Religious intoleranceand conflict Books

Book SynopsisWithin Western Buddhism, practitioners are often assumed to be white and middle-class. Based in ground-breaking empirical research, Cosmopolitan Dharma: Race, Sexuality, and Gender in British Buddhism explores the stories of Buddhists from minority communities, through a rich analysis of their lived experiences. Smith, Munt and Yip explore their various contestations of dominant white and heteronormative cultures in Western Buddhism. Using cosmopolitanism as the theoretical lens, Cosmopolitan Dharma argues convincingly that the Buddhist ethos of human interconnectivity needs to be further developed to truly embrace the ‘Other’ of different kinds (not least Western Buddhism’s own internal ‘Others’). Cosmopolitan Dharma, through Buddhists’ own narratives, explores how cultural politics from the ground up can offer a more inclusive philosophy and lived experience of spirituality.Trade Review"Cosmopolitan Dharma is a trailblazing work that helps bring Buddhist studies into engagement with the fields of globalization, transnationalism, critical race theory, and gender theory... In addition to being one of a handful of works that critically address the ways that Buddhism is racialized, gendered, sexed, and classed, Cosmopolitan Dharma is also the only academic monograph that seriously investigates black Buddhist discourse." Adeana McNicholl, Stanford University, Reading Religion (2016) "This work provides an absolutely up to date, cutting edge analysis […] So far as I am aware race, gender and class have never been used as the primary analytical category for examining Western Buddhism, which is what makes this work so distinctive." Damien Keown, Goldsmiths University of London "Using a substantial body of in-depth qualitative ethnographic data collected by Sharon E. Smith on two of the largest convert Buddhist movements in the UK, Sally R. Munt and Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip have provided a detailed analysis of the experiences of the people of colour and LGBTQI people within the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) and the Soka Gakkai International-UK (SKI-UK). They provide a compelling account of the ways in which FWBO and SKI-UK have been shaped by race, gender, class, sexuality, and heteronormative whiteness. [...] This important book provides an excellent model on how to move forward towards a more productive engagement with issues of cultural politics within religious movements in cosmopolitan-urban areas. It is a must-read for religious studies scholars and students alike, as well as Buddhist lay practitioners of colour and LGBTQI practitioners." Fr. Joseph Cheah, University of Saint Joseph

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Book SynopsisReligion can play a dual role with regard to conflict. It can promote either violence or peace. Religion and Conflict Attribution seeks to clarify the causes of religious conflict as perceived by Christian, Muslim and Hindu college students in Tamil Nadu, India. These students in varying degrees attribute conflict to force-driven causes, namely to coercive power as a means of achieving the economic, political or socio-cultural goals of religious groups. The study reveals how force-driven religious conflict is influenced by prescriptive beliefs like religious practice and mystical experience, and descriptive beliefs such as the interpretation of religious plurality and religiocentrism. It also elaborates on the practical consequences of the salient findings for the educational process.

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Book SynopsisThis book deals with the religious and ideological consequences of mass conversion in Iberia - where Jews and Muslims were forcibly converted or expelled at the end of the XVth century and beginning of the XVIth- and most specially with the relationship between origins and faith. It also deals with the consequences of coercion on intellectual debates and on the production of knowledge and addresses questions such as dissimulation, dissidence, religious doubt and unbelief.Trade ReviewChapter One, Nebuchadnezzar’s Jewish Legions by Adam G. Beaver is the winner of the 2017 Bishko Prize for best article on medieval Iberian history published by a North American scholar. The prize is awarded by the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies (ASPHS).Table of ContentsList of figures Acknowledgements Notes on contributors 0. Introduction Mercedes García-Arenal Part I: Biblical Culture, Jewish Antiquities and New Forms of Sacred History 1. Nebuchadnezzar’s Jewish Legions: Sephardic Legends’ Journey from Biblical Polemic to Humanist History Adam G. Beaver 2. Biblical Translations and Literalness in Early Modern Spain Fernando Rodríguez Mediano 3. Language as Archive: Etymologies and the Remote History of Spain Valeria López Fadul 4. The Search for Evidence: The Relics of Martyred Saints and Their Worship in Cordoba after the Council of Trent Cécile Vincent-Cassy Part II: Iberian Polemics, Readings of the Qurʾān and the Rise of European Orientalism 5. Textual Agnogenesis and the Polysemy of the Reader: Early Modern European Readings of Qur’ānic Embryology Pier Mattia Tommasino 6. A Witness of Their Own Nation: On the Influence of Juan Andrés Ryan Szpiech 7. Authority, Philology and Conversion under the Aegis of Martín García Teresa Soto González and Katarzyna K. Starczewska 8. Polemical Transfers: Iberian Muslim Polemics and their Impact in Northern Europe in the Seventeenth Century Gerard A. Wiegers Part III: Conversion and Perplexity 9. Assembling Alumbradismo: The Evolution of a Heretical Construct Jessica J. Fowler 10. Doubt in Fifteenth-Century Iberia Stefania Pastore 11. Mi padre moro, yo moro: The Inheritance of Belief in Early Modern Iberia Mercedes García-Arenal 12. Tropes of Expertise and Converso Unbelief: Huarte de San Juan’s History of Medicine Seth Kimmel 13. True Painting and the Challenge of Hypocrisy Felipe Pereda Bibliography General Index

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Book SynopsisIn Artistic Disobedience Claudio Bacciagaluppi shows how music practice was an occasion for cross-confessional contacts in 17th- and 18th-century Switzerland, implying religious toleration. The difference between public and private performing contexts, each with a distinct repertoire, appears to be of paramount importance. Confessional barriers were overcome in an individual, private perspective. Converted musicians provide striking examples. Also, book trade was often cross-confessional. Music by Catholic (but also Lutheran) composers was diffused in Reformed territories mainly in the private music societies of Swiss German towns (collegia musica). The political and pietist influences in the Zurich and Winterthur music societies encouraged forms of communication that are among the acknowledged common roots of European Enlightenment.Trade Review“Bacciagaluppi’s work is a testament to the type of musicological work that can be done on archival records, and it will become a valuable reference for those interested in the ramifications of societal polarisation.” Timothy Duguid, University of Glasgow. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 69, No. 3 (July 2018), pp. 664-666.Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Tables List of Music Examples List of Archival Sources Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1 Music in the Confessional Age 2 Approaching the Other 3 The Book Market 4 The ‘Collegia Musica’ 5 Conclusions: Music as an Agent of Toleration?

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Book SynopsisFears and stories about an underground religion devoted to Satan, which demands and carries out child sacrifice, appeared in the United States in the late twentieth century and became the subject of media reports supported by some mental health professionals. Examining these modern fantasies leads us back to ancient stories which in some cases believers consider the height of religious devotion. Horrifying ideas about human sacrifice, child sacrifice, and the offering to the gods of a beloved only son by his father appear repeatedly in Western traditions, starting with the Greeks and the Hebrews. In Flesh and Blood: Interrogating Freud on Human Sacrifice, Real and Imagined, Beit-Hallahmi focuses on rituals of violence tied to religion, both imagined and real. The main focus of this work is the meaning of blood and ritual killing in the history of religion. The book examines the encounter with the idea of child sacrifice in the context of human hopes for salvation.

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Book SynopsisOn 9 July 1860 CE, an outbreak of violence in the inner-city Christian quarter of Damascus created shock waves locally and internationally. This book provides a step-by-step presentation of events and issues to assess the true role of all the players and shapers of events. It critically examines the internal and external politico-socio-economic factors involved and argues that economic interests rather than religious fanaticism were the main causes for the riot of 1860. Furthermore, it argues that the riot was not a sudden eruption but rather a planned and organised affair.Trade Review...[...] “It’s not often that a doctoral thesis can be so eminently readable and draw readers into the investigation as well as any whodunnit! Who was responsible and what were their motives? And why be interested in this subject today? …..We should be grateful to Dr Rana for such a convincing analysis of events in the 1860s which are still part of the collective memory of many Christians in Lebanon and Syria today.” [...] Rev Colin Chapman, The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford https://www.cmcsoxford.org.uk/resources/book-reviews/rana-abu-mounes-muslim-christian-relations-in-damascus-amid-the-1860-riot-brill-2022Table of ContentsList of Figures Introduction 1 Early Nineteenth-Century Damascus  1 Introduction  2 Geography  3 Religions, Ethnicities and Cultures  4 Politics  5 Military Forces  6 The City Quarters  7 Agriculture, Industry and Trade  8 Administration  9 Conclusion 2 The Impact of the Reform Schemes on Damascus  1 Introduction  2 The Pre-Tanzimat Period, 1832–1839  3 The Tanzimat Period, 1839–1876  4 Local Attitudes  5 Conclusion 3 The Impact of the Foreign Powers’ Intervention on Damascus during the Reform Period  1 Introduction  2 The Level of Intervention  3 The Impact on Local Society  4 Conclusion 4 The 1860 Riot in Damascus  1 Introduction  2 Prelude to the Riot  3 The Riot  4 The Circulation of Rumours  5 Local Perceptions of the Riot  6 Conclusion 5 The Ottoman Governor-General of Damascus, Ahmad Pasha, and the 1860 Riot  1 Introduction  2 The Role of Ahmad Pasha and the Regular Troops  3 Conclusion 6 The Notables of Damascus and the 1860 Riot  1 Introduction  2 The Role of the al-Aghawat and the Irregular Troops  3 The Role of the Notables  4 The Role of ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jaza‌ʾiri  5 Conclusion 7 The Aftermath of the 1860 Riot in Damascus  1 Introduction  2 Foreign Responses  3 The Arrival of Fuʾad Pasha  4 Conclusion 8 The British–Ottoman Relations after the 1860 Riot in Damascus  1 Introduction  2 The British–Ottoman Relations after the Riot  3 The British Diplomats’ Perceptions of the Riot  4 Conclusion Conclusion Appendix 1: The Hatti Şerif of Gülhane Appendix 2: Sultan ʿAbdülmecid’s Hatti Hümayun Reaffirming the Privileges and Immunities of the Non-Muslim Communities Appendix 3: The Treaty of Peace (Paris) Terminating the Crimean War, with Pertinent Annexed Conventions Appendix 4: Convention on Measures for Pacifying Syria (and Lebanon): Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire Appendix 5: Letters Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book includes the whole transcription of the trial of a converted Muslim (Morisco) from Toledo, condemned to die at the stake at the beginning of the 17th century. In their study of the trial, the authors address the question of how and to what extent Inquisition documents can be used as an historical source by contextualizing and analysing its multifaceted aspects as well as its protagonists and participants, victim, witnesses, and inquisitors. The authors elucidate the beliefs and practices of the culprit, situating his ordeal in the framework of Morisco life and its connections with North African Islam. By so doing they shed light on questions of Inquisitorial procedure, witnessing and testimony, the extent of confession, the effects of life in prison, the relations of trust between inmates and the consequences of isolation.Trade Review"[Jerónimo de Rojas’s] sentence to the stake was opposed by the most senior and experienced of his interrogators, but the Supreme Council of the Inquisition overrode his opinion. As García-Arenal and Sánchez-Blanco point out, this was a moment when the attitude of the Spanish government to the Moriscos was hardening while preparations were being made for their expulsion in 1609. The execution of Jerónimo de Rojas is one of a number of dramatic episodes pointing towards the final tragedy, and the edition of his trial is an important contribution to our knowledge of a grim moment in Spanish history." - Alastair Hamilton (Warburg Institute, London). Journal of Ecclesiastical History 74 (2023): 193–4.Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments IX List of IllustrationsI Introduction 1 Jerónimo de Rojas before the Tribunal  1.1 First Stage: Defiance  1.2 Second Stage: Collapse  1.3 The Trial History of Rojas’s Family and Others Denounced by Enríquez 2 The Scene and the Protagonists  2.1 Jerónimo de Rojas  2.2 Fray Hernando de Santiago  2.3 Villarín, the Bigamist from Galicia  2.4 Francisco Enríquez, the Informer  2.5 Officers of the Inquisition  2.6 The Scene: Toledo in the Time of Rojas 3 The Moriscos  3.1 From the Conversions to the War of the Alpujarras (1501–1570)  3.2 The War of the Alpujarras  3.3 From the War of the Alpujarras to Philip III’s Early Reign  3.4 The Political Shift of Philip III’s Early Reign 4 The Inquisition  4.1 Harsh Repression by the Tribunals of Granada, Zaragoza, and Valencia  4.2 Activity of the Llerena Tribunal  4.3 The Toledo Tribunal  4.4 The Limits of the Holy Office 5 The Conversations in Prison  5.1 Life in Prison  5.2 Rojas’s Religious Beliefs and Practices  5.3 Abentute or Ibn Tūda  5.4 Al-Hajarī 6 The Granadan Forgeries, Miguel de Luna, and the Religious Polemic  6.1 The Parchment and the Lead Books of the Sacromonte in Granada  6.2 Miguel de Luna  6.3 Religious Polemic  6.4 Muhamad Alguazir, Pastrana, and Ocaña  6.5 Juan Pérez 7 Secret Prisons and Letters  7.1 The Sequence of Events and Papers  7.2 The Language of the Letters and Rojas’s Knowledge of Christianity 8 Conclusions 9 The Trial Transcript  1 Introductory Note  2 Denunciation and Imprisonment  3 Rojas’s Communications and Letters  4 Witness Statements  5 Statements by Jerónimo de Rojas  6 The Accusation  7 Response to the Accusation  8 Publication of the Witness Statements  9 Response to the Publication of the Witness Statements  10 Written Defense  11 Second Publication of the Witness Statements  12 Vote on the Case  13 Torture  14 The Sentence  15 Establishment of the Date of the Crime Bibliography

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