Traditionally, Christian martyrdom is a repetition of the story of Christ's suffering and death: the more closely the victim replicates the Christological model, the more legible the martyrdom. But if the textual construction of martyrdom depends on the rehearsal of a paradigmatic story, how do we reconcile the broad range of individuals, beliefs, and persecutions seeking justification by claims of martyrdom? Observing how martyrdom is constituted through the interplay of historical event and literary form, Alice Dailey explores the development of English martyr literature through the period of intense religious controversy from the heresy executions of Queen Mary to the regicide of 1649. Through close study of texts ranging from late medieval passion drama and hagiography to John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, martyrologies of the Counter-Reformation, Charles I's Eikon Basilike, and John Milton's Eikonoklastes, The English Martyr from Reformation to Revolution traces the shifting constructions of the martyr figure across Reformation England. By putting history and literary form in dialogue, Dailey describes not only the reformation of one of the oldest, most influential genres of the Christian West but a revolution in the very concept of martyrdom. In late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England, she argues, martyrdom develops from medieval notions of strict typological repetition into Charles I's defense of individual conscience-an abstract, figurative form of martyrdom that survives into modernity. Far from static or purely formulaic, martyrology emerges in Dailey's study as a deeply nuanced genre that discloses the mutually constitutive relationship between the lives we live and the stories we tell.

Turmoil still grips the Middle East, and fear can still paralyze post-9/11 America. The comforts and challenges of this book are thus as timely as when it was first published in 1987. With new reflections on the future of Judaism and Israel, Ellis underscores the enduring problem of justice. Ellis' use of liberation theology to make connections between the Holocaust and contemporary communities from the Third World reminds both Jews and oppressed Christians that they share common ground in the experiences of abandonment, suffering, and death. The connections also reveal that Jews and Christians share a common cause in the battle against idolatry - represented now by obsessions for personal affluence, national security, and ethnic survival. According to Ellis, Jews and Christians must never allow the reality of anti-Semitism to become an excuse for evading solidarity with the oppressed peoples - be they African, Asian, Latin American or, especially, Palestinian.

Does religion cause war? It is often claimed that religion is responsible for more wars, more global conflicts and more deaths than any other factor. After all, the world has seen its share of crusades, inquisitions and jihads. Enlightened, modern people assume that if we could only discard primitive religious belief, the world would be a better place. Alas, the picture is not quite so simple. "Indeed," writes Meic Pearse, "there is only one thing that bears a heavier responsibility than religion as a principal cause of war. And that is, of course, irreligion." In this provocative book, historian Meic Pearse debunks the common misconception that religion causes war. He argues that while religion is often a significant generator of armed conflict both in the past and in the present, the two principal causes of human warfare are in fact culture and greed for territory, resources or power. Since culture and greed often clothe themselves in religion, wars fought for culture often appear to be fought for religion. With keen analysis of global history and current events, Pearse shows how irreligion has produced far bloodier wars than religion, and how global secularism itself does violence to religion and traditional cultures. Ultimately, throughout history warfare has been waged over the shape of society itself. A crisis in meaning leads people to fight for what they fear may be lost. For a world weary of war, Pearse points beyond both cultural and secular metanarratives to an alternative hope.

Many of the critical political issues of our time--from the 1992-1995 Balkan Wars to the continuing crisis in the Middle East to the role of Muslim immigrants in Western Europe--revolve around issues of religion and tolerance. The predominant approach to these concerns is to espouse the doctrines of liberal humanistic virtue. These doctrines, however, fail to resonate in communities that maintain more traditional religious definitions of self and society. Modest Claims, which features essays by Seligman and dialogues between scholars representing the three monotheistic faiths, provides the beginnings of a very different set of arguments on tolerance and tradition. In so doing it seeks to uncover the sources of toleration and pluralism that exist within the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Most contemporary approaches leave these sources largely unexplored and often marginalize them in current public debates and social agendas. Seligman and his dialogue partners seek to engage traditional understandings to uncover internal components that make dialogue between different religions and cultures possible. Espousing the idea of translation as a metaphor for the tolerant act, Modest Claims takes difference seriously as an aspect of existence that can be neither trivialized nor ignored. It explores and develops specifically religious arguments for tolerance and acceptance of others, as well as new strategies for understanding difference that are not rooted in individualist worldviews. This important and timely book breathes new life into the search for peace and toleration in an increasingly fractured world.

The scope of this collection of original essays covers the years 1050 to 1215, but it really begins in the summer of 1096, when marauding crusaders attacked Jewish communities in three Rhineland cities. These violent episodes disrupted what had been a fairly peaceful history of coexistence between Jews and Christians for more than two centuries. Although the two groups inhabited fundamentally different religious universes, Jews and Christians lived in the same towns, on the same streets, and pursued their lives with minimal mutual interference and often with considerable cooperation. The events of 1096 destroyed that status quo. Relations between the two communities deteriorated, and the Jewish communities suffered as a result.

The contributors' careful analyses of people, events, and texts provide a balanced perspective on the fate of twelfth-century Jewish communities. They reveal that there is considerable evidence that old routines and interactions between Christians and Jews persisted throughout this period. From the perspective of the editors and contributors, this sense of complementarity, of interaction or action and reaction, needs to better inform the medieval story. The essays in this volume therefore intentionally highlight areas of common or parallel activity: in vernacular literature, in biblical exegesis, in piety and mysticism, in the social context of conversion, in relations with prelates and monarchs, in coping in a time of change, renewal, and upheaval. Most importantly, the editors and contributors insist on integrating both Jewish and Christian perspectives into the larger history of a very complex and increasingly urban twelfth-century Europe.

Radicalization has become a serious global problem. Groups and nations are increasingly embroiled in escalating conflicts with one another that are defined by pathological hatred and ideological polarization, with devastating consequences including terrorism and war. Social psychologist Fathali M. Moghaddam calls this process mutual radicalization. In this groundbreaking book, he explores its causes and potential solutions. Drawing from well-established psychological principles, Moghaddam presents a dynamic, cyclical three-stage model of mutual radicalization that explains how groups gather under extremist ideologies, establish rigid norms under authoritarian leadership, and develop antagonistic worldviews that exaggerate the threats posed by each other. This process leads to intensifying aggressive actions that can even reach the point of mutual destruction. Moghaddam applies his model to ten real-world case studies of mutual radicalization that focus on three main areas: the conflict between Islamist radicals and extreme nationalists in the West; nations that are mired in longstanding hostilities, including North Korea and South Korea; and the increasingly toxic atmosphere in American politics. Moghaddam also offers practical solutions for achieving deradicalization and highlights historical successes, such as German reunification.

Foreigners and Their Food explores how Jews, Christians, and Muslims conceptualize us" and them" through rules about the preparation of food by adherents of other religions and the act of eating with such outsiders. David M. Freidenreich analyzes the significance of food to religious formation, elucidating the ways ancient and medieval scholars use food restrictions to think about the other." Freidenreich illuminates the subtly different ways Jews, Christians, and Muslims perceive themselves, and he demonstrates how these distinctive self-conceptions shape ideas about religious foreigners and communal boundaries. This work, the first to analyze change over time across the legal literatures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, makes pathbreaking contributions to the history of interreligious intolerance and to the comparative study of religion.

The Shi'i clergy are amongst the most influential political players in the Middle East. For decades, scholars and observers have tried to understand the balance of power between, Shi'i 'quietism' and 'activism'. The book is based on exclusive interviews with high-profile Shi'i clerics in order to reveal how the Shi'i clerical elite perceives its role and engages in politics today. The book focuses on three ground-breaking events in the modern Middle East: the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the 2003 Iraq War, and the 2006 July war in Lebanon. By examining the nature and evolution of a Shi'i clerical network the book finds that, far from there being strategic differences between 'quitest' and 'activist' clerics, Shi'i mujtahid statesmen matured, from 1979 in Iran to 2003 Iraq, by way of a pragmatism which led to a strong form of transnational and associated whole in Lebanon in 2006. In doing so, the book breaks down the established, and misleading, dichotomisation of the Shi'i clergy into 'quietists' and 'activists' and discovers that the decision of Shi'i clerical elites to become politically active or to stay out of politics are attributable to their ability to adapt to their political environments.

Azmi Bishara's book on the Syrian Revolution is one of the most comprehensive and profound works on the subject published to date. Translated here into English for the first time, the study examines the complex roots of Syria's political and sectarian conflicts from the day revolution erupted on 15th March 2011 to its descent into civil war in the two years that followed. The book unearths and discusses the very first signs of protests from across Daraa, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus, Raqqa, Deir El Zour, Edlib and Homs, and it deals with Syria's ruralization process and the subsequent economic 'liberalization', which eventually led to the revolt against the Baath party. The work is based on high-level interviews, analysis of the country's socio-economic background, and examination of the Syrian regime's strategy and its political and media discourse. Syria's revolution is chronicled in two stages: the peaceful civil stage and the armed stage. Bishara's analysis first centres on the regime's strategy, unveiling despotism, massacres, kidnapping, sectarian tendencies, jihadist violence, the emergence of warlords, and the chaotic spread of arms. He then turns to the role of the opposition to narrate in detail the events that broke out and exactly how a peaceful protest turned into an armed struggle. The book provides a roadmap to how revolution broke out and is a comprehensive analysis of what drove those early events. Its publication brings renowned Arabic-language scholarship to the English-speaking world.

This book describes Rondine Cittadella della Pace and its unique residential peacebuilding program that works with young activists from some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones. Set in its own Tuscan village, Rondine invites students to its two-year long residential program that provides them with a master's degree, trauma healing, and training in peacebuilding. While at Rondine, students work in pairs representing "both sides" of a conflict and prepare projects that they will put into place when they return home. Half of the book is devoted to an in-depth description of the Rondine method by its founder, Franco Vaccari, while the remainder consists of essays by Italian and American experts, including the two editors, providing the religious, psychological, and political context for this innovative psycho-social method of conflict resolution.

Facing persecution in early modern England, some Catholics chose exile over conformity. Some even cast their lot with foreign monarchs rather than wait for their own rulers to have a change of heart. This book studies the relationship forged by English exiles and Philip II of Spain. It shows how these expatriates, known as the "Spanish Elizabethans," used the most powerful tools at their disposal-paper, pens, and presses-to incite war against England during the "messianic" phase of Philip's reign, from the years leading up to the Grand Armada until the king's death in 1598. Freddy Cristobal Dominguez looks at English Catholic propaganda within its international and transnational contexts. He examines a range of long-neglected polemical texts, demonstrating their prominence during an important moment of early modern politico-religious strife and exploring the transnational dynamic of early modern polemics and the flexible rhetorical approaches required by exile. He concludes that while these exiles may have lived on the margins, their books were central to early modern Spanish politics and are key to understanding the broader narrative of the Counter-Reformation. Deeply researched and highly original, Radicals in Exile makes an important contribution to the study of religious exile in early modern Europe. It will be welcomed by historians of early modern Iberian and English politics and religion as well as scholars of book history.

This book is an exploration of the perceptions of the American and British governments about Islam and Muslims based upon their experiences over the past two centuries. It provides a response to the accusation that US and British governments are inherently anti-Islamic and are seeking the destruction of that faith through their policy decisions. The book uses primary documents from the US and British governments to examine the attitudes of politicians and officials in a variety contexts ranging from the 'War on Terror', the Iranian Revolution and the 'Trojan Horse' Scandal to the conversion of Alexander Russell Webb to Islam, Islamic Finance and Mosque-building. In so doing it provides a wide-angle lens on the diversity of issues and experiences which have shaped the views of officials and politicians about Islam.

Given the extremely high cost of overseas military operations today, the author offers readers scholarly insights as to what motivates kingdoms, countries, and groups to engage in religious conflict, beginning with those found in the Hebrew Bible. To do this, he analyzes three related religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to determine their similarities and differences regarding the killing of people. The areas of conflict analysis include Fundamentalism, Proselytization, Sacrifice (to include martyrdom), and Revenge (to include genocide). The insights of preeminent religious and political scholars are integrated into this comprehensive analysis of conflict involving religion, leading to an answer to the ultimate question: Is the killing worth it?

Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings: Was Blind but Now I See is a collection focusing on the Charleston shootings written by leading scholars in the field who consider the rhetoric surrounding the shootings. This book offers an appraisal of the discourses - speeches, editorials, social media posts, visual images, prayers, songs, silence, demonstrations, and protests - that constituted, contested, and reconstituted the shootings in American civic life and cultural memory. It answers recent calls for local and regional studies and opens new fields of inquiry in the rhetoric, sociology, and history of mass killings, gun violence, and race relations-and it does so while forging new connections between and among on-going scholarly conversations about rhetoric, race, and religion. Contributors argue that Charleston was different from other mass shootings in America, and that this difference was made manifest through what was spoken and unspoken in its rhetorical aftermath. Scholars of race, religion, rhetoric, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a powerful introduction to the scope of Islamophobia in the United States. Drawing on examples such as the legacy of Barack Obama, the mainstream media's portrayal of Muslims, and the justifications given for some of America's most recent military endeavors, author Nazia Kazi highlights the vast impact of Islamophobia, connecting this to a long history of US racism. Kazi shows how American Islamophobia and racism are at once domestic-occurring within the borders of the United States-and global-a matter of foreign policy and global politics. Using Islamophobia as a unique case study, Kazi asks the reader to consider how war and empire-building relate to racism. The book sheds light on the diverse experiences of American Muslims, especially the varying ways they have experienced Islamophobia, and confronts some of the misguided attempts to tackle this Islamophobia.

Islamophobia, Race, and Global Politics is a powerful introduction to the scope of Islamophobia in the United States. Drawing on examples such as the legacy of Barack Obama, the mainstream media's portrayal of Muslims, and the justifications given for some of America's most recent military endeavors, author Nazia Kazi highlights the vast impact of Islamophobia, connecting this to a long history of US racism. Kazi shows how American Islamophobia and racism are at once domestic-occurring within the borders of the United States-and global-a matter of foreign policy and global politics. Using Islamophobia as a unique case study, Kazi asks the reader to consider how war and empire-building relate to racism. The book sheds light on the diverse experiences of American Muslims, especially the varying ways they have experienced Islamophobia, and confronts some of the misguided attempts to tackle this Islamophobia.