Posted on by Christina Vlahos

“North Africa Under Byzantium and Early Islam” (Stevens and Conant, eds.)

In March, the Harvard University Press will release “North Africa Under Byzantium and Early Islam,” edited by Susan T. Stevens (Randolph College) and Jonathan P. Conant (Brown University).  The publisher’s description follows:

The profound economic and strategic significance of the province of “Africa” made the Maghreb highly contested in the Byzantine period—by the Roman 9780884024088-lg(Byzantine) empire, Berber kingdoms, and eventually also Muslim Arabs—as each group sought to gain, control, and exploit the region to its own advantage. Scholars have typically taken the failure of the Byzantine endeavor in Africa as a foregone conclusion. North Africa under Byzantium and Early Islam reassesses this pessimistic vision both by examining those elements of Romano-African identity that provided continuity in a period of remarkable transition, and by seeking to understand the transformations in African society in the context of the larger post-Roman Mediterranean. Chapters in this book address topics including the legacy of Vandal rule in Africa, historiography and literature, art and architectural history, the archaeology of cities and their rural hinterlands, the economy, the family, theology, the cult of saints, Berbers, and the Islamic conquest, in an effort to consider the ways in which the imperial legacy was re-interpreted, re-imagined, and put to new uses in Byzantine and early Islamic Africa.

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

“The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity” (Dawson, ed.)

In April, Routledge will release “The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity: National Contexts, Global Issues,” edited by Andrew Dawson (Lancaster University).  The publisher’s description follows:

The Politics and Practice of Religious Diversity engages with one of the most characteristic features of modern society. An increasingly prominent 9781138791817and potentially contentious phenomenon, religious diversity is intimately associated with contemporary issues such as migration, human rights, social cohesion, socio-cultural pluralisation, political jurisdiction, globalisation, and reactionary belief systems.

This edited collection of specially-commissioned chapters provides an unrivalled geographical coverage and multidisciplinary treatment of the socio-political processes and institutional practices provoked by, and associated with, religious diversity. Alongside chapters treating religious diversity in the ‘BRIC’ countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, are contributions which discuss Australia, Finland, Mexico, South Africa, the UK, and the United States.

This book provides an accessible, distinctive and timely treatment of a topic which is inextricably linked with modern society’s progressively diverse and global trajectory. Written and structured as an accessible volume for the student reader, this book is of immediate interest to both academics and laypersons working in mainstream and political sociology, sociology of religion, human geography, politics, area studies, migration studies and religious studies.

Posted on by JCPW · 1 Comment

Dispatches from Kabul: Herat, A Photo Essay

As part of our Dispatches from Kabul series, CLR Alum Jessica Wright ’14, who’s currently working as a lawyer in Kabul,  files the following photo essay. It’s from Herat, one of Afghanistan’s westernmost cities, in close proximity to Iran and Turkmenistan. To see the slide show, please click on the first image.

Herat is a city with ancient roots, located in Afghanistan’s most western province along the Iranian border.
It was the capital of Areia in the Persian Empire, and has remained one of the region’s key urban centers since that time.
Culturally and politically, Herat has been tied into the Iranian world as one of the major cities of the historical region of Khorasan.
The Citadel, also known as Qala Iktayaruddin, dates back to the days of Alexander the Great.
It was saved from demolition in the 1950’s, excavated by UNESCO in the 1970’s, and with funding from the United States and Germany, was completely restored in 2011.
Built in 2010, the Jihad Museum in Herat tells the story of the Afghan mujahideen and the Soviet Invasion.
Statues, panoramas, military weapons, and memorials line the museum walls and grounds, some depicting battle scenes in grisly detail.
You can read more about the museum here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32778947
In Herat, some women wear the light blue chadri, but many also opt for the Iranian chador, a long billowing veil in black or somber-patterned fabric.
Herat was once one of the most important cities on the trade routes of Khorasan.
And the roads from the city to Iran and Turkmenistan remain strategically important.
Before the Arab invasion, Herat was predominantly Zoroastrian, though at points in its history there is evidence of some small Christian communities.
Construction on the Friday Mosque or Masjid-i Jami, one of the oldest and most ornate mosques in Afghanistan, began in the 13th century. It has been expanded and restored several times.
Most visitors enter the mosque through a park, which leads to a richly tiled facade.
The mosque is laid out in the classical plan of four iwans or halls around a central courtyard.
Two large minarets flank the main iwan.
The walls are covered with colourful mosaic, surrounded by blue bands of Quranic script.
It was the Timurids who restored the mosque and introduced the bright mosaic to replace the original plain brick and stucco decoration.
A restoration project has been underway since the 1940’s, and some consider the mosque, with its varied design, colour, and calligraphy, to be an example of “contemporary Islamic abstract expressionism.”
“If any one ask thee which is the pleasantest of cities, Thou mayest answer him aright that it is Herāt. For the world is like the sea, and the province of Khurāsān like a pearl-oyster therein, The city of Herāt being as the pearl in the middle of the oyster.” -Rumi
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Qurtuby, “Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia”

In March, Routledge will release “Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia: Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas” by Sumanto Al Qurtuby (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia). The publisher’s description follows:

Maluku in eastern Indonesia is the home to Muslims, Protestants, and Catholics who had for the most part been living peaceably since the sixteenth century. In 1999, brutal conflicts broke out between local Christians and Muslims, and escalated into large-scale communal violence once the Laskar Jihad, a Java-based armed jihadist Islamic paramilitary group, sent several thousand fighters to Maluku. As a result of this escalated violence, the previously stable Maluku became the site of devastating interreligious wars.

This book focuses on the interreligious violence and conciliation in this region. It examines factors underlying the interreligious violence as well as those shaping post-conflict peace and citizenship in Maluku. The author shows that religion—both Islam and Christianity—was indeed central and played an ambiguous role in the conflict settings of Maluku, whether in preserving and aggravating the Christian-Muslim conflict or supporting or improving peace and reconciliation.

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and interviews as well as historical and comparative research on religious identities, this book is of interest to Indonesia specialists, as well as academics with an interest in anthropology, religious conflict, peace and conflict studies.

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Nehushtan, “Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy”

In October, Hart Publishing released “Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy” by Yossi Nehushtan ( School of Law, Keele University). The publisher’s description follows:

This book aims to examine and critically analyse the role that religion has BookImage.ashxand should have in the public and legal sphere. The main purpose of the book is to explain why religion, on the whole, should not be tolerated in a tolerant-liberal democracy and to describe exactly how it should not be tolerated – mainly by addressing legal issues.

The main arguments of the book are, first, that as a general rule illiberal intolerance should not be tolerated; secondly, that there are meaningful, unique links between religion and intolerance, and between holding religious beliefs and holding intolerant views (and ultimately acting upon these views); and thirdly, that the religiosity of a legal claim is normally a reason, although not necessarily a prevailing one, not to accept that claim.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Call for Papers: Religious Perspectives on the Rule of Law at Bar-Ilan

A call for papers for a conference dealing with a interesting topic, via my friend Professor Michael Helfand.

Journal of Law, Religion & State

International Conference

Rule of Law – Religious Perspectives

Call for Papers

The encounter of religion with the rule of law may generate tension but also mutual inspiration. The rule of law implies law’s supremacy over other normative systems and personal commitments. It also implies that law applies to everyone equally. Religion represents a normative system that may in some areas be different from—and stand in opposition to—state law. Religion may deny the supremacy of state law and pose divine law as supreme instead. It may, alternatively, seek exemptions from state law in those matters where the two conflict.

In this conference we seek to study this tension and discuss the following questions:

  • Does religion (in general or a specific religion) accept the rule of state law?
  • What are the boundaries (if any) of such acceptance?
  • In what cases would religion challenge state law and in what cases would it seek exemptions?
  • Can a policy of multiculturalism and of legal pluralism, which give more room to religious freedom, be reconciled with the rule of law or does it undermine it?
  • What other policies should states follow in response to these tensions?

Religion may not only compete with state law but also inspire it, which leads us to investigate religion’s various understandings of the rule of law. Here is just one example. The concept of law in the context of the rule of law is ambiguous and open to different interpretations. Some (positivists) understand law as a set of rules fixed by social institutions, and others (natural law advocates) understand law as if it includes fundamental principles of justice and morality. Religions may take a position in that debate and contribute not only to the abstract understanding of law, but also to the identification of those moral principles that are part of law. We therefore also plan to explore the following:

  • What is the position of religion with regard to the concept of law and the rule of law?
  • Many religions developed partial or comprehensive legal systems of their own. Did religions also develop a concept of rule of law? What is its scope and meaning?
  • The concept of rule of law also may be used in theological context as a metaphor to understand the boundaries of divine actions and intervention in the world. Is God constrained by law—and by what kind of law: law of nature, morality?

These and similar questions will be discussed in an international conference that will be held at Bar-Ilan University School of Law, Ramat-Gan, Israel, on November 20-22, 2016.

Submissions are invited on the themes outlined above. An abstract of 500 (max.) words should be sent to jlrs@biu.ac.il no later than­­­­­­ April 15, 2016. Please indicate academic affiliation and attach a short CV. The conference committee will notify applicants of papers acceptance by the beginning of June, 2016. The participants will be required to submit a first (full) draft of their papers three weeks before the conference. The final papers will be published in the Journal of Law Religion and State subject to review.

The organizing committee:

Dr. Haim Shapira, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Prof. Michael Helfand, Faculty of Law, Pepperdine University, USA

Prof. Zvi Zohar, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

JLRS website:

http://www.brill.com/publications/journals/journal-law-religion-and-state

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

Dreisziger, “Church and Society in Hungary and in the Hungarian Diaspora”

In April, the University of Toronto Press will release “Church and Society in Hungary and in the Hungarian Diaspora,” by Nándor Dreisziger (Royal Military College of Canada).  The publisher’s description follows:

In Church and Society in Hungary and in the Hungarian Diaspora, Nándor Dreisziger tells the story of Christianity in Hungary and the Hungarian 9781442637405diaspora from its earliest years until the present. Beginning with the arrival of Christianity in the middle Danube basin, Dreisziger follows the fortunes of the Hungarians’ churches through the troubled times of the Middle Ages, the years of Ottoman and Habsburg domination, and the turmoil of the twentieth century: wars, revolutions, foreign occupations, and totalitarian rule.

Complementing this detailed history of religious life in Hungary, Dreisziger describes the fate of the churches of Hungarian minorities in countries that received territories from the old Kingdom of Hungary after the First World War. He also tells the story of the rise, halcyon days, and decline of organized religious life among Hungarian immigrants to Western Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere.

The definitive guide to the dramatic history of Hungary’s churches, Church and Society in Hungary and in the Hungarian Diaspora chronicles their proud past and speculates about their uncertain future.

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

Palmeri, “State of Nature, Stages of Society”

In March, the Columbia University Press will release “State of Nature, Stages of Society: Enlightenment Conjectural History and Modern Social Discourse,” by Frank Palmeri (University of Miami).  The publisher’s description follows:

Frank Palmeri sees the conjectural histories of Rousseau, Hume, Herder, and other Enlightenment philosophers as a template for the development of the 9780231175166social sciences in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Without documents or memorials, these thinkers, he argues, employed conjecture to formulate a naturalistic account of society’s commercial and secular progression.

Palmeri finds evidence of speculative frameworks in the political economy of Malthus, Martineau, Mill, and Marx. He traces the influence of speculative thought in the development of anthropology and ethnography in the 1860s, the foundational sociology of Comte and Spencer, and the sociology of religion pioneered by Weber, Durkheim, and Freud. Conjectural histories reveal a surprising ambivalence toward progress, modernity, and secularization among leading thinkers of the time, an attitude that affected texts as varied as Darwin’s Descent of Man, Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality, and the novels of Walter Scott, George Eliot, and H.G. Wells. Establishing the critical value of conjectural thinking in the study of modern forms of knowledge, Palmeri concludes his investigation with its return in the work of Foucault and in recent histories on early religion, political organization, and material life.

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Gribben, “John Owen and English Puritanism”

In March, Oxford University Press will release “John Owen and English Puritanism: Experiences of Defeat” by Crawford Gribben (Queen’s University Belfast). The publisher’s description follows:

John Owen was a leading theologian in seventeenth-century England. Closely associated with the regicide and revolution, he befriended Oliver Cromwell, was appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, and became the premier religious statesman of the Interregnum. The restoration of the monarchy pushed Owen into dissent, criminalizing his religious practice and inspiring his writings in defense of high Calvinism and religious toleration. Owen transcended his many experiences of defeat, and his claims to quietism were frequently undermined by rumors of his involvement in anti-government conspiracies.

Crawford Gribben’s biography documents Owen’s importance as a controversial and adaptable theologian deeply involved with his social, political and religious environments. Fiercely intellectual, and extraordinarily learned, Owen wrote millions of words in works of theology and exegesis. Far from personifying the Reformed tradition, however, Owen helped to undermine it, offering an individualist account of Christian faith that downplayed the significance of the church and means of grace. In doing so, Owen’s work contributed to the formation of the new religious movement known as evangelicalism, where his influence still can be seen today.

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Epstein, “The Dream of Zion”

Last month, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers released “The Dream of Zion: The Story of the First Zionist Congress” by Lawrence J. Epstein (Suffolk County Community College). The publisher’s description follows:

The Dream of Zion tells the story of the Jewish political effort to restore
their ancient nation. At the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in August 1897 Theodor Herzl convened a remarkable meeting that founded what became the World Zionist Organization, defined the political goals of the movement, adopted a national anthem, created the legal and financial instruments that would lead to statehood, and ushered the reentry of the Jewish people into political history. It was there in Basel that Herzl, the man some praised and some mocked as the new Moses, became the leader. The book provides an overview of the history that led to the Congress, an introduction to key figures in Israeli history, a discussion of the climate at the time for Jews—including the pogroms in Russia—and a discussion of themes that remain relevant today, such as the Christian reaction to the Zionist idea.

As political debates continue to swirl around Israel, this book opens a window into its founding.