http://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319717722#aboutBook

This book provides a sociological understanding of the phenomenon of exorcism and an analysis of the reasons for its contemporary re-emergence and impact on various communities. It argues that exorcism has become a religious commodity with the potential to strengthen a religion’s attraction to adherents, whilst also ensuring its hold. It shows that due to intense competition between religious groups in our multi-faith societies, religious groups are now competing for authority over the supernatural by ‘branding’ their particular type of exorcism ritual in order to validate the strength of their own belief system. Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity features a detailed case-study of a Catholic exorcist in the south of Europe who dealt with more than 1,000 cases during a decade of work.

Giuseppe Giordan is Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Padua, Italy.

Adam Possamai is Professor of Sociology and Director of Research at the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Australia.

Dear members,
My book titled Faith and Social Movements: Religious Reform in Contemporary India, published by Cambridge University Press, has come out this year.
http://assets.cambridge.org/97811071/66622/frontmatter/9781107166622_frontmatter.pdf
It might be of interest to some of you.
Best,
Anindita Chakrabarti
Associate Professor (Sociology)
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
IIT Kanpur
India

Egdūnas Račius
2018, Edinburg University Press

The history and contemporary situation of Muslim communities in Eastern Europe are explored here from three angles. First, survival, telling of the resilience of these Muslim communities in the face of often restrictive state policies and hostile social environments, especially during the Communist period. Next, their subsequent revival in the aftermath of the Cold War, and last, transformation, looking at the profound changes currently taking place in the demographic composition of the communities and in the forms of Islam practiced by them. The reader is shown a picture of the general trends common to the Muslim communities of Eastern Europe, and the special characteristics of clusters of states, such as the Baltics, the Balkans, the Višegrad states, and the European states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Egdūnas Račius

Associate Editor, Journal of Muslims in Europe

http://www.brill.com/publications/journals/journal-muslims-europe

Muslims in Eastern Europe, Edinburgh University Press, 2018
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-muslims-in-eastern-europe.html

The i-zation of Society, Religion, and Neoliberal Post-Secularism

Possamai, Adam

https://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9789811059414#aboutBook

This book explores the elective affinity of religion and post-secularism with neoliberalism. With the help of digital capitalism, neoliberalism dominates, more and more, all aspects of life, and religion is not left unaffected. While some faith groups are embracing this hegemony, and others are simply following the signs of the times, changes have been so significant that religion is no longer what it used to be. Linking theories from Fredric Jameson and George Ritzer, this book presents the argument that our present society is going through a process of i-zation in which (1) capitalism dominates not only our outer, social lives (through, for example, global capitalism) but also our inner, personal lives, through its expansion in the digital world, facilitated by various i-technology applications; (2) the McDonaldization process has now been normalized; and (3) religiosity has been standardized. Reviewing the new inequalities present in this i-society, the book considers their impact on Jurgen Habermas’s project of post-secularism, and appraises the roles that various religions may have in supporting and/or countering this process. It concludes by arguing that Habermas’s post-secular project will occur but that, paradoxically, the religious message(s) will be instrumentalized for capitalist purposes.

Book Announcement:

An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hindu Theology by Sadhu Paramtattvadas (Cambridge 2017) is a constructive presentation of Swaminarayan theology and an important text for Swaminarayan and Hindu studies. Swaminarayan (1781-1830) developed a theology, ethical discipline, and reform movement that continue to guide followers in India and abroad, notably in East Africa, UK, Europe, and North America. Swami Paramtattvadas’ Western education at Oxford (Professor Gavin Flood, doctoral advisor) and classical Hindu studies in India enable him to present this important Hindu theology with academic rigor, depth and clarity. His introduction is a valuable and accessible resource for comparative theology and interreligious dialogue.

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/religion/buddhism-and-eastern-religions/introduction-swaminarayan-hindu-theology?format=PB#332ISrRiM8CVviCG.97

Francis X. Clooney, SJ
Harvard University

Raymond Brady Williams
LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities emeritus
Wabash College

Allen Speight and Michael Zank (Eds.)

• Wide range of disciplinary perspectives in the humanities, political theory, history, law and religious studies
• One of the few volumes on political theology current with both a broad construal of the topic as a whole and specific discussions of key concepts such as conscience, secularism, and toleration
• Contemporary investigation of political theology in light of thinkers influenced by the three major monotheistic traditions

This new volume gives discursive shape to several key facets of the relationship among politics, theology and religious thought. Powerfully relevant to a wealth of further academic disciplines including history, law and the humanities, it sharpens the contours of our understanding in a live and evolving field. It charts the mechanisms by which, contrary to the avowed secularism of many of today’s polities, theology and religion have often, and sometimes profoundly, shaped political discourse. By augmenting this broader analysis with a selection of authoritative papers focusing on the prominent sub-field of political theology, the anthology offsets a startling academic lacuna. Alongside focused analysis of subjects such as conscience, secularism and religious tolerance, the discussion of political theology examines the tradition’s critical moments, including developments during the post-World War I Weimar republic in Germany and the epistemological imprint the theory has left behind in works by political thinkers influenced by the three major monotheistic traditions.

Springer Publications co-sponsors the RC-22 Ivan Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars

Author: Karin Kittelmann Flensner

• Analyses discourses of religion that predominate in non-confessional Religious Education in Sweden
• Discusses Religious Education based on empirical examples
• Illustrates how secularism is expressed and becomes hegemonic in the classroom practice of Religious Education and discusses implications of this in a pluralistic society

This book answers the question on how students and teachers talk about religion when the mandatory and nonconfessional school subject of Religious Education is on the schedule in the “world’s most secular country” To do this, it analyses discourses of religion as they occur in the classroom practice. It is based on findings from participant observation of Religious Education lessons in several upper secondary schools in Sweden. The book discusses different aspects of the role and function of nonconfessional integrative Religious Education in an increasingly pluralistic, multireligious, yet also secularized society, at a general level. It looks at the religious landscape, different perspectives on school subjects, various models and the development of Religious Education, and discourses of religion of a secularist, spiritual and nationalistic nature.

Religious Education is a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field that on the one hand concerns crucial knowledge in a pluralistic society, and on the other hand deals with highly contested questions in a society characterized by diversity and secularity. In the mandatory, integrative and non-confessional school subject of Religious Education in Sweden, all students are taught together regardless of religious or secular affiliation. The subject deals with major world religions, important non-religious worldviews and ethics, from a non-confessional perspective. Thus, in the classroom, individuals who identify with diverse religious and non-religious worldviews, with a different understanding of what religion could be and what it might mean to be religious, are brought together. The book examines questions raised in this pluralistic context: What discourses of religion become hegemonic in the classroom? How do these discourses affect the possibility of reaching the aim of Religious Education which concerns understanding and respect for different ways of thinking and living in a society characterized by diversity?

Springer Publications co-sponsors the RC-22 Ivan Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars