The Eschataology of the Rainbow 24. The Ontological Turn 25. Liberty in Christ By Way of Conclusion: Why Nostradamus? Notes Chronology Sources and Bibliography

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Book Synopsis Teresa Forcades, Spanish Benedictine nun, theologian, physician and political activist, is one of Europe’s leading radical thinkers. Marrying her Catholic faith with a passion for social justice, she came to prominence for her eloquent condemnation of the abuses of some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. She has gone on to found a leading Catalonian anti-capitalist independence movement and is one of the leading voices in the world today against the injustices of capitalism and the patriarchy of modern society and of her own church. In Faith and Freedom, her first book written in English, she skilfully weaves together her personal experiences with a reflection on morality, religion and politics to give a trenchant account of how the Christian faith can be a dynamic force for radical change. Placing herself in a powerful tradition of Catholic social doctrine and Liberation Theology, she applies her perspective to the issues most precious to her: freedom and love, social justice and political engagement, public health, feminism, faith and forgiveness. Structured around the five canonical hours that give its peculiar rhythm to the monastic day, this book is a thoughtful and bold polemic against the exploitation and injustice of the status quo. Its call for liberty, love and justice will resonate with anyone disaffected with a savage and destructive political and economic system that marginalises and murders the poor and undermines the very fabric of social life.Trade Review“Teresa Forcades offers a lucid and inspiring reflection on the mutually enriching relationship between contemplation and action, the spiritual and the political, faith and feminism. Structuring her book around the liturgy of the hours, she shows how the Christian life can be lived in a way that is deeply rooted in prayer and tradition, but also radically engaged with the contemporary world.”Tina Beattie, University of Roehampton “Sister Teresa's meditations, gracefully woven out of the daily Benedictine cycle of prayer, confront some of the most profound personal challenges of contemporary life. Let noone say that the religious life is a-political: Sister Teresa combines fearless intellectual analysis, radical resistance to injustice, and an unwavering commitment to the mystery and power of Christian forgiveness.” Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge “Eye-opening and invigorating, Faith and Freedom demonstrates the power of faith combined with inquiry.”Foreword Reviews"Forcades' book, her first in English, may be brief at just over a hundred pages, but with nearly every sentence containing a bit of wisdom, it requires a contemplative reading. If a reader gives the book the time it deserves, however, they will be richly rewarded."Bob Shine, Vice President of the Women's Ordination ConferenceTable of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1MATINS: LOVE AND FREEDOMthe biblical genesis and the Enuma Elish / creation vs. emanation / tzimtzum and perichorese / Augustine’s notion of freedomChapter 2LAUDS: SOCIAL JUSTICEliberation theology / the case of Guatemala / a critique of capitalism / my political experienceChapter 3SEXT: PUBLIC HEALTHpublic health systems / privatization and the WHO / the undue influence of pharmaceutical companies / medicalizationChapter 4RECREATION: FEMINISMmy experience of femininity and of feminism / the mother as object of desire / sexism in today’s society / feminist theologyChapter 5VESPERS: FAITHfaith and reason / the gospel of Judas / Gertrude of Helfta / María Jesús of ÁgredaChapter 6COMPLINE: FORGIVENESSthe testimony of a monastic sister / Lacan’s subject vs. the Christian person / Jesus’ parables / forgiveness and freedom

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Book SynopsisAdonis� influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot in the English-speaking world. Yet alongside this spearheading of a modernist literary revolution, the secular Syrian-born poet is also renowned for his persistent and staunch attacks on despotism across the Arab world. In these conversations with the psychoanalyst Houria Abdelouahed, Adonis brings into sharp relief the latest wave of violence and war to engulf Arabic countries, tracing the cause of ongoing tensions back to the beginnings of Islam itself. Since the death of the prophet Muhammad, Islam has been used as a political and economic weapon, exploiting and reinforcing tribal divisions to aid the pursuit of power. Adonis argues that recent events in the Middle East – from the failures of the Arab Spring to the rise of ISIS and the bloody war in his native Syria – attest to the destructive effects of an Islamic worldview that prohibits any notion of plurality and breeds violence. If there is to be any hope of peace or progress in the Arab world, it is therefore imperative that these mentalities are overcome. In their place, Adonis urges a new spirit of enquiry, embodied in the freedoms to interrogate the past and to question cultural norms. Adonis� penetrating analysis comes at a critical time, offering an alternative path to the cycle of violence that plagues the Arab world today. Trade Review�Today�s most daring and provocative Arab poet.� Edward Said �The Arab world's greatest living poet.� New York Times �Faith is like love, Adonis tells us; it falls within personal experience. Violence and Islam explores a multiplicity of modern interpretations that give rise to forms of faith and forms of barbarity. Adonis, in his powerful secular voice, here again proves why he is one of the most important literary figures of our times.' V.S. NaipaulTable of ContentsForeword A Spring without Swallows The Necessity of Rereading: History and Identity Rethinking the Fundamentals What does the foundational text say? Women and the windings of the Text Beyond Economic and Geopolitical Interests: The Drives The West: Passionately, Madly Art, Myth, Religion Poetry between Language and Precept Beyond Al-Kit b How to Conclude? A Last Word Against essentialism The notion of progress in the Islamic conception of man and the world Glossary Notes

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Book SynopsisGod is dead, but his presence lives on in politics. This is the problem of political theology: the way that theological ideas find their way into secular political institutions, particularly the sovereign state. In this intellectual tour-de-force, leading political theorist Saul Newman shows how political theology arose alongside secularism, and relates to the problem of legitimising power and authority in modernity. It is not about the power of religion so much as about the religion of power. Examining the current crisis of the liberal order, he argues that recent phenomena such as the rise of populism, the renewed demand for strong national sovereignty and the return of religious fundamentalism may be understood through this paradigm. He illustrates his argument through an exploration of themes such as sovereignty, democracy, economics, technology, ecological catastrophe, messianism and the future of radical politics, engaging with thinkers ranging from Schmitt and Hobbes to Stirner, Foucault, and Agamben. This book will be a crucial text for all students, scholars and general readers interested in the meaning and significance of political theology for political theory.Trade Review"In Saul Newman's book, the concepts of political theology and secularization illuminate each other, opening an original perspective on contemporary reality. Rather than opposites, they form a single problematic figure revolving around the enigma of sovereignty. From Marx to Schmitt, from Loewith to Blumenberg, from Habermas to Derrida - the entirety of contemporary philosophy is originally reinterpreted through the political-theological paradigm."—Roberto Esposito "This is an innovative look at a subject we all thought that we understood already (but we didn’t). Newman makes a bold and original pitch to show how we turn our back on the theological at our peril."—James Martel, San Francisco State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 The Politico-Theological Problem 21 2 Max Stirner and the Ghosts of the Secular Modern 44 3 God Is Unconscious: Psychoanalysis and Political Theology 62 4 Auctoritas non veritas: On the Sovereign 83 5 Pastoral Power and Political Spirituality: Foucault and Political Theology 110 6 Economic Theology 131 7 Conclusion: The Politics of the Profane 154 Notes 176 References 182 Index 192

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Book SynopsisGod is dead, but his presence lives on in politics. This is the problem of political theology: the way that theological ideas find their way into secular political institutions, particularly the sovereign state. In this intellectual tour-de-force, leading political theorist Saul Newman shows how political theology arose alongside secularism, and relates to the problem of legitimising power and authority in modernity. It is not about the power of religion so much as about the religion of power. Examining the current crisis of the liberal order, he argues that recent phenomena such as the rise of populism, the renewed demand for strong national sovereignty and the return of religious fundamentalism may be understood through this paradigm. He illustrates his argument through an exploration of themes such as sovereignty, democracy, economics, technology, ecological catastrophe, messianism and the future of radical politics, engaging with thinkers ranging from Schmitt and Hobbes to Stirner, Foucault, and Agamben. This book will be a crucial text for all students, scholars and general readers interested in the meaning and significance of political theology for political theory.Trade Review"In Saul Newman's book, the concepts of political theology and secularization illuminate each other, opening an original perspective on contemporary reality. Rather than opposites, they form a single problematic figure revolving around the enigma of sovereignty. From Marx to Schmitt, from Loewith to Blumenberg, from Habermas to Derrida - the entirety of contemporary philosophy is originally reinterpreted through the political-theological paradigm."—Roberto Esposito "This is an innovative look at a subject we all thought that we understood already (but we didn’t). Newman makes a bold and original pitch to show how we turn our back on the theological at our peril."—James Martel, San Francisco State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 The Politico-Theological Problem 21 2 Max Stirner and the Ghosts of the Secular Modern 44 3 God Is Unconscious: Psychoanalysis and Political Theology 62 4 Auctoritas non veritas: On the Sovereign 83 5 Pastoral Power and Political Spirituality: Foucault and Political Theology 110 6 Economic Theology 131 7 Conclusion: The Politics of the Profane 154 Notes 176 References 182 Index 192

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Book SynopsisChristianity is often assumed to be pro-capitalist and socially conservative – in short, necessarily aligned with the political Right. But can this be straightforwardly true of a religion founded by a figure who drew his early followers from among the poor and downtrodden and spoke against the accumulation of earthly riches? In this book, Anthony A.J. Williams shows that this assumption is far from correct by giving an introductory overview of a tradition of socialist and radical Christianity that can be traced back to the communal ownership described in the Acts of the Apostles. Focusing on modern Christian Left movements, from Christian Socialism and the social gospel to liberation theology and red-letter Christianity, Williams examines the major challenges faced by the Christian Left today, both from within Christianity itself and from the secular Left. Does the Bible and Christian theology really support collectivism and universal equality? Can Christian radicalism remain viable in an age of identity politics? This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between religion and politics.Trade Review‘This is a wonderfully comprehensive introduction to the very diverse landscape of Christian political radicalism over the last hundred and fifty years. Its global scope is especially valuable, as is its clear analysis of the tensions between much of the contemporary political Left, with its strong involvement in identity politics, and the traditions of Christian socialism, which is more preoccupied with solidarity. A candid, well-researched and timely study.’Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury ‘A fine, readable, well-resourced and wide-ranging introduction to the spectrum of radical and socialist Christian thought.’Revd Canon Dr Jeremy Morris, former Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge“A valuable resource […] readable, passionate, and accessible.” Church TimesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 The Spirit of Brotherhood: Foundations of British Christian Socialism 2 Identity Crisis: Christian Socialism in Post-War Britain 3 A Hostile Environment: Religious Socialism in Europe 4 What Would Jesus Do? Social Gospel and Socialism in the United States 5 Moral Minority: The Christian Left in the Age of the Christian Right 6 Preferential Option for the Poor: Liberation Theology in Latin America 7 Liberty to the Captives: Liberation Theology Across the World 8 Where Next for the Christian Left?Notes

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Book SynopsisOne of the most intriguing, and disturbing, aspects of history is that most people in early modern Europe believed in the reality and dangers of witchcraft. Most historians have described the witchcraft phenomenon as one of tremendous violence. In France, dozens of books, pamphets and tracts, depicting witchcraft as the most horrible of crimes, were published and widely distributed. Yet, in his new book, The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and Politics in France, 1560-1620, Jonathan Pearl shows that France carried out relatively few executions for witchcraft. Through careful research he shows that a zealous Catholic faction identified the Protestant rebels as traitors and heretics in league with the devil and clamoured for the political and legal establishment to exterminate these enemies of humanity. But the courts were dominated by moderate Catholics whose political views were in sharp contrast to those of the zealots and, as a result, the demonologists failed to ignite a major witch-craze in France. Very few studies have taken such a careful and penetrating look at demonology in France. The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and Politics in France, 1560-1620 sheds new light on an important period in the history of witchcraft and will be welcomed by scholars and laypersons alike.Trade Review``Pearl brings to bear on the subject basic sources as well as a meticulous examination of existing relevant literature. His presentation is lucid, and his disagreement with other critics is not only expressed with restraint but also rests on irrefutable evidence. This study is a very important contribution to the history of demonology in France.'' -- Leonard Adams -- Canadian Book Review Annual, 200501``The author of The Crime of Crimes provides his readers with a substantial and well-organized historical analysis by which is cast a refreshingly original point of view on the works of the demonologists and, more generally, on France's judicial elites in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.... What emerges from this convincing and well-researched study is the image of a divided political, cultural, and judicial elite.... The Crime of Crimes will be of great interest to all scholars specializing in demonology, witchcraft, and judicial history. Jonathan L. Pearl's limpid style and skillful argumentation also make it accessible to all those who are interested in early modern history and culture.'' -- Hervé Campangne, University of Maryland -- Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXI/I, 2000, 200501Table of ContentsTable of Contents for The Crime of Crimes: Demonology and Politics in France, 1560â1620 by Jonathan L. Pearl Chronology Introduction One: Early Modern Demonologists and Modern Historians Two: Witchcraft, Politics and Law Three: Politics and Demonic Possession Four: The Jesuits, Maldonat and the Development of French Demonology Five: Politics, Morality and Demonology Six: Three Adversaries of Political Demonology Seven: Pierre de Lancre Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book tells a story, a story about America’s spiritual capital. Spiritual capital is the fund of beliefs, examples, and commitments that are transmitted from generation to generation through a religious tradition, and which attach people to the transcendent source of fulfillment and happiness. America has created the greatest civilization the world has ever know, and it has done this because of its spiritual capital, the values and beliefs by which individual Americans have interpreted and transformed the world. The Judeo-Christian heritage has historically served as the spiritual capital of America. It is not only the spiritual quest of modernity, but that quest has evolved into globalization, and America, because of its spiritual capital, has been able to provide leadership for that quest. The larger thesis is that America is by virtue of its specific spiritual capital heritage not only the beneficiary of its advantages but also the leading exemplar of the spiritual quest of modernity. It is because is engaged in a spiritual quest that it can exercise world leadership as opposed to domination and oppression. The authors examine the extent to which economic development, growth, and entrepreneurship depend on spiritual capital. They argue that there is a symbiotic relation between America’s spiritual capital and our political institutions and freedoms. The argument here is that the substantive spiritual vision supports the political and economic procedural norms of a free society. Like any form of capital, spiritual capital may lie dormant or be wasted, it may be used productively, it may be augmented, and it may be diminished or eroded. In the final chapter, we point out how the heritage is under assault from a variety of sources and what happens when scientific, technological, economic, and political institutions are detached from their spiritual roots. The result is a natural progression from governmental bureaucratic centralization to secularism to reductive materialism and ultimately to a social-collectivist conception of human welfare. Within the story there is an argument, namely, that these achievements will not be sustained without that heritage, and for all of the above reasons the heritage needs to be reaffirmed. The authors argue that the future of modernity, globalization, and America depend on the extent to which there is a reaffirmation of America’s spiritual capital.

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Book SynopsisHere are seven readable biographical sketches of important people who influenced the times in which they lived by bringing their faith to bear on social issues. In writing about them the author incorporates biography, theology, and politics into a coherent whole portrait of the subjects. Present day journals like First Things, National Review, and Christianity Today began as an extension of the personalities of the people profiled in this book, whose interests guided faithful believers in the midst of changing and turbulent times. The Politics of Morality combines a scholarly penchant for fact with historical evidence to show how these men connected the principles of government with the ideals of Christianity. Here is the story of Russell Kirk’s original vision, and William F. Buckley’s ornery conservative conscience. Francis Schaeffer’s zealous evangelicalism meets Richard J. Neuhaus’s keen insight and Chuck Colson’s passion for justice. Carl F.H. Henry’s novel vision for a Christian magazine is compared to Michael Novak’s refutation of socialism. This book is a help because it analyzes the lives of people who remain influential in bringing Christian principles to bear on issues in the public square. Anyone interested in current issues has something to learn from the life and work of these individuals.

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Book SynopsisAlain Besançon’s studies, over decades, on Russia, France, Islam, and art have convinced him that “that nothing is comprehensible if one neglects the religious choices that determine a historical destiny.” His aim is to comprehend the most powerful nation on the earth, and he was convinced that Protestantism was the key to America. The question of Protestantism and its origins implicated, in turn, the origins of the Reformation and thus the problem of the moral and political meaning of Christianity itself. And Besançon traces theological dynamic that was to stamp the Reformation, behind Luther’s break with Rome, to the late medieval nominalists’ failure to maintain the fragile communion that Thomas Aquinas had articulated between love and intellect. This then is the ambition of this elegant and magisterial essay: to explore the question of the spirit of America as bound up with the most fundamental and most problematic promise of Christianity: the union of heart and mind. This exploration leads the reader, after a deft analysis of Nominalism, through a luminous tour of the sources of modern Christianity that includes the revival of speculative mysticism in authors such as Meister Eckhart and Tauler, the devotion moderna, the main figures and movements of the Reformation proper, a brilliant digest of Anglicanism, and a survey of Puritanism in England and America. This uniquely synoptic exploration concludes with the emergence of a democratic religion of humanity, a faith whose future is as uncertain as its grasp of the modern spirit’s Christian sources that Alain Besançon has so judiciously laid bare.

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Book SynopsisGallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport examines religion in America today, reviews just how powerfully intertwined religion is with every aspect of American society, and explores what appears to be religion’s vibrant future in the U.S. — all based on more than a million interviews conducted by Gallup since 2008. Popular books such as The God Delusion have dismissed religion as a delusional artifact of evolution and ancient superstitions. But should millions of Americans’ statements of belief and their behaviour be dismissed that quickly? The pattern of religious influence in American society suggests mass consequence rather than mass delusion. In God Is Alive and Well, Frank Newport provides a new evidence-based analysis of Americans’ religious beliefs and practices — and makes bold predictions about religion’s future in the U.S. Most Americans are at least marginally religious, significantly more so than in most developed nations around the world. The majority of Americans believe in God and say that religion is important in their daily lives, with many routinely participating in religious rituals. However, levels of religious consciousness are not distributed equally. Systematic patterns of differences in religion occur with surprising regularity. An American’s religiosity is very much bound up with social position and geographic space. There is an important interplay between religion and life status factors — age, gender, marital status, having children — and with achieved status distinctions — class, education, income. Unlike citizens of any other country in the world, Americans group themselves into hundreds of distinct micro religious groups and denominations. These groups are constantly evolving, splitting like amoeba to form new groups. The most common pattern today is the development of the “no name” religious group, consisting of Americans who worship only under the banner of their own nondenominational predilections. These religious groupings are sociologically related to social status, geography, politics, and social and political attitudes. The foundation for God Is Alive and Well, is the perspective of science — analysing what people think, do, and believe about religion. Frank Newport writes in a conversational tone making the book accessible for all, with readers benefiting from his background as a well-known social scientist and authority on American life, and his unique personal history as the son of a Southern Baptist theologian.

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Book SynopsisToward Benevolent Neutrality (5th edition, 1996), a longstanding favorite for professors of church-and-state relationships in the U.S., has been revised and updated by one original author, Robert B. Flowers, and two new ones, Melissa Rogers and Steven K. Green. Religious Freedom and the Supreme Court contains a new introduction clearly explaining specific ways the Court delineates the idea of religious freedom on a case-by-case basis. As clearly written as its predecessor, and as appropriate for the classroom, this new book contains explanations of more recent cases, decided by a contemporary Supreme Court. It is clear, relevant, and an essential text for the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewAn authoritative handbook, striking in its probing analysis of the enduring teachings of the First Amendment. -John Witte, Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, Emory Law School, Director, Center for the Study of Law and ReligionThis volume is hefty and comprehensive but also straightforward, accessible, and well organized.... Perceptive study questions point the reader toward both open questions and animating premises.... recommended. -- First ThingsTable of Contents Part 1 Introduction 1 The Impact of the U.S. Supreme Court on American Religious Freedom 1 Understanding the Supreme Court 2 Understanding the Protection of ""Rights"" and ""Liberties"" 2 The Historical Background to the First Amendment Religion Clauses 3 Themes and Trends in First Amendment Interpretation 3 Originalism and Its Critics 4 ""Nonpreferentialism"" and Government Financial Aid for Religion 5 Incorporation of the Establishment Clause 6 The ""Distinctiveness"" of Religion 7 ""No-Aid Separation"" v. ""Evenhanded Neutrality"" 8 Use of Speech Principles in Religion Clause Jurisprudence 9 Accommodation of Religion 10 ""Play In the Joints"" 11 ""Complementary Values, Conflicting Pressures"" 4 What Is Religion? 5 The Concept of Standing 12 Flast v. Cohen 13 Valley Forge College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State 14 Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation 15 Elk Grove Unified School District v. Michael A. Newdow Part 2 The Free Exercise Clause 6 Basic Concepts and Development of Free Exercise Doctrine 16 The ""Belief-Action"" Dichotomy (Reynolds v. United States; Davisv. Beason) 17 Religious Liberty as Due Process Liberty (Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary) 18 Conscientious Objector Cases (United States v. Schwimmer; Girouard v. United States; Hamilton v. Regents of the University of California) 19 Embracing Free Exercise as a Right (Cantwell v. State of Connecticut; West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette; Prince v. Massachusetts) 20 Early Free Exercise on Government Property (Davis v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Murdock v. Pennsylvania; Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness; International Society for Krishna Consciousness v. Lee) 7 Rise and Fall of Free Exercise Exemptions: From Sherbert to Smith 21 The Rise of Judically Mandated Free Exercise Exemptions (Sherbert v. Verner; Wisconsin v. Yoder) 22 Refining the Sherbert Test (United States v. Lee; Thomas v. Review Board; Hobbie v. Unemployment Appeals Commission of Florida; Frazee v. Illinois Employment Security Department) 23 Free Exercise in Transition (Bowen v. Roy; Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association; Goldman v. Weinberger; O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz; Hernandez v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue; Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. Board of Equalization) 8 Rise and Fall of Free Exercise Exemptions: Smith and Beyond 24 The Fall of Judicially Mandated Free Exercise Exemptions (Employment Division v. Smith) 25 The Free Exercise Clause Beyond Smith (Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah) 26 Congress Stands in the Gap: RFRA and RLUIPA (City of Boerne v. Archbishop Flores; Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao Do Vegetal; Cutter v. Wilkinson) 9 Churches and the Civil Justice System 27 Church Autonomy/Schisms (Watson v. Jones; Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila; Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral; Presbyterian Church in the United States v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church) 28 Religious Torts (United States v. Ballard; Nally v. Grace Community Church; Molko v. Holy Spirit Association; Moses v. Diocese of Colorado) 10 Religious Organizations as Employers 29 Government Oversight of Employment Practices (National Labor Relations Board v. The Catholic Bishop of Chicago; Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor) 30 Employment Actions by Religious Organizations (Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Amos; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Pacific Press Publishing Association; Gellington v. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Inc.; Bollard v. California Diocese of the Society of Jesus) Part 3 The Establishment Clause I 11 Government Funding of Religious Schools: The Rise and Application of the ""No-Aid"" Principle 31 The Emergence of Nonsectarian Public Education and the No-Funding Principle; Developing Principles (Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township) 32 The High Point of ""No-Aid"" (Lemon v. Kurtzman; Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist; Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan; School District of Grand Rapids v. Ball) 12 Government Funding of Religious Schools: The Rise of Even-handed Neutrality and Private Choice 33 Mueller v. Allen; Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District; Agostini v. Felton; Mitchell v. Helms 34 Zelman v. Simmons-Harris; Locke v. Davey 13 Government Aid to Higher Education 35 Tilton v. Richardson; Hunt v. McNair 36 Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland 14 Religious Organizations and Government-Funded Social Services 37 Bradfield v. Roberts; Bowen v. Kendrick 38 ""Charitable Choice"" and the ""Faith-Based Initiative"" (Charitable Choice; The Bush Administration's Faith-Based Initiative [Executive Order 13279]; Freedom from Religion Foundation v. McCallum) 15 Government Funds and Religious Institutions: A Look toward the Future Part 4 The Establishment Clause II 16 Religious Expression and Public Schools: Background, Released-Time Programs and the 1960's School-Prayer Decisions 39 Historical Background: The Common School Movement 40 ""Released-Time"" Programs (McCollum v. Board of Education; Zorach v. Clauson) 41 State-sponsored Prayer and Bible Reading: The 1960s Cases (Engel v. Vitale; School District of Abington Township v. Schempp) 17 Religious Expression in Public Schools: Moments of Silence and Post-1960s School-Prayer Cases 42 Wallace v. Jaffree 43 Lee v. Weisman 44 Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe 18 Religious Expression in Public Schools: Religion and the Curriculum and Presidential Guidelines on Religion and Public Schools 45 Religion and the Public School Curriculum (Religious Objections to Curriculum: Evolution and Religion [Epperson v. Arkansas; Edwards v. Aguillard] 46 ""Opt outs"" [Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education] 47 School-sponsored Religious Displays 48 Teaching About Religion in an Academic, Rather than a Devotional, Manner) 49 Presidential Guidelines on Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools (""Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools"") 19 Equal Access 50 Widmar v. Vincent 51 Board of Education v. Mergens 52 Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District 53 Good News Club v. Milford Central School 54 Other Religious Expression/Access Issues (Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia) 20 Religious Symbols on Government Property 55 Lynch v. Donnelly 56 County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union 57 Capitol Square Review v. Pinette 58 McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union 59 Van Orden v. Perry 21 Government Acknowledgements of Religion, Government Chaplains, Religion and Politics, and Religion in the Governmental Workplace 60 Governmental Acknowledgements of Religion and Government Chaplains (Marsh v. Chambers; Katcoff v. Marsh; Delores Rudd v. The Honorable Robert D. Ray) 61 Religion and Politics (McDaniel v. Paty; Branch Ministries v. Rossotti) 62 Religion in the Federal Workplace (""Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace"") 22 Religious Preferences/Delegations 63 Government Preferences of Religion (Torcaso v. Watkins; Larson v. Valente) 64 Government Delegations of Authority to Religion (Larkin v. Grendel's Den; Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet) 23 Legislative Accommodation of Religious Exercise 65 Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York 66 Trans World Airlines v. Hardison 67 Estate of Thornton v. Caldor 68 Corporation of Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Amos 69 Texas Monthly v. Bullock 70 Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet 71 Cutter v. Wilkinson Appendices A Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments Selected Bibliography Notes

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Book SynopsisThe political dogma of toleration is little more than a tool of the modern state in its drive for power and wealth. In The Long Truce, A. J. Conyers shows that by banishing questions of ultimate meaning from public life, the modern version of toleration has debased our politics and undermined social cohesion. He argues provocatively for a return to the authentic toleration found in pre-Reformation Christianity.Trade ReviewThe Long Truce is a book to read and reread. -Donald Livingston, Professor of Philosophy, Emory UniversityConyers's book launches an engaging assault on one of the great sacred cows of modern political science and religious studies, the doctrine of toleration....this is a provocative work that ought to be read widely by undergraduates as well as graduate students in ethics and political science, not only for the genealogy of toleration that it offers but also for its constructive proposal. -- Religious Studies ReviewTable of Contents Preface 1. The Cunning of History 2. The Ecumenical Impulse 3. A Feeling of Uncertainty 4. Thomas Hobbes and the Fears of Modernity 5. Pierre Bayle and the Modern Sanctity of the Individual 6. John Locke and the Politics of Toleration 7. The Triumph of Toleration 8. The Shadow Leviathan 9. Nihilism and the Catholic Vision 10. High Tolerance Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFinding Order in Diversity: Religious Toleration in the Habsburg Empire, 1792–1848 covers the tumultuous period in the Habsburg Empire from Joseph II's failed reforms through the Revolutions of 1848, documenting the ongoing struggle between religious activism and civil peace. In the name of stability, the Habsburg Empire sidelined Catholic activists and promoted religious toleration during this era in which Austria was an international symbol of conservatism and other states engaged in strident confessional politics. Austria's well-known fear of disorder and revolution in this notoriously conservative regime extended to Catholics, and the state utilized the censors and police to institutionalize religious toleration, which it viewed as essential to law and order, and to tame religious passions, which officials feared could mobilize public opinion in unpredictable directions.The state's growing use of police power had wide-reaching consequences for refugees, women, and empire-building. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Habsburg Empire would become known as a multinational and multicultural state, but this toleration was the product of the infamously conservative and rigid regime that ruled Austria in the decades after the French Revolution and until the Revolutions of 1848. While the Habsburgs typically are associated with Catholicism, 1780 to 1848 marked the only era in which the Habsburgs tried to disassociate themselves politically from Catholicism. Though civil peace and religious toleration eventually became the norm, this book documents the decades of heavy-handed state efforts to get there.Table of Contents Acknowledgments Graph INTRODUCTION: The Stubborn Problem of Confessionalism CHAPTER 1: Hopeless Romantics: Catholic Activists and the Josephist State, 1792–1820 CHAPTER 2: Lost in an Ultramontanist Storm: Austria and the Catholic Revival in the West, 1820–1848 CHAPTER 3: Free at Last: Protestants in the Habsburg Empire CHAPTER 4: Serving Two Masters: Habsburg Orthodoxy on the Confessional Faultlines Between East and West CHAPTER 5: A Road Paved with Good Intentions: Judaism and Toleration in the Habsburg Empire CHAPTER 6: Making the Habsburg Empire Catholic Again: 1848 and the Emergence of Popular Catholicism in the Habsburg Empire Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisEvangelicals are warmongering nationalists—right? Many assume that evangelicals have always shared the ideology and approach of the Moral Majority. But the truth is much more complex. Historically, evangelical rank and file have not held to one position about war; instead, they are strewn across the spectrum from love of peace to glorying in war. Timothy Padgett presents evangelicals in their own words. And in so doing he complicates our common perceptions of evangelical attitudes towards war and peace. Evangelical leaders regularly wrote about the temporal and eternal implications of war from World War II to the Vietnam War. Padgett allows us to see firsthand how these evangelicals actually spoke about war and love of country. Instead of blind ideologues we meet concerned people of conviction struggling to reconcile the demands of a world in turmoil with the rule of the Prince of peace.

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Book SynopsisGod's word illumines the darkness of society. Dutch politician and historian Groen van Prinsterer's Unbelief and Revolution is a foundational work addressing the inherent tension between the church and secular society. Writing at the onset of modernity in Western culture, Groen saw with amazing clarity the dire implications of abandoning God's created order for human life in society. Groen's work served as an inspiration for many contemporary theologians, and he had a profound impact on Abraham Kuyper's famous public theology. In Challenging the Spirit of Modernity, Harry Van Dyke places this seminal work into historical context, revealing how this vital contribution still speaks into the fractured relationship between religion and society. A deeper understanding of the roots of modern secularism and Groen's strong, faithful response to it gives us a better grasp of the same conflict today.

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Book SynopsisIn this elegantly written study, Alfante explores the work of select nineteenth-century writers, intellectuals, journalists, politicians, and clergy who responded to cultural and spiritual shifts caused by the movement toward secularization in Spain. Focusing on the social experience, this book probes the tensions between traditionalism and liberalism that influenced public opinion of the clergy, sacred buildings, and religious orders. The writings of Cecilia Böhl de Faber (Fernán Caballero), Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Benito Pérez Galdós, and José María de Pereda addressed conflicts between modernizing forces and the Catholic Church about the place of religion and its signifiers in Spanish society. Foregrounding expropriation (government confiscation of civil and ecclesiastical property) and exclaustration (the expulsion of religious communities), and drawing on archival research, the history of disentailment, cultural theory, memory studies, and sociology, Alfante demonstrates how Spain’s liberalizing movement profoundly influenced class mobility and faith among the populace.Trade Review“Making Modern Spain is a groundbreaking scholarly achievement and required reading for anybody interested in the intersections of literature, culture, and religion in Spain in the long nineteenth century.” -- José Colmeiro * coeditor of Rethinking Iberian Studies from the Periphery *“Alfante’s work shows us that the spirit, apart from inspiring literary masterpieces, can also be written on stone. A stimulating and insightful addition to our knowledge of religion and its critics in modern Spain.” -- Gregorio Alonso * author of La nación en capilla: Ciudadanía católica y cuestión religiosa en España, 1793-1874 *“Making Modern Spain is an illuminating exploration of the ramifications of disentailment through a cultural lens and on an affective level. Azariah Alfante reveals the conflicted feelings about secularization in authors of various political bents, exposing a more nuanced connection between religion, cultural identity, and politics than that found in previous studies.” -- Jennifer Smith * author of Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-de-Siècle Spain *“Taking a deep dive into nineteenth-century Spain’s anxieties about the sacred and the secular, Making Modern Spain rediscovers Spanish romanticism and realism through the lens of disentailment and its human cost. Azariah Alfante demonstrates conclusively that repurposing ecclesial buildings does not only displace those in religious life.” -- Denise DuPont * author of Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán *“Making Modern Spain is a thoroughly researched piece of scholarship, which represents an original contribution to the study of the intersections among literature, politics, and religion in nineteenth-century Spain. Engaging with theoretical debates on religion and cultural memory, Alfante cogently elucidates the social, cultural, and individual human ramifications of disentailment and exclaustration in nineteenth-century Spanish literature.” -- Akiko Tsuchiya * coeditor of Empire's End: Transnational Connections in the Hispanic World *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Note on Orthography Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Modern Matter: Disentailment and the Religious Question Chapter 2: At the Heart of the Nation: Domestic Wellbeing and Spiritual Patrimony in Cecilia Böhl de Faber’s La gaviota (1849), La familia de Alvareda (1856), Callar en vida y perdonar en muerte (1856), and Lágrimas (1862) Chapter 3: The Hallowed, the Haunting: Remembering and Restoring the Sacred Precinct in Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s Historia de los templos de España (1857), Cartas desde mi celda (1864), and Leyendas (1858-1864) Chapter 4: A New Vital Force: Reconstructing Spain’s Spiritual Body in Benito Pérez Galdós’s Doña Perfecta (1876), Gloria (1877), Mendizábal (1898), and Montes de Oca (1900) Chapter 5: The Abyss and the Mount: Questions of Faith, Family, and Tradition in José María de Pereda’s El Tío Cayetano (1858-1859), Blasones y talegas (1869), De tal palo, tal astilla (1880), and Sotileza (1884) Final Reflections Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn this elegantly written study, Alfante explores the work of select nineteenth-century writers, intellectuals, journalists, politicians, and clergy who responded to cultural and spiritual shifts caused by the movement toward secularization in Spain. Focusing on the social experience, this book probes the tensions between traditionalism and liberalism that influenced public opinion of the clergy, sacred buildings, and religious orders. The writings of Cecilia Böhl de Faber (Fernán Caballero), Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Benito Pérez Galdós, and José María de Pereda addressed conflicts between modernizing forces and the Catholic Church about the place of religion and its signifiers in Spanish society. Foregrounding expropriation (government confiscation of civil and ecclesiastical property) and exclaustration (the expulsion of religious communities), and drawing on archival research, the history of disentailment, cultural theory, memory studies, and sociology, Alfante demonstrates how Spain’s liberalizing movement profoundly influenced class mobility and faith among the populace.Trade Review“Making Modern Spain is a groundbreaking scholarly achievement and required reading for anybody interested in the intersections of literature, culture, and religion in Spain in the long nineteenth century.” -- José Colmeiro * coeditor of Rethinking Iberian Studies from the Periphery *“Alfante’s work shows us that the spirit, apart from inspiring literary masterpieces, can also be written on stone. A stimulating and insightful addition to our knowledge of religion and its critics in modern Spain.” -- Gregorio Alonso * author of La nación en capilla: Ciudadanía católica y cuestión religiosa en España, 1793-1874 *“Making Modern Spain is an illuminating exploration of the ramifications of disentailment through a cultural lens and on an affective level. Azariah Alfante reveals the conflicted feelings about secularization in authors of various political bents, exposing a more nuanced connection between religion, cultural identity, and politics than that found in previous studies.” -- Jennifer Smith * author of Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-de-Siècle Spain *“Taking a deep dive into nineteenth-century Spain’s anxieties about the sacred and the secular, Making Modern Spain rediscovers Spanish romanticism and realism through the lens of disentailment and its human cost. Azariah Alfante demonstrates conclusively that repurposing ecclesial buildings does not only displace those in religious life.” -- Denise DuPont * author of Whole Faith: The Catholic Ideal of Emilia Pardo Bazán *“Making Modern Spain is a thoroughly researched piece of scholarship, which represents an original contribution to the study of the intersections among literature, politics, and religion in nineteenth-century Spain. Engaging with theoretical debates on religion and cultural memory, Alfante cogently elucidates the social, cultural, and individual human ramifications of disentailment and exclaustration in nineteenth-century Spanish literature.” -- Akiko Tsuchiya * coeditor of Empire's End: Transnational Connections in the Hispanic World *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Note on Orthography Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Modern Matter: Disentailment and the Religious Question Chapter 2: At the Heart of the Nation: Domestic Wellbeing and Spiritual Patrimony in Cecilia Böhl de Faber’s La gaviota (1849), La familia de Alvareda (1856), Callar en vida y perdonar en muerte (1856), and Lágrimas (1862) Chapter 3: The Hallowed, the Haunting: Remembering and Restoring the Sacred Precinct in Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer’s Historia de los templos de España (1857), Cartas desde mi celda (1864), and Leyendas (1858-1864) Chapter 4: A New Vital Force: Reconstructing Spain’s Spiritual Body in Benito Pérez Galdós’s Doña Perfecta (1876), Gloria (1877), Mendizábal (1898), and Montes de Oca (1900) Chapter 5: The Abyss and the Mount: Questions of Faith, Family, and Tradition in José María de Pereda’s El Tío Cayetano (1858-1859), Blasones y talegas (1869), De tal palo, tal astilla (1880), and Sotileza (1884) Final Reflections Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhile there is a long-standing history of reflection among Catholics about the proper orientation of Catholicism towards American society, today the American Catholic community confronts a fundamentally new situation. Catholics face the dual threat of an ever more centralized and increasingly omnicompetent state and a new cultural ethos fundamentally incompatible with--and hostile to--Catholicism.Today, American Catholics no longer live as a religious minority in a Protestant society whose commitment to limited government and religious freedom affords Catholics considerable space to live out their faith commitments, and whose Christian character assures the existence of substantial moral commonality. Now, Catholics are a religious minority in a post-Christian society animated by an anthropology and public morality incompatible with Catholic truth and committed to the exclusion of the faith from public life.This new situation demands a rethinking on the part of American Catholics of their place in America and their relationship with American society. These essays seek to assist with this challenging task by casting light on this new situation and exploring its implications for the Church in America.

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