Governing Islam Abroad: Turkish and Moroccan Muslims in Western Europe

Bruce Benjamin

2018, Palgrave Macmillan

About the book

From sending imams abroad to financing mosques and Islamic associations, home states play a key role in governing Islam in Western Europe.  Drawing on over one hundred interviews and years of fieldwork, this book employs a comparative perspective that analyzes the foreign religious activities of the two home states with the largest diaspora populations in Europe: Turkey and Morocco. The research shows how these states use religion to promote ties with their citizens and their descendants abroad while also seeking to maintain control over the forms of Islam that develop within the diaspora. The author identifies and explains the internal and foreign political interests that have motivated state actors on both sides of the Mediterranean, ultimately arguing that interstate cooperation in religious affairs has and will continue to have a structural influence on the evolution of Islam in Western Europe.

Reviews

“Governing Islam Abroad is an authoritative guide to the nuances of transnational religious cooperation. Bruce uses extensive fieldwork to offer a multi-dimensional view of sending states and receiving states. It is a thought-provoking contribution to the debate over what constitutes a country of origin.”

Jonathan Laurence, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, USA

“Winner of the Rémy Leveau prize, this study provides a remarkable comparison of the public management of Islam abroad between Turkey, Germany, Morocco and France. Bruce’s exceptional work explores the implications of this new kind of foreign policy and migratory diplomacy, opening up new paths for research in comparative politics and on theories of public governance beyond borders.”

Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, CNRS Senior Researcher Emeritus, CERI, Sciences Po, France

Link: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319786636

New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion: The Rationality of Religious Belief

Van Eyghen, Peels, van den Brink Ed. Vol. 2018 

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319902388

It is widely thought that the cognitive science of religion (CSR) may have a bearing on the epistemic status of religious beliefs and on other topics in philosophy of religion. Epistemologists have used theories from CSR to argue both for and against the rationality of religious beliefs, or they have claimed that CSR is neutral vis-à-vis the epistemic status of religious belief. However, since CSR is a rapidly evolving discipline, a great deal of earlier research on the topic has become dated. Furthermore, most of the debate on the epistemic consequences of CSR has not taken into account insights from the philosophy of science, such as explanatory pluralism and explanatory levels. This volume overcomes these deficiencies.

This volume brings together new philosophical reflection on CSR. It examines the influence of CSR theories on the epistemic status of religious beliefs; it discusses its impact on philosophy of religion; and it offers new insights for CSR. The book addresses the question of whether or not the plurality of theories in CSR makes epistemic conclusions about religious belief unwarranted. It also explores the impact of CSR on other topics in philosophy of religion like the cognitive consequences of sin and naturalism. Finally, the book investigates what the main theories in CSR aim to explain, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of CSR.

ISA-RC22 thanks Springer for supporting our Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars.

Jewish Population and Identity: Challenges and Trends 

DellaPergola, Sergio, Rebhun, Uzi (Eds.) Ed. Vol. 2018     

http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319774459

This book examines the fundamentals of Jewish demography and sociology around the world. It is not only concerned with documenting patterns of population change but also with an intriguing and ever-present issue like “Who is a Jew?” The latter transcends the limits of quantitative assessment and deeply delves into the nature, boundaries, and quality of group identification. A growing challenge is how to bridge between concept – related to ideals and theory – and reality – reflecting field research. Divided into six sections, the book discusses historical demography, immigration and settlement, population dynamics, social stratification and economy, family and Jewish identity in the U.S., and Jewish identity in Israel. The volume represents the dynamic and diverse nature of the study of world and local Jewish populations. It shows how that field of study provides an important contribution to the broader and now rapidly expanding study of religious and ethnic groups.

Scholars in disciplines such as history, geography, sociology, economics, political science, and especially demography follow and analyze the social and cultural patterns of Jews in different places around the globe, at various times, and from complementary perspectives. They make use of historical sources that have recently become accessible, utilize new censuses and surveys, and adopt advanced analytical methods. While some of their observations attest to consistency in the Jews’ demographic and identificational patterns, others evolve and ramify in new directions that reflect general processes in the areas and societies that Jews inhabit, internal changes within Jewish communities, and intergenerational trends in personal preferences of religious and ethnic orientations. This volume brings together contributions from scholars around the world and presents new and updated research and insights.

ISA-RC22 thanks Springer for supporting our Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars.

Jewish Medicine and Healthcare in Central Eastern Europe: Shared Identities, Entangled Histories           

Moskalewicz, Marcin, Caumanns, Ute, Dross, Fritz (Eds.)  Ed. Vol. 2018  

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319924793

Is ‘Jewish medicine’ a valid historical category? Does it represent a collective constituted by the interplay of medical, ethnic and religious cultures? Integrating academic disciplines from medical history to philology and Jewish studies, this book aims at answering this question historically by presenting  comprehensive coverage of Jewish medical traditions in Central Eastern Europe, mostly on what is today Poland and Germany (and the former Russian, Prussian and Austro-Hungarian Empires). In this significant zone of ethnic, religious and cultural interaction, Jewish, Polish, and German traditions and communities were more entangled, and identities were shared to an extent greater than anywhere else. Starting with early modern times and the Enlightenment, through the 19th century, up until the horrors of medicine in the ghettos and concentration camps, the book collects a variety of perspectives on the question of how Judaism and Jewish culture were dynamically related to medicine and healthcare. It discusses the Halachic traditions, hygiene-related stereotypes, the organization of healthcare within specified communities, academic careers, hybrid medical identities, and diversified medical practices.

ISA-RC22 thanks Springer for supporting our Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars.

Xenosophia and Religion. Biographical and Statistical Paths for a Culture of Welcome 

Hans Streib & Constantin Klein   Ed. Vol. 2018      

http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319745633

This book documents the current polarization in Germany regarding the issue of refugee immigration. It presents quantitative estimates for both xenophobia and xenophilia in the German population, including short-time changes. The book suggests a conceptual change of perspectives. It focuses not only on the pathogenic model that accounts for outcomes such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of (inter-religious) prejudice, but on a salutogenic model. In the book’s view, the salutogenic model entails xenosophia: the wisdom, creativity and inspiration that emerges from the encounter with the strange and the strange religion. The book addresses individual dispositions, which may lead to xenophobia or xenosophia, and takes into account predictors such as religiosity, religious schemata, value preferences, tolerance of complexity, and violence legitimizing norms of masculinity. A selection of case studies present typical biographical trajectories toward xenosophia.

ISA-RC22 thanks Springer for supporting our Varga Prize for New Generation Scholars.

Dear All,

Dear All,