The common goal of the contributors is to illuminate sexuality as a crucial site of conflict and dissent both within and between religious traditions. Thus, we have a collection of ten essays on themes emerging from the social scientific study of religion and sexuality in an array of cultural contexts. Together the essays examine four themes: 1) fecundism as an ideology of reproduction, 2) sexual identity and the life cycle, 3) binary sexual categories, and 4) relations of power and domination.

Spanning thousands of years, this new collection brings together writings and teachings about sex, marriage, and family from the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions. The volume includes traditional texts as well as contemporary materials showing how the religions have responded to the changing conditions and mores of modern life. It reveals the similarities and differences among the various religions and the development of ideas and teachings within each tradition. Selections shed light on each religion's views on a range of subjects, including sexuality and sexual pleasure, the meaning and purpose of marriage, the role of betrothal, the status of women, the place of romance, grounds for divorce, celibacy, and sexual deviance.

Separate chapters devoted to each religion include introductions by leading scholars that contextualize the readings. The selections are drawn from a variety of genres including ritual, legal, theological, poetic, and mythic texts. The volume contains such diverse examples as the Zohar on conjugal manners, a contemporary Episcopalian liturgy for same-sex unions, Qur'anic passages on the equality of the sexes, the Ka--masu--tra on husbands, wives, and lovers, Buddhist writings on celibacy, and Confucian teachings on filial piety.

Contributors include: Michael S. Berger, Emory University; Azizah Y. al-Hibri, Richmond School of Law; Alan Cole, Lewis and Clark College; Paul B. Courtright, Emory University; Patricia Buckley Ebrey, University of Washington; Raja M. El-Habti, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University; Mark D. Jordan, Emory University

Hospitality is something of a modern paradox. On the one hand, hospitality connotes a nicety or pleasantry easily undervalued as a ritual or formality devoid of epistemological or ethical content. On the other hand, the rise in international conflict and violence, the decline of civil speech, and the increased hostility toward immigrants points to the dire need for hospitable responses to mitigate tensions. Hospitality represents a further paradox for feminism. Historically, women have been saddled with disproportionate responsibility for hospitality and have also been treated as unwelcome guests in so many arenas. For these reasons, feminists have good reason to be wary of addressing hospitality. Yet, feminist theory has taken the lead on developing ontological, epistemological, and ethical approaches to connectedness and relationality such that addressing hospitality appears to be an appropriate extrapolation. Feminism and Hospitality is a collection that negotiates amidst these intriguing paradoxes. Feminism and Hospitality: Gender in the Host/Guest Relationship is the first collection of original works to bring a feminist analysis to issues and theories of personal, political, economic, and artistic hospitality. Furthermore, because feminist theorists have brought so much attention to the nature of human relationships, this volume employs a fresh analysis beyond the tradition in political theory.

Security is a key topic of our time. But how do we understand it? Do law and religion take different views of it? In this fifth volume in the Law and Religion in Africa series, radicalisation, terrorism, blasphemy, hate speech, religious freedom and just war theories rub shoulders with issues of witchcraft, female genital mutilation circumcision, child marriage, displaced communities and additional issues besides. This unique collection of topics is both challenging and inspiring, providing illumination in troubled times, and forming a sound foundation for future scholarship.

What is heritage in Africa? Who defines and authorises heritage? Is heritage limited to tangible forms of land, resources and monuments, or do intangible forms of heritage, such as cultural and religious heritage, count equally or even more? How is heritage managed, appropriated, expropriated and commodified by the government and state, by heritage experts and professionals, and by religious and ethnic groups in service of cultural and tourism industries and in the construction of national and other group identities? How is heritage shaped by Africa’s religious and ethnic pluralism, its colonial past and its postcolonial trajectories? Finally, how can heritage serve as a means toward social, cultural and political development? These are just some of the many issues and questions addressed in this volume by scholars in law, religion and related fields.

What is the proper relationship of religion to power? In this collection of essays, a group of interdisciplinary scholars address that question, building on the scholarship of the late Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain. The first section of this book provides the reader with three previously unpublished essays by Elshtain on the subject of political sovereignty, followed by an interview with the noted ethicist and political theorist. Dr. Elshtain questions the nature of sovereignty in a world where some have elevated the state and the self above the authority of God himself. In the second section of the book, "Sovereignty through the Ages", four scholars explore some of the key questions raised by Dr. Elshtain's work on Just War, resistance to tyranny, political liberalism, and modernity, questioning the ways in which sovereignty may be conceived to reinforce the limitations of human societies and yet seek the greater good. In the third section of the book, entitled "Sovereignty in Context", three essays extend her analysis of sovereignty to different contexts - Latin America, the Islamic world, and the international system as a whole, all the while demonstrating the importance of how religious interpretation contributes to our understanding of political power.

The relationship between religion and human rights is complex and problematic throughout the world. Most of the world's religions have been used for violence, repression, and prejudice. Yet each of these religions can play a crucial role in the modern struggle for universal human rights. Human rights depend upon the values of human communities to give them content, coherence, and concrete manifestation. Religions have constantly provided the sources and scales of dignity and responsibility, shame and respect, restraint and regret, and restitution and reconciliation that a human rights regime needs to survive and flourish. This volume provides authoritative examinations of the contributions to human rights of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and indigenous religions. Each chapter grapples with the concept and origins of "human rights, " and offers insight into the major human rights issues that confront religious individuals and communities. These include core issues of freedom of religious conscience, choice, exercise, expression, association, morality, and self-determination. They also include analysis of the roles of religious ideas and institutions in the cultivation and abridgement of rights of women, children, and minorities, and rights to peace, orderly development, and protection of nature and the environment. With contributions by a score of leading experts, Religion and Human Rights offers a wealth of knowledge and analysis for understanding the contributions to human rights and the challenges faced by the world's religions.