Authors: Hoang, Chung Van

• Is the first work in English to comprehensively cover new and indigenous religious groups in post-Renovation Vietnam
• Takes an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to study three distinct new religious groups
• Gives a voice to religious minorities that are often the victim of stereotyping, misunderstanding, and punitive treatment
• Brings together discussions of changing State-religion relations in Vietnam and in East and Southeast Asia in light of the thesis of multiple-modernities

This book approaches newly emerging religious groups through the interplay between religious and non-religious spheres in the specific context of Vietnam. It considers the new religious groups as a part of religious reconfiguration in Vietnam caused by intensified interactions among these spheres. It explores changes of relationship between religions, and changes between the religious sphere and the political, economic and public spheres in contemporary Vietnam. Specifically, it traces trajectories of religious development in relation to politico-economic changes in this rapidly modernising nation. It tests a hypothesis that at least some new yet unrecognized new religious groups have a positive/ active role in modernisation rather than a negative/reactive role.

To this end, the book draws on a number of research approaches and methodologies in an effort to provide readers with a multi-faceted understanding of Vietnam’s new religious groups. The research is interdisciplinary in orientation, drawing on sociology and anthropology. It is also comparative in that it bases its argument on a consideration of three distinct new religious groups in Vietnam. The research is also qualitative and ethnographic in that it drew on some of the techniques associated with participant observation during a sustained period of fieldwork amongst the three religious groups.

The concept of religious reconfiguration developed in this book provides a framework for the study of religion in Vietnam which opens the way to further analysis from a comparative perspective. Meanwhile, an emphasis upon religious reinvention which addresses processes of remaking, transforming, legitimating and accommodating can be useful for research into New Religious Movements elsewhere in Asia. A research in the challenges of new religions could act as a catalyst for interdisciplinary studies based on detailed empirical study of religious diversity and of religious freedom by other scholars. It is hoped that this research might help to give a voice to religious minorities that are often the victim of stereotyping, misunderstanding, and punitive treatment.

The book is suitable for post-graduate students and social researchers who are interested in religious revival, religious diversification, State-religion relationships, and State’s regulation of new religions. 

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

Editors: Cotter, Christopher R., Quadrio, Philip Andrew, Tuckett, Jonathan (Eds.)

• Considers the place and impact of the New Atheism in contemporary social and intellectual life
• Tackles a contemporary, contentious phenomenon by examining the significance of the debate from a variety of perspectives, presenting the best-rounded scholarly account of the New Atheism to date
• Collects the work of international, highly renowned scholars from different disciplines and features interdisciplinary and innovative approaches

Whether understood in a narrow sense as the popular works of a small number of (white male) authors, or as a larger more diffuse movement, twenty-first century scholars, journalists, and activists from all ‘sides’ in the atheism versus theism debate, have noted the emergence of a particular form of atheism frequently dubbed ‘New Atheism’. The present collection has been brought together to provide a scholarly yet accessible consideration of the place and impact of ‘New Atheism’ in the contemporary world.

Combining traditional and innovative approaches, chapters draw on the insights of philosophers, religious studies scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, and literary critics to provide never-before-seen insights into the relationship between ‘New Atheism’, science, gender, sexuality, space, philosophy, fiction and much more. With contributions from Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, the volume also presents diversity in regard to religious/irreligious commitment, with contributions from atheists, theists and more agnostic orientations.

New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates features an up-to-date overview of current research on ‘New Atheism’, a Foreword from Stephen Bullivant (co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Atheism), and eleven new chapters with extensive bibliographies that will be important to both a general audience and to those conducting research in this area. It provides a much-needed fresh look at a contentious phenomenon, and will hopefully encourage the cooperation and dialogue which has predominantly been lacking in relevant contemporary debates.

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

Giulia Liberatore (2017) Somali, Muslim, British: Striving in Securitized Britain. Bloomsbury/ LSE Monographs in Social Anthropology

A paperback version will be available in 2018.

Preview chapters are available here:

http://Bloomsburycp3.codemantra.com/Widget_Marketing.aspx?ID=1234567&ISBN=9781350027718&sts=r

About the book:

Somalis are one of the most chastised Muslim communities in Europe. Depicted in the news as victims of female genital mutilation, perpetrators of gang violence, or more recently, as radical Islamists, Somalis have been cast as a threat to social cohesion, national identity, and security in Britain and beyond.  Somali, Muslim, British shifts attention away from these public representations to provide a detailed ethnographic study of Somali Muslim women’s engagements with religion, political discourses, and public culture in the United Kingdom. The book chronicles the aspirations of different generations of Somali women as they respond to publicly charged questions of what it means to be Muslim, Somali, and British. By challenging and reconfiguring the dominant political frameworks in which they are immersed, these women imagine new ways of being in securitized Britain. Giulia Liberatore provides a nuanced account of Islamic piety, arguing that it needs to be understood as one among many forms of striving that individuals pursue throughout their lives. Bringing new perspectives to debates about Islam and multiculturalism in Europe, this book makes an important contribution to the anthropology of religion, subjectivity, and gender

by Martín Jaime (Editor)

http://urpilibros.com/diversidad-sexual-y-sistemas-religiosos-dialogos-trasnacionales-en-el-mundo-contemporaneosexual-diversity-and-religious-systems-transnational-dialo-p-1086.html?zenid=9bcc60fc5607f10142845bb4bf25397e

Programa de Estudios de Género, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Flor Tristán Centro de la Mujer Peruana

ISBN: 978-612-4033-24-7

Sexual Diversity and Religious Systems analyzes the relations between numerous expressions of sexual diversity and, some religious systems today. In contemporary societies, the relation between sexual diversity and the religious phenomenon has proven to be impressively rich.

On one hand, we witness the continuous rejection of sexual diversity within many religions through different strategies appealing to concepts like tradition, moral and nature. On the other, many groups has addressed the question and challenge within the LGBTI movement and within its own religious communities of thinking on the production of spirituality from the position of the sexual subject itself. In this scenario, we see how the work of representing spirituality within said communities is a way to go beyond the sexual subject and subvert spiritual expropriation. Currently, we can find several ways; we see the construction of religious communities based on sexual orientation and, in some cases, on gender identity and, at the same time, some religions with a brutal rejection on the same topic. Both ways live and meet at the same time.

This book, written in English and Spanish, consists of ten papers studying this phenomenon within Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Based on different methods and sources, they insist on understanding how religions influence and embody homoerotic and transgender practices and how the latter embrace and transform them. It takes us through the realities of many countries such as Chile, Argentina, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Iran.

Thus, in the face of this scenario, is crucial to take a comparative and systematic look on the relations between religious systems and LGTBI corposubjectivities in the contemporary world. In that way, this compilation seeks to present different perspectives of analysis on said relation from a comparative perspective within specific local and regional frames. These articles show us numerous analysis on the spirituality of people with homoerotic and transgender practices and desires, emphasizing on the study of historical, social and cultural dynamics where religious traditions play a relevant role on the encouragement or rejection of the rights of LGBTI people in contemporary societies. Also, this book aims at reflecting on spiritual productions (practices, rituals, perceptions, among others) carried out by LGBTI people within religious traditions.

by Martín Jaime (Editor)

http://urpilibros.com/diversidad-sexual-y-sistemas-religiosos-dialogos-trasnacionales-en-el-mundo-contemporaneosexual-diversity-and-religious-systems-transnational-dialo-p-1086.html?zenid=9bcc60fc5607f10142845bb4bf25397e

Programa de Estudios de Género, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Flor Tristán Centro de la Mujer Peruana

ISBN: 978-612-4033-24-7

Sexual Diversity and Religious Systems analyzes the relations between numerous expressions of sexual diversity and, some religious systems today. In contemporary societies, the relation between sexual diversity and the religious phenomenon has proven to be impressively rich.

On one hand, we witness the continuous rejection of sexual diversity within many religions through different strategies appealing to concepts like tradition, moral and nature. On the other, many groups has addressed the question and challenge within the LGBTI movement and within its own religious communities of thinking on the production of spirituality from the position of the sexual subject itself. In this scenario, we see how the work of representing spirituality within said communities is a way to go beyond the sexual subject and subvert spiritual expropriation. Currently, we can find several ways; we see the construction of religious communities based on sexual orientation and, in some cases, on gender identity and, at the same time, some religions with a brutal rejection on the same topic. Both ways live and meet at the same time.

This book, written in English and Spanish, consists of ten papers studying this phenomenon within Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Based on different methods and sources, they insist on understanding how religions influence and embody homoerotic and transgender practices and how the latter embrace and transform them. It takes us through the realities of many countries such as Chile, Argentina, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Iran.

Thus, in the face of this scenario, is crucial to take a comparative and systematic look on the relations between religious systems and LGTBI corposubjectivities in the contemporary world. In that way, this compilation seeks to present different perspectives of analysis on said relation from a comparative perspective within specific local and regional frames. These articles show us numerous analysis on the spirituality of people with homoerotic and transgender practices and desires, emphasizing on the study of historical, social and cultural dynamics where religious traditions play a relevant role on the encouragement or rejection of the rights of LGBTI people in contemporary societies. Also, this book aims at reflecting on spiritual productions (practices, rituals, perceptions, among others) carried out by LGBTI people within religious traditions.

We are excited to announce that two books from our Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative were published this summer:

• If I Give My Soul: Faith Behind Bars in Rio de Janeiro
  Andrew Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2017)
• The Rise of Pentecostalism in Modern El Salvador: From the Blood of the Martyrs to the Baptism of the Spirit
  Timothy H. Wadkins (Baylor University Press, 2017)
• They join a third PCRI book published in 2017, which has been grabbing headlines
  The Rise of Network Christianity: How Independent Leaders Are Changing the Religious Landscape
  Brad Christerson and Richard Flory (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Congrats to all the authors!

We are excited to announce that two books from our Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative were published this summer:

• If I Give My Soul: Faith Behind Bars in Rio de Janeiro
  Andrew Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2017)
• The Rise of Pentecostalism in Modern El Salvador: From the Blood of the Martyrs to the Baptism of the Spirit
  Timothy H. Wadkins (Baylor University Press, 2017)
• They join a third PCRI book published in 2017, which has been grabbing headlines
  The Rise of Network Christianity: How Independent Leaders Are Changing the Religious Landscape
  Brad Christerson and Richard Flory (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Congrats to all the authors!

(Policy Press, September 2017)

Edited by Lina Molokotos-Liederman with Anders Bäckström and Grace Davie

Using welfare as a prism, Religion and welfare in Europe explores regional conceptions and variations in welfare and religion across Europe.

Methodological approaches to research and practice draw thematic comparisons on these issues using case studies focused on gendered and minority perspectives as they relate to the varied provision of social welfare in selected European countries.

Contributors offer comparative insights on majority-minority relations concerning practices, patterns and mechanisms of social welfare provision, explaining how these lead to conflict, cohesion or – as is so often the case – the grey area in between.

https://policypress.co.uk/religion-and-welfare-in-europe

by Lori G. Beaman

Oxford University Press

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/deep-equality-in-an-era-of-religious-diversity-9780198803485?cc=ca&lang=en&#

While religious conflict receives plenty of attention, the everyday negotiation of religious diversity does not. Questions of how to accommodate religious minorities and of the limits of tolerance resonate in a variety of contexts and have become central preoccupations for many Western democracies. What might we see if we turned our attention to the positive narratives and success stories of the everyday working out of religious difference? Rather than “tolerance” and “accommodation,” and through the stories of ordinary people, this book traces deep equality, which is found in the respect, humor, and friendship of seemingly mundane interactions. Deep Equality in an Era of Religious Diversity shows that the telling of such stories can create an alternative narrative to that of diversity as a problem to be solved. It explores the non-event, or micro-processes of interaction that constitute the foundation for deep equality and the conditions under which deep equality emerges, exists, and sometimes flourishes.
Through a systematic search for and examination of such narratives, Lori G. Beaman demonstrates the possibility of uncovering, revealing, and recovering deep equality–a recovery that is vital to living in an increasingly diverse society. In achieving deep equality, identities are fluid, shifting in importance and structure as social interaction unfolds. Rigid identity imaginings, especially religious identities, block our vision to the complexities of social life and press us into corners that trap us in identities that we often ourselves do not recognize, want, or know how to escape. Although the focus of this study is deep equality and its existence and persistence in relation to religious difference, deep equality is located beyond the realm of religion. Beaman draws from the work of those whose primary focus is not in fact religion, and who are doing their own ‘deep equality’ work in other domains, illustrating especially why equality matters. By retelling and exploring stories of negotiation it is possible to reshape our social imaginary to better facilitate what works, which varies from place to place and time to time.

Edited by David Garbin & Anna Strhan

Bloomsbury 

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/religion-and-the-global-city-9781474272438/

This is the first book to explore how religious movements and actors shape and are shaped by aspects of global city dynamics. Theoretically grounded and empirically informed, Religion and the Global City advances discussions in the field of urban religion, and establishes future research directions. The book brings together a wealth of ethnographically rich and vivid case studies in a diversity of urban settings, in both Global North and Global South contexts. These case studies are drawn from both ‘classical’ global cities such as London and Paris, and also from large cosmopolitan metropolises  such as Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Singapore and Hong Kong – which all constitute, in their own terms, powerful sites within the informational, cultural and moral networked economies of contemporary globalization.

“By taking on what makes a city truly religiously ‘global’ and what makes a global religion truly urban outside the west, on a variety of scales and in a variety of places, Garbin and Strhan’s edited volume successfully reframes our understanding of the urban religion-globalization nexus.” 

Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College, USA and author of God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape (2007) 

“This volume opens up the world of urban religions, showing how they connect globalization and urbanization through everyday acts of place-making, co-operation and conviviality. Impressive in its geographical purview and inter-disciplinary ambition, this is an important collection and one that deserves to be read by all those interested in the state of our cities.” 

Phil Hubbard, Professor of Urban Studies, King’s College London, UK