The Death of Christian Britain examines how the nation s dominant religious culture has been destroyed. Callum Brown challenges the generally held view that secularization was a long and gradual process dating from the industrial revolution. Instead, he argues that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s. Using the latest techniques of gender analysis, and by listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, the book offers new formulations of religion and secularization.

In this expanded second edition, Brown responds to commentary on his ideas, reviews the latest research, and provides new evidence to back his claims.

The Death of Christian Britain examines how the nation's dominant religious culture has been destroyed. Callum Brown challenges the generally held view that secularization was a long and gradual process dating from the industrial revolution. Instead, he argues that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s. Using the latest techniques of gender analysis, and by listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, the book offers new formulations of religion and secularization.

In this expanded second edition, Brown responds to commentary on his ideas, reviews the latest research, and provides new evidence to back his claims.

This is a book on a social theory of religion and culture. A survey of the meanings of the term religion from Columbus to Jonathan Z. Smith sets the pace. Examples are taken from ethnography, the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman age, and Christendom in order to develop the concepts of imagined world, social formation, mythic grammar, and cultural mentality. What has been learned from the study of other peoples and their religions about the function of myths and rituals is then applied to an analysis of the Christian myth-ritual system and its social logic. The odd combinations of mythic world and ritual presence, monotheism and sovereignty, righteousness and power, all peculiar to Christianity, are analyzed historically and followed into the twenty-first century. This study offers a meditation on the recent public discourse about the Christian nation in light of the current social situation in the United States and ends with an invitation to rethink the role of religions in constructing a polycultural social democracy.

Penal institutions and the detention ministry, due to their uniqueness, communicate a few positive messages to society. However, this study takes us further beyond the sterile complaints about penological systems, and dramatically reveals the mesmerizing and often monstrous flaws in our criminal justice systems. Emerging detention staff squabbles, in penal institutions, can culminate to factual aberrations of felons' improper reformation and rehabilitation; and to incidences of enormous problems in the determination of the recidivistic rates of ex-convicts and parolees. A correction system has done quite well if it is able to turn major offenders into minor ones, and frequent offenders into infrequent ones. Comparison basically curtails any presumptive or <<theoretically>> qualified conceptualization. Therefore, the comparative nature of this study, which acts as an epistemological <<operative>> Leitdifferenz, remains a cultural preview for the existence of some scientific evidences for further discussions and researches in penological studies.

The diary of a man trying to live within his religious faith while dealing with the harsh realities of urban America.

Around 1800 roughly three per cent of the human population lived in urban areas; by 2030 this number is expected to have gone up to some seventy per cent. This poses problems for traditional religions that are all rooted in rural, small-scale societies. The authors in this volume question what the possible appeal of these old religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam could be in the new urban environment and, conversely, what impact global urbanization will have on learning and on the performance and nature of ritual. Anthropologists, historians and political scientists have come together in this volume to analyse attempts made by churches and informal groups to adapt to these changes and, at the same time, to explore new ways to study religions in a largely urbanized environment.

Rik Pinxten is Professor and Senior Researcher in Anthropology and Head of Department of Comparative Sciences of Culture at Ghent University, Belgium. His current research focus is on identity as a central mechanism in cultural and religious learning processes. He has published widely on the anthropology of knowledge and the comparative study of religion.

Lisa Dikomitis is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Hull York Medical School where she works on a project researching social responses to health inequalities. She has published widely about Greek and Turkish Cypriot refugees and is the author of Cyprus and Its Places of Desire. Cultures of Displacement Among Greek and Turkish Cypriot Refugees (IB Tauris, 2012).

How have long-standing and unconscious secular assumptions about religion shaped the post-9/11 climate and its wars? Stacey Gutkowski explores this little-examined, yet crucial, element of British perceptions of and policy towards Jihadism over the last decade, to draw critical conclusions about the relationship between war and the secular. She points to a surprisingly coherent body of secular beliefs that have fuelled policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism, and that have had mixed results - responsible for both positive strategies and tragic errors. The theory Gutkowski develops on the impact of this secular approach to warfare holds a broader global significance, and cannot be viewed as just a British phenomenon. This book addresses ongoing and critical debates, such as the 'overreach' of Western liberal interventionism in the Middle East, and speaks to policy-makers, security analysts and students of IR, Foreign Policy and Security Studies.

Ethno-religious violence in Indonesia illustrates in detail how and why previously peaceful religious communities can descend into violent conflict. From 1999 until 2000, the conflict in North Maluku, Indonesia, saw the most intense communal violence of Indonesia's period of democratization. For almost a year, militias waged a brutal religious war which claimed the lives of almost four thousand lives. The conflict culminated in ethnic cleansing along lines of religious identity, with approximately three hundred thousand people fleeing their homes. Based on detailed research, this book provides an in depth picture of all aspects of this devastating and brutal conflict. It also provides numerous examples of how different conflict theories can be applied in the analysis of real situations of tensions and violence, illustrating the mutually reinforcing nature of mass level sentiment and elite agency, and the rational and emotive influences on those involved. This book will be of interest to researchers in Asian Studies, conflict resolution and religious violence.

The Roman Catholic Church and the U.S. labor movement are missing an opportunity to work together to promote the well-being of Latino immigrants, the majority of whom are Catholic. The relationship between the Church and labor has stagnated because the U.S. labor movement (not unlike the Democrat Party) is taking political and social positions on abortion, same sex marriage, and school vouchers that are inimical to Catholic thinking despite the fact that the Church and Latinos immigrants are culturally conservative. Strangers in a Foriegn Land: The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the U.S. argues that labor groups would enjoy a better relationship with a natural institutional ally by taking no position on these culture war positions. Author George Schultze also takes the position that the Catholic Church should should be taking steps to promote worker-owned cooperatives in the Mondrag-n Cooperative Corporation tradition, which recognizes the beneficial role of free market economies.

This book provides an innovative contribution to the emerging field of culture and development through the lens of cultural rights, arguing in favour of a fruitful dialogue between human rights, development studies, critical cultural studies, and concerns about the protection and preservation of cultural diversity. It breaks with established approaches by introducing the themes of aesthetics, embodiment, narrative and peace studies into the field of culture and development, and in doing so, proposes both an expanded conception of cultural rights and a holistic vision of development that not only includes these elements in a central way, but which argues that genuine sustainability must include the cultural dimension, including the notion of cultural justice as recognition, protection and respect extended to the many expressions of human imagination in this world.

This book offers an analysis of the complex and shifting conditions of being young as well as the new ways in which young people engage in politics in Turkey. It is based on a closer examination of young people’s participation in the Gezi protests in 2013. From the perspective of cultural sociology, this work presents a nuanced discussion of the roots and dynamics of young people’s unexpected engagement and spectacular appearance at the protests, with a theoretical focus on the concepts of youth and the political, by exploring questions such as: How did young people experience the protests? How did they reflect on being young? How did they define the political? Grounded in ethnographic field research conducted via in-depth interviews, this book demonstrates that what happened in the Gezi protests was not a sudden and miraculous transformation of apolitical youth into political subjects on the streets, as has often been argued in public discourse. Rather, the protests brought into view the changes which had already been taking place in young people’s lives in Turkey as a result of the effects of both local and global processes, i.e. the influence of authoritarian politics and social change characterized by religion in everyday life, as well as the implications of neoliberal policies in the restructuring of urban spaces.

This nuanced book considers the role of religion and religiosity in modern Mexico, breaking new ground with an emphasis on popular religion and its relationship to politics. The contributors highlight the multifaceted role of religion, illuminating the ways that religion and religious devotion have persisted and changed since Mexican independence. They explore such themes as the relationship between church and state, the resurgence of religiosity and religious societies in the post-reform period, the religious values of the liberals of the 1850s, and the ways that popular expressions of religion often trumped formal and universal proscriptions. Focusing on individual stories and vignettes and on local elements of religion, the contributors show that despite efforts to secularize society, religion continues to be a strong component of Mexican culture. Portraying the complexity of religiosity in Mexico in the context of an increasingly secular state, this book will be invaluable for all those interested in Latin American history and religion. Contributions by: Silvia Marina Arrom, Adrian Bantjes, Alejandro Cortazar, Jason Dormady, Martin Austin Nesvig, Matthew D. O'Hara, Daniela Traffano, Paul J. Vanderwood, Mark Overmyer-Velazquez, Pamela Voekel, and Edward Wright-Rios

Peter D. Beaulieu examines the challenge posed by-and to-modernity and historic Islam as they encounter one another. He compares the Western separation of Church and state with the unitary Islamic State, and explores the proposed cultural and societal principles of the Second Vatican Council as potentially influencing long-term events in both arenas. Beaulieu's research is comprehensive and richly documented, yet offers an accessible triangular inquiry into the mosque, the manger, and modernity. By restoring a place at the table for Trinitarian Christianity alongside the engulfing monotheism of Islam and the alternative skepticism of Western rationalism, this inquiry broadens the pallet of inter-religious and intercultural contact points. Beyond Secularism and Jihad? provides balanced attention to the differences as well as the similarities between Christianity, Islam, and modernity. An emerging theme is natural law, which is universal and intrinsic to all mankind and not confined to competing theologies. Neglected in the West that it helped create, natural law might contribute to the needed "grammar" for dialogue between the citizens in the West and the followers of Islam.

Questions of presentation and representation of individuals, groups, and communities have become key sites of struggle, as evidenced by the battles in both physical and digital spaces - battles which have also thrown the roles of digital affordances, systems, industries, and structures into relief. This book shows that questions about the (re)presentation of the self in digital culture are now key to how the field of media and communication must engage with the political; and demonstrates the wide range of scholarship focusing on presentation and representation of the self in recent times. The contributors show that questions of self-presentation and representation in digital culture are the focus of lively debate, critique, and investigation and that this is taking place from a number of theoretical perspectives and locations across the globe. This book was originally published as a special issue of Popular Communication.

This book analyses the relation between state and religion in Indonesia, considering both the philosophical underpinning of government intervention on religious life but also cases and regulations related to religious affairs in Indonesia. Examining state regulation of religious affairs, it focuses on understanding its origin, history and consequences on citizens' religious life in modern Indonesia, arguing that while Indonesian constitutions have preserved religious freedom, they have also tended to construct wide-ranging discretionary powers in the government to control religious life and oversee religious freedom. Over more than four decades, Indonesian governments have constructed a variety of policies on religion based on constitutional legacies interpreted in the light of the norms and values of the existing religious majority group. A cutting edge examination of the tension between religious order and harmony on one hand, and protecting religious freedom for all on the other, this book offers a cutting edge study of how the history of regulating religion has been about the constant negotiation for the boundaries of authority between the state and the religious majority group.

This book traces how religion could have originated in prehistory and antiquity, out of natural human and prehuman behaviour. Religion is defined here as beliefs, conceptions, practices and roles concerned with the 'supernatural'. A variety of elements of religion can be identified. These include: spirits, ghosts, life after death, heaven, shamans. To try to reduce religion to a single original element is a mistake. There may be no single origin. But the individual elements have separate origins, and these can be traced. The common subjective component of religious elements is the numinous, which is commonly ascribed to external sources identified as 'supernatural' and 'spiritual'. The numinous sense is explained by means of certain neural processes with a focus in the temporal lobes. Probably for the first time, evidence is brought to bear from primatology, palaeoanthropology, ethnography, ancient history and history of religions, as well as theology, neurology and psycho-pharmacology. The field of origins of religion has been neglected by anthropology since the 1930s, but has enjoyed renewed interest from the 1990s. This wide-ranging interdisciplinary book makes an important contribution to the field.

This book provides insight into how flamenco travels, the forms it assumes in new locales, and the reciprocal effects on the original scene. Utilising a postnational approach to cultural identity, Martin explores the role of non-native culture brokers in cultural transmission. This concept, referred to as 'cosmopolitan human hubs', builds on Kiwan and Meinhof's 'hubs' theory of network migration to move cultural migration and globalisation studies forwards. Martin outlines a post-globalisation flamenco culture through analysis of ethnographic research carried out in the UK, Sevilla and Madrid. Insight into these glocal scenes characterises flamenco as a historically globalized art complex, represented in various hubs around the world. This alternative approach to music migration and globalisation studies will be of interest to students and scholars across leisure studies, musicology, sociology and anthropology.

Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the political roles of religious institutions and groups have captured inernational attention. This book examines how religious institutions and organizations in various Asian countries are influencing democratic development and the shaping of government policies. Religious Organizations and Democratization covers Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan. The chapters specifically address the engagement of Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and other religious organizations in the advancement and/or hindrance of democratization in the region. The contributors consider such questions as: Why have some religious organizations played a decisive role in democratic transitions, while others remained politically dormant, and other still acted in conservative alliances to block democratic development? Why did some religious organizations that once were active and instrumental to democratic change lose their political vitality as soon as civil liberties were successfully introduced? And why did other religious organizations, irrespective of their roles in the process of democratic transition, emerge as key political forces in the civil society?

Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the political roles of religious institutions and groups have captured inernational attention. This book examines how religious institutions and organizations in various Asian countries are influencing democratic development and the shaping of government policies. Religious Organizations and Democratization covers Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan. The chapters specifically address the engagement of Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and other religious organizations in the advancement and/or hindrance of democratization in the region. The contributors consider such questions as: Why have some religious organizations played a decisive role in democratic transitions, while others remained politically dormant, and other still acted in conservative alliances to block democratic development? Why did some religious organizations that once were active and instrumental to democratic change lose their political vitality as soon as civil liberties were successfully introduced? And why did other religious organizations, irrespective of their roles in the process of democratic transition, emerge as key political forces in the civil society?

Through detailed in-depth exegeses of Proust's literary texts (A la Recherche du temps perdu, Jean Santeuil, and Contre Sainte-Beuve), Judaism in Marcel Proust: Anti-Semitism, Philo-Semitism, and Judaic Perspectives in Art explains anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism as present in actual French literary texts. Unlike other studies about Proust and Judaism, the narrative in this book is in English; the focus is on the actual French texts, not on Proust's biography. Primary Judaic sources such as the Hebrew Bible, the Babylonian Talmud, Moses Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, and Rashi's commentaries illuminate Proust's texts and skillfully demonstrate their anti-Semitic and philo-Semitic subtexts. The principal Proustian themes that are examined in depth include, first of all, the anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism of the characters as informed by Jean-Paul Sartre's Reflexions sur la queston juive; second, Christian interpretations of Judaic biblical references and their anti-Semitic connotations as well as the philo-Semitic references to the Hebrew Bible and to Judaic culture and ritual contained in the Proust texts; third, the importance of references to art in Proust's texts and their Judaic significance. Written in a lively, clear, and accessible style, Judaism in Marcel Proust engages the reader, both Proustophile and Proust scholar alike. It would be an excellent choice for the reading list of courses on Proust as well as for French history and social psychology courses on anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism relating to the Dreyfus case and the Belle Epoque.

The National Border Patrol Museum (NBPM) in El Paso, Texas, presents a view of the history, culture, and life along the U.S.-Mexico border that is not offered in any other museum in the world. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to study and understand people and life along the border through the different forms in which they represent themselves and how they are viewed by others. Mean Green: Nation Building in the National Border Patrol Museum presents an analysis of the museum that deploys theoretical approaches in the disciplines of visual and cultural studies, border studies, ethnic studies, discourse analysis, museology, and spatial theory. The objectives of this book are to study the varied representations, that is, the hypermasculine male and the disenfranchised "illegal" immigrant, that reinforce and challenge the dominant discourse present in the hegemonic state; to analyze why the museum represents a homotopia within the limits of a heterotopia; to learn how the museum creates imagined communities through the use of its historical patrimony; to observe the practices in relations of power by employing the notion of a panopticon; and, lastly, to understand how the museum is providing a commodification of symbols to promote the hegemonic state.

One of the fundamental questions of Middle Eastern, and Lebanese studies in particular, is the history of the relationship between the Druze community and the state in modern Lebanon. Arguing that the Druze community has been politically alienated from the Lebanese state, this book explores the historical and political origins of this alienation. The Druze Community and the Lebanese State contends that the origins of this alienation lie in the state's national ideology, its political confessional system, and the Druze's historical background during the medieval period. Moreover, this book examines the extent to which the Druze's attitude vis-a-vis the Lebanese state has been influenced by their historical rivalry with the Maronites. Particular emphasis is placed on the political and ideological practices adopted by the Druze leadership and intelligentsia as they dealt with the changes taking place in their community's political status following the political settlements of 1920 and 1943 (the establishment of Greater Lebanon and the National Pact, respectively). A welcome addition to existing literature on Lebanon, this book will be an essential reference tool for students and researchers with an interest in nationalism, identity and Middle East Politics more broadly.

Religion is considered a key predictor of volunteering: the more religious people are, the more likely they are to volunteer. This positive association enjoys significant support in current research; in fact, it could be considered the 'default perspective' on the relationship between both phenomena. In this book, the authors claim that, although the dominant approach is legitimate and essential, it nonetheless falls short in grasping the full complexity of the interaction between religion and volunteering. It needs to be recognized that there are tensions between religion and volunteering, and that these tensions are intensifying as a result of the changing meaning and role of religion in society. Therefore, the central aim and contribution of this book is to demonstrate that the relationship between religion and volunteering is not univocal but differentiated, ambiguous and sometimes provocative. By introducing the reader to a much wider landscape of perspectives, this volume offers a richer, more complex and variable understanding. Apart from the established positive causality, the authors examine tensions between religion and volunteering from the perspective of religious obligation, religious change, processes of secularization and notions of post-secularity. They further explore how actions that are considered altruistic, politically neutral and motivated by religious beliefs can be used for political reasons. This volume opens up the field to new perspectives on religious actors and on how religion and volunteering are enacted outside Western liberal and Christian societies. It emphasizes interdisciplinary perspectives, including theology, philosophy, sociology, political science, anthropology and architecture.

Can West and East ever understand each other? In this extraordinary book one of the world's leading Muslim scholars explores an area which has been almost entirely neglected by scholars in the field - the area of postmodernism and Islam. This landmark work is startling and constantly perceptive in its exploration of Western and Islamic culture. Emphasizing the role of the mass media in shaping our understanding of East-West relations, Akbar S. Ahmed analyses the ways in which the media turned events like the Salmon Rushdie affair and the Gulf war into a carnival of spectacle and entertainment. He makes use of the postmodern theme of the displaced, circulating image to show how images are used to tell stories - stories which are not always helpful or accurate. In this new, revised edition, Akbar S. Ahmed includes a remarkable and stimulating new preface, in which he reconsiders this topic in the light of the contemporary, post September 11th, world.