Synopses & Reviews
The worlds religions are becoming increasingly globalized. One can no longer equate particular faiths with corresponding geographic locations. Islam is as much a south or southeast Asian religion as it is a middle eastern one. And Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while it declines in Europe. In addition to these major population shifts, small communities of adherents of every religion are scattered across the globe, where they mingle with and adapt to local cultures.
What are we to make of this new religious world? The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions offers a comprehensive look at world religious societies in their contemporary global diversity. Comprising 60 essays, each by a leading scholar, the volume focuses on communities rather than beliefs, symbols, or rites. Communities in the diaspora and at the periphery are covered, as well as the central geographic regions of all the major living religious traditions. It is organized into six sections: the Indic cultural region, the Buddhist/Confucian, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim regions, and the African cultural region. In each section an introductory essay discusses the social development of that religious tradition historically. The other essays cover the basic social factsthe communitys size, location, organizational and pilgrimage centers, authority figures, patterns of governance, major subgroups and schismsas well as issues regarding boundary maintenance, political involvement, role in providing cultural identity, and encounters with modernity.
The worlds religious communities are more diverse than ever before, and there is no other volume that covers the tremendous variety of faith communities discussed in this Handbook. This volume will be indispensable to anyone interested in contemporary religion.
Review
"The pattern that emerges from this book is one of complexity and ambivalence, but also optimism that religious influences can both moderate the ill effects of globalization and spark thoughtful dialogue and development." --Faith and International Affairs
"The book's main contribution is to forefront the ethical dilemmas and possibilities faced by religion in an increasingly interconnected world, and to document the contradictions of religious responses to globalization."--Contemporary Sociology
"I recommend this well-written text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on contemporary topics in the sociology of religion, and globalization. ...All will come away better informed and more sensitive."--Contemporary Sociology
Synopsis
In the increasingly globalized world of the early 21st century, religion has reemerged with a vengeance. It is involved in new movements of nationalism, the clerical leadership of political sects, and acts of terrorism. Religion, however, is not necessarily incompatible with globalization nor
antithetical to the values of civil society. In a global culture the shared values of different religious traditions can provide a collective sense of virtuous conduct in public life. The essays in this volume explore the difficulties and possibilities of diverse religious groups occupying the same
public space. Religion, the authors show, is not only identified with the culture and politics of the hostile anti-urban village, it is also compatible with the tolerance and respect needed in the global city. Some religious activists have blown things up, but others have tried to smooth things
over. Prophetic religious voices call for moderation, justice, and environmental protection. Even the religious opposition to globalization is nuanced. Some violent activists, like Hindu extremists in India, want a new religious state. Others, like Christian militias or al Qaeda, envision a
transnational religious entity - a kind of religious globalization to supplant the secular one. Still others call for an alternative to secular globalization that embraces religious values in a multicultural milieu. Religion, these essays demonstrate, plays diverse and sometimes contradictory roles
in the new global culture. The contributors to this volume deftly navigate the complex terrain of religion and global society, offering a striking new vision of the future of religion in a changing world.
Synopsis
The extraordinary changes in world society at the beginning of the 21st century have involved religion to a degree that would have amazed earlier observers of modernity. Within the past decade religion has been associate with some of the world's most strident forms of political encounter, including new movements of nationalism, the clerical leadership of political sects, and the religiously motivated acts of terrorism. Religion seems to be trying to tear the planet apart, even as other cultural forces seem to be trying to pull it together. Is religion the natural enemy of globalization? The essays in this volume explore the difficulties and possibilities of a diversity of religious groups occupying the same civil society. Religion, these essays demonstrate, plays diverse and sometimes contradictory roles in the new cultural globalization. In a global culture the shared values of different religious traditions can provide a collective sense of virtuous conduct in public life. But religion can also support the position of enemies of global society - those who see in globalization the effort to impose the values and power of one country over the others.
About the Author
Mark Juergensmeyer is professor of sociology and director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is author or co-author of twenty books, including
Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence and
Religion in Global Civil Society.