Religious issues and debates Books

Book SynopsisTitus shoots his arrows bearing petitions for justice to the gods; Claudius asks ‘what form of prayer can serve my turn?’; Lear wishes he could crack the vault of heaven with his prayers. Again and again, Shakespeare dramatises the scenario of the unheard prayer, in which the one who prays does so full well in the knowledge that no one is listening, interested, or even there at all. The scenario is keyed to the anxieties that surrounded the act of praying itself, so full as it was with controversy, the centrepiece of sectarian dispute over what was good and bad religion. This study reads the unheard prayer scenario as itself an appeal for a vision of tolerance, unobtainable perhaps, but nevertheless desired and imagined.Trade Review"Spectators having read Sterrett’s study are now ready to understand the full and complex implications of the visual display of prayers onstage. Ultimately, they are made to realize that Shakespeare actually fashioned a poetics of prayer aimed at distancing himself from sectarian disputes, while reflecting on the meaning of divine sanction and expressing the religious anxieties of his contemporaries." Sophie Chiari, Aix-Marseille Université (LERMA), Moreana 50 (2010) "Acknowledging the mixture of Catholic, Protestant, and classical elements in the plays as well as the ongoing debates about Shakespeare's own confessional commitments, Sterrett argues persuasively that Shakespearean drama yearns to reconcile sectarian differences. In passionate yet judicious prose, Sterrett illuminates the dramaturgy of prayer as both object of controversy and equipment for living in order to tune his project to Shakespeare’s entertainment of pluralist futures." Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 54:2 "Local readings are often of great interest and value, and parts of this study participate significantly in the present critical attempt to understand Shakespeare’s theological positions." Ian McAdam, University of Lethbridge, Renaissance Quarterly 66:4

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Book SynopsisIssues in Religion and Education, Whose Religion? is a contribution to the dynamic and evolving global debates about the role of religion in public education. This volume provides a cross-section of the debates over religion, its role in public education and the theoretical and political conundrums associated with resolutions. The chapters reflect the contested nature of the role of religion in public education around the world and explore some of the issues mentioned from perspectives reflecting the diverse contexts in which the authors are situated. The differences among the chapters reflect some of the particular ways in which various jurisdictions have come to see the problem and how they have addressed religious diversity in public education in the context of their own histories and politics.

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Book SynopsisMigrations are contested sites of identity negotiations: they are not simply a process of border crossings but more so of border shiftings. Rather than allowing migrants to swiftly move across stable borders from one clearly defined identity to another, migrations question and renegotiate these very identities. Migrations undermine and re-establish borders along which the identity of migrants (and also that of the supposedly settled population) are constituted, and, as a discourse, migrations serve as a contested site of negotiating identities. Migrations reveal the negotiable character of identities - and representations of migration are themselves a hotspot in contemporary identity constructions. What can theology contribute to the negotiations on migration? The contributions of this volume work towards a reading of migration as a sign of the times. Together, they offer "steps towards a theology of migration." They show that migration calls for a new way of doing. A theology that is exposed to migration as a sign of the times is drwan into the shifting, unsettling, and undermining of borders. This has impact not only on the discourse of migration, but also on the discourse of theology: it calls theology to move away from its search for well-established definitions (literally: borders) of its God-talk and to venture into new, uncharted territory. It loses its fixed, clearly defined grounds and finds itself on the way toward a renegotiation of what it means to believe in, celebrate, and reflect on YHWH - on God who is with us on the way.Table of ContentsTABLE OF CONTENTS Preface JUDITH GRUBER AND SIGRID RETTENBACHER ................................................1 Report from the Borders HAGEN KOPP ..................................................................................................5 Us and Them? Social Justice, Citizenship, and Migration BRIDGET ANDERSON ......................................................................................15 Migration as a Sign of the Times and a Precarious Locus Theologicus Alienus HANS JOACHIM SANDER ................................................................................33 Migration as a Sign of the Times: Questions and Remarks from a Practical Theological Perspective REGINA POLAK ...............................................................................................47 Remembering Borders: Notes toward a Theology of Migration JUDITH GRUBER .............................................................................................79 From the Faith and Life of a Migrant to a Theology of Migration and Intercultural Convivencia JORGE E. CASTILLO GUERRA ....................................................................... 107 Homeward Bound: A Theology of Migration DANIEL G. GROODY CSC ...............................................................................131 The Future Begins in Between: Migrational Boundaries as a Trope for Christian Eschatology MICHAEL NAUSNER .......................................................................................151 The Venture of Vulnerability: Christological Engravings on Disturbing Questions about Migration HILDEGUND KEUL ..........................................................................................167 Index of Names ................................................................................................191 Index of Subjects .............................................................................................195 Contributors .....................................................................................................199

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Book SynopsisSpaces are produced and shaped by discourses and, in turn, produce and shape discourses themselves. ‘Space’ is becoming a significant and complex concept for the encounter between people, cultures, religions, ideologies, politics, between histories and memories, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the powerful and the weak. As a result, it provides a rich hermeneutical and methodological inventory for mapping interculturality and interreligiosity. This volume looks at space as a critical theory and epistemological tool within cultural studies that fosters the analysis of power structures and the deconstruction of representations of identities within our societies that are shaped by power.Table of ContentsContents Dedication Preface Part I - Approaching the Topos Chapter 1. In Search of Pastoral Power: Religious Confrontations with Thirdspace - Hans-Joachim Sander Chapter 2. Texts as Places of Sacred Meeting: Towards an Ethic for Comparative and Interreligious Readings and Transgressions - Paul Hedges Chapter 3. Interreligious Studies: A New Academic Discipline? - Oddbjørn Leirvik Chapter 4. Religious Identities in Third Space: The Location of Comparative Theology - Ulrich Winkler Part II - Changing Spaces Chapter 5. The Maps and Tours of Theological Knowledge: Reading Melchior Cano’s De Locis Theologicis after the Spatial Turn - Judith Gruber Chapter 6. Sacred Time as Sacred Space: The Spaces of Memory and Anticipation in Christianity and Judaism - Emma O’Donnell Chapter 7. Metaphors We Dialogue By: Spatial Metaphors in the Common Word Dialogue Process - Vebjørn L.Horsfjord Chapter 8. Hagia Sophia and the Third Space. An Enquiry into the Discursive Construction of Religious Sites - Sigrid Rettenbacher Chapter 9. Reform in a Muslim Context: Contested Interpretations Through Time and Space - Yaser Ellethy Chapter 10. The Location of Religion in Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball: Common Ground Prior to ‘Religious’ and ‘Secular’? - Henry Jansen Part III - Theological Transgression: Facing the Other in Migration and Gender Chapter 11. Christian Migrants and the Theology of Space and Place - Mechteld Jansen Chapter 12. Transreligious Critical Hermeneutics and Gender Studies: Contested Gendered Spaces - Anne Hege Grung Chapter 13. Claiming Space for Women: Women Reading Scripture in Critical Dialogue - Gé Speelman Part IV - Islam in Spain Chapter 14. The Reconquista Reversed? Muslim Presence in Contemporary Spain - John Chesworth Chapter 15. Blazing Light and Perfect Death: The Martyrs of Córdoba and the Growth of Polemical Holiness - Aaron T. Hollander Chapter 16. From Acceptance to Religious Freedom: Considerations for Convivencia in Medieval Spain and Multireligious Coexistence Today - Mariano Delgado Part V - The Basque Country: Sharing Space as a Minority Religion Chapter 17. Religious Minorities and Access to Public Space in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and in Navarre: The Perspective of Religious Minorities - Lidia Rodríguez Fernández and Luzio Uriarte Ganzález Chapter 18. Contested Spaces and Religious Minorities: The Basque Experience and the Swiss Pyrenees - Eduardo J Ruiz Vieytez Chapter 19. Scenarios of Interreligious Dialogue in the Basque Country - José Luis Villacorta Núñez Part VI - Space and Eastern Religion Chapter 20. The Secular and the Sacred as Contested Spaces? A Cross-Cultural Hermeneutical Investigation into Western and Chinese Perspectives - André van der Braak Chapter 21. A Style for Better Understanding: A Buddhist-Christian Approach to ‘Truly Beautiful Spaces’ - Sybille Fritsch-Oppermann Chapter 22. Time and History in Buddhist-Christian Relations - John D’Arcy May Part VII - Europe and the City Chapter 23. Europe as a Contested Space and European Cities as Shifting Symbols of Europe throughout History: Historical Changes in the Spatial Orientation of Europe and its Images of ‘Europeanness’ - Lourens Minnema Chapter 24. The Festival as Heterotopia in the City as Shared Religious Space - Jaco Beyers Chapter 25. Between Fear, Freedom, and Control: Islam and the Construction of a Modern European Identity - Lucien van Liere Index of Subjects Index of Names Contributors to this Volume

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Book SynopsisThis collection of articles is an innovative contribution to religious studies, because it picks up concepts developed in the wake of the so-called “spatial turn”. Religions are always located in a certain cultural and spatial environment, but often tend to locate (or translocate) themselves beyond that original setting. Also, many religious traditions are not only tied to or associated with the area its respective adherent live in, but are in fact “bi-local” or even “multi-local”, as they closely relate to various spatial centers or plains at once. This spatial diversity inherent to many religions is a corollary to religious diversity or plurality that merits in-depth research. The articles in this volume present important findings from a series of settings within and between Asia and EuropeTrade Review"The eclectic breadth of Locating Religions will draw scholars from all time periods and geographical locations. The powerful spectrum of this edited volume demands a lot from its readers. Although the essays are accessible to anyone interested in phenomenology and the history of religions, the reader must prepare to engage religious history at the microcosmic level." Josefrayn Sánchez-Perry, University of Texas at Austin, Reading Religion

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Book SynopsisAntisemitism, Islamophobia, and Interreligious Hermeneutics: Ways of Seeing the Religious Other, edited by Emma O’Donnell Polyakov, examines the hermeneutics of interreligious encounter in contexts of conflict. It investigates the implicit judgments of Judaism and Islam that often arise in response to these conflicts, and explores the implications of these interpretations for relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Addressing antisemitism and Islamophobia through the tools of interreligious hermeneutics, this volume brings together three distinct discourses: the study of ancient and new tropes of antisemitism as they appear in today’s world; research into contemporary expressions of fear or suspicion of Islam; and philosophical reflections on the hermeneutics of interreligious encounters.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction: Nicholas of Cusa and Early Modern Reform: Towards a Reassessment Simon J.G. Burton, Joshua Hollmann, and Eric M. Parker PART 1 Reformatio Generalis: Ecclesiastical Reform 1 A Difficult Pope: Eugenius iv and the Men around Him Thomas M. Izbicki and Luke Bancroft 2 The Reform of Space for Prayer: Ecclesia primitiva in Nicholas of Cusa and Leon Battista Alberti Il Kim 3 “Papista Insanissima”: Papacy and Reform in Nicholas of Cusa’s Reformatio Generalis (1459) and the Early Martin Luther (1517–19) Richard J. Serina, Jr. 4 Nicholas of Cusa and Paolo Sarpi: Copernicanism and Conciliarism in Early Modern Venice Alberto Clerici PART 2 Coincidentia Oppositorum: Theological Reform 5 Nicholas of Cusa and Martin Luther on Christ and the Coincidence of Opposites Joshua Hollmann 6 Ignorantia Non Docta: John Calvin and Nicholas of Cusa’s Neglected Trinitarian Legacy Gary W. Jenkins 7 Nicholas of Cusa and Pantheism in Early Modern Catholic Theology Matthew T. Gaetano PART 3 Explicatio Visionis: Reform of Perspective 8 The Notion of Faith in the Works of Nicholas Cusanus and Giordano Bruno Luisa Brotto 9 “The Sacred Circle of All- Being”: Cusanus, Lord Brooke, and Peter Sterry Eric M. Parker 10 Varieties of Spiritual Sense: Cusanus and John Smith Derek Michaud 11 Motion, Space, and Early Modern Re- formations of the Cosmos: Nicholas of Cusa’s Anima Mundi and Henry More’s Spirit of Nature Nathan R. Strunk Part 4 Mathesis Universalis: Reform of Method 12 Cusanus and Boethian Theology in the Early French Reform Richard J. Oosterhoff 13 Nicholas Cusanus and Guillaume Postel on Learning and Docta Ignorantia Roberta Giubilini 14 The Book Metaphor Triadized: The Layman’s Bible and God’s Books in Raymond of Sabunde, Nicholas of Cusa and Jan Amos Comenius Petr Pavlas 15 “Squaring the Circle”: Cusan Metaphysics and the Pansophic Vision of Jan Amos Comenius Simon J.G. Burton 16 Cusanus and Leibniz: Symbolic Explorations of Infinity as a Ladder to God Jan Makovský Epilogue: Ernst Cassirer and Renaissance Cultural Studies: The Figure of Nicholas of Cusa Michael Edward Moore

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Book SynopsisOn the five-hundredth anniversary of the 1519 debate between Martin Luther and John Eck at Leipzig, Luther at Leipzig offers an extensive treatment of this pivotal Reformation event in its historical and theological context. The Leipzig Debate not only revealed growing differences between Luther and his opponents, but also resulted in further splintering among the Reformation parties, which continues to the present day. The essays in this volume provide an essential background to the complex theological, political, ecclesiastical, and intellectual issues precipitating the debate. They also sketch out the relevance of the Leipzig Debate for the course of the Reformation, the interpretation and development of Luther, and the ongoing divisions between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.Trade Review“This volume demonstrates that Leipzig paved the way for many of the ecclesiastical debates that would rage throughout the sixteenth century.” David C. Quackenbos, Duke Divinity School. In: Church History, Vol. 89, No. 3 (September 2020), pp. 684–685.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Timeline: the Leipzig Debate Contributors Editors’ Introduction part 1: Leipzig, 1519: the Leipzig Debate in Its Historical Context 1 The Leipzig Debate: a Reformation Turning Point  Volker Leppin and Mickey L. Mattox 2 Defending Wittenberg: Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and the Pre-History of the Leipzig Debate  Alyssa Lehr Evans 3 Wittenberg’s Disputation Culture and the Leipzig Debate between Luther and Eck  Henning Bühmann 4 The Papacy’s Aversion to Councils in the Time of Leo X: Leipzig in the Context of Conciliarism  Thomas M. Izbicki 5 The Leipzig Disputation: Masters of the Sacred Page and the Authority of Scripture  Ian Christopher Levy 6 Frigidissima Decreta: Canon Law, Ecclesiology, and Luther’s Proposition 13  Richard J. Serina, Jr. part 2: After Leipzig: the Implications of the Leipzig Debate 7 Philip Melanchthon and the Earliest Report on the Leipzig Debates  Timothy J. Wengert 8 Papalism at Stake in the Leipzig Debate  Bernward Schmidt 9 A Genealogy of Dissent: Luther, Hus, and Leipzig  Phillip Haberkern 10 Councils after Leipzig: Luther’s Interpretation of Nicaea from the Leipzig Disputation to On the Councils and the Church (1539)  Paul Robinson 11 Luther’s Later Ecclesiology and the Leipzig Debate  Jonathan Mumme 12 The Catholic Reception of the Leipzig Disputation  Michael Root Appendix: The Disputation between John Eck and Martin Luther (1519)   A Select Translation  Carl D. Roth and Richard J. Serina, Jr. Index

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