In Interpreting the Qur'an with the Bible, R. Michael McCoy III brings together two lesser known yet accomplished commentators on the Qur'an and the Bible: the mu'tabir Abu al-Hakam 'Abd al-Salam b. al-Isbili (d. 536/1141), referred to as Ibn BarraGan, and qari' al-qurra' Ibrahim b. 'Umar b. Hasan al-Biqa'i (d. 885/1480). In this comparative study, comprised of manuscript analysis and theological exegesis, a robust hermeneutic emerges that shows how Ibn BarraGan's method of nazm al-qur'an and al-Biqa'i's theory of 'ilm munasabat al-qur'an motivates their reading and interpretation of the Arabic Bible. The similarities in their quranic hermeneutics and approach to the biblical text are astounding as each author crossed established boundaries and pushed the acceptable limits of handling the Bible in their day.

This book examines the relationship between the state state implementation of Shari'a and diverse lived realities of everyday Islam in contemporary Aceh, Indonesia. With chapters covering topics ranging from NGOs and diaspora politics to female ulama and punk rockers, the volume opens new perspectives on the complexity of Muslim discourse and practice in a society that has experienced tremendous changes since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. These detailed accounts of and critical reflections on how different groups in Acehnese society negotiate their experiences and understandings of Islam highlight the complexity of the ways in which the state is both a formative and a limited force with regard to religious and social transformation. Contributors are: Dina Afrianty, R. Michael Feener, Kristina Gro mann, Reza Idria, David Kloos, Antje Missbach, Benjamin Otto, Jan-Michiel Otto, Annemarie Samuels and Eka Srimulyani.

The most important national election in U.S. history is underway. Marianne Williamson stepped-up to show she is confident to be president of the United States in 2020. She had to step down. Many people are supportive of her provocative healing vision for America, and that fan and voter-base is growing. She may run again in 2024. However, many are puzzled by her and many are critics on the Left and Right and in between. The book is a thorough case study of Williamson's speeches, writings, and interviews. It documents and analyzes the thoughts and feelings of her supporters and critics based on what they have written, performed, and published. It records history while it is being made. The author offers support and criticism of how Williamson's leadership and her team could have done things different so as to be more successful in the presidential campaign. The big idea throughout the book is to emphasize, as does Williamson's teaching, that spirituality and politics ought never be separated completely (as religion and the State), if we truly desire more than mere reforms of society, but desire a transformation to a truly better and more liberated world. The book highlights productive guideposts for Williamson and other leaders like Williamson in future campaigns. It offers Americans, and others, a view of "what happened" in 2019-20 that made Williamson an outstanding phenomenon. Students, scholars, journalists, politicians, and the general public interested in the improvement of politics will want to study this book.

Aceh has become best known in our times for its twin disasters-the worst earthquake and tsunami of modern times in December 2004, and a long-running separatist conflict that rent Indonesia for most of its independent history. Although this book emerged from the process of recovery from those traumas, it turns the spotlight on a more positive and neglected claim Aceh has on our attention, as the Southeast Asian maritime state that most successfully and creatively maintained its independent place in the world until 1874. Like Burma, Siam and Vietnam, all better protected by geography, Aceh has its own story to tell of a unique culture struggling for survival through the European colonial era.