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“Sacred Selves, Sacred Settings: Reflecting Hans Mol” (Davies & Powell, eds.)

In February, Ashgate will release “Sacred Selves, Sacred Settings: Reflecting Hans Mol” edited by Douglas J. Davies (Durham University, UK) and Adam J. Powell (Lenoir-Rhyne University, USA). The publisher’s description follows:

Significantly influencing the sociological study of religion, Hans Mol developed ideas of identity which remain thought-provoking for analyses of how religion operates within contemporary societies. Sacred Selves, Sacred Settings brings current social-religious topics into sharp focus: international scholars analyse, challenge, and apply Mol’s theoretical assertions. This book introduces the unique story of Hans Mol, who survived Nazi imprisonment and proceeded to brush shoulders with formidable intellectuals of the twentieth century, such as Robert Merton, Talcott Parsons, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Offering a fresh perspective on popular subjects such as secularization, pluralism, and the place of religion in the public sphere, this book sets case studies within an intellectual biography which describes Mol’s key influences and reveals the continuing import of Hans Mol’s work applied to recent data and within a contemporary context.

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Around the Web This Week

Some interesting law and religion news stories from around the web this week:

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Li, “Popular Religion in Modern China: The New Role of Nuo”

In February, Ashgate Publishing will release “Popular Religion in Modern China: The New Role of Nuo” by Lan Li (University College Dublin). The publisher’s description follows:

Since the early 1980s, China’s rapid economic growth and social transformation have greatly altered the role of popular religion in the country. This book makes a new contribution to the research on the phenomenon by examining the role which popular religion has played in modern Chinese politics. Popular Religion in Modern China uses Nuo as an example of how a popular religion has been directly incorporated into the Chinese Community Party’s (CCP) policies and how the religion functions as a tool to maintain socio-political stability, safeguard national unification and raise the country’s cultural ‘soft power’ in the eyes of the world. It provides rich new material on the interplay between contemporary Chinese politics, popular religion and economic development in a rapidly changing society.

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Ellethy, “Islam, Context, Pluralism and Democracy: Classical and Modern Interpretations”

In December, Routledge Press released “Islam, Context, Pluralism and Democracy: Classical and Modern Interpretations” by Yaser Ellethy (VU University, Amsterdam). The publisher’s description follows:

Islam, Context, Pluralism and Democracy aspires to clarify the tensions and congruences between the revelational and the rational, the text and the context, the limits and the horizons of contextualization in Islam, as these emanate from the Islamic interpretative tradition.

This book examines classical and modern Muslim interpretations with regard to the concepts of diachronic development, pluralism and democracy based on Arabic-Islamic sources and literature. Focusing on the parameters of semantic changes, methods of interpretation and cultural variables, it shows how this interpretative tradition offers a diversity of ideas and approaches that can be utilized in contemporary debates concerning the socio-political contextualization of Islamic genuine thought. However, within this diversity, Islam presents generic principles and core values as ‘moral paradigms’ that can deal with such modern challenges. Based on the analysis of core Islamic texts and key-terms related to the discussed issues, mainly from the Quran and the Sunnah, and the broader Arabic-Islamic literature, it explores the boundaries of the mutable and constant in the Islamic worldview.

Presenting classical Muslim interpretations and scholars as possible interlocutors in debates over the compatibility of Islam with challenges of modernity, this book is essential reading for researchers and postgraduates interested in Islamic Studies, Philosophy of Religion and Political Science.