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America Media Hosts Panel Discussion on International Religious Freedom

America Media, publisher of America Magazine, will host a panel discussion on international religious freedom. The discussion will be held at 6pm on March 30th at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in New York City.

A group of experts will discuss the current hopes and challenges facing the world today in the exercise of religious freedom. Presenters include Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations; Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, Associate Professor of International Relations, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.; and Drew Christiansen, S.J., Distinguished Professor of of Ethics and Development at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. The discussion will be moderated by Matt Malone, S.J., president and editor in chief of America Media, and is made possible through a partnership with the Catholic Communications Campaign.

Find more details here. RSVP by calling 212-515-0153 or by emailing events@americamedia.org.

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

Ostovar, “Vanguard of the Imam”

Next month, the Oxford University Press will release “Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,” by Afshon Ostovar (Johns Hopkins University).  The publisher’s description follows:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are one of the most important forces in the Middle East today. As the appointed defender of Iran’s revolution, the Guards have evolved into a book coverpillar of the Islamic Republic and the spearhead of its influence. Their sway has spread across the Middle East, where the Guards have overseen loyalist support to Bashar al-Assad in Syria and been a staunch backer in Iraq’s war against ISIS-bringing its own troops, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Shiite militias to the fight. Links to terrorism, human rights abuses, and the suppression of popular democracy have shrouded the Revolutionary Guards in controversy.

In spite of their prominence, the Guards remain poorly understood to outside observers. In Vanguard of the Imam, Afshon Ostovar has written the first comprehensive history of the organization. Situating the rise of the Guards in the larger contexts of Shiite Islam, modern Iranian history, and international affairs, Ostovar takes a multifaceted approach in demystifying the organization and detailing its evolution since 1979. Politics, power, and religion collide in this story, wherein the Revolutionary Guards transform from a rag-tag militia established in the midst of revolutionary upheaval into a military and covert force with a global reach.

The Guards have been fundamental to the success of the Islamic revolution. The symbiotic relationship between them and Iran’s clerical rulers underpins the regime’s nearly unshakeable system of power. The Guards have used their privileged position at home to export Iran’s revolution beyond its borders, establishing client armies in their image and extending Iran’s strategic footprint in the process. Ostovar tenaciously documents the Guards’ transformation into a power-player and explores why the group matters now more than ever to regional and global affairs. The book simultaneously serves as a history of modern Iran, and provides a crucial and engrossing entryway into the complex world of war, politics, and identity in the Middle East.

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

“Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal in Australia and the Pacific” (Magowan & Schwarz, eds.)

Next month, Brill will release “Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal in Australia and the Pacific,” edited by Fiona Magowan (Queen’s University Belfast) and Carolyn Schwarz (Goucher College). The publisher’s description follows:

Cultural expressions of Christianity show great diversity around the globe. While scholarship has tended to consider charismatic practices in distinct geographicalcontexts, this volume advances the anthropology of Christianity through ethnographically rich, comparative insights from across the Australia-Pacific region. Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal in Australia and the Pacificpresents new perspectives on the performative dynamics of Christian belief, conflict, and renewal. Addressing experiences of cultural and spiritual renewal, contributors reveal how tensions can arise between spiritual and political expressions of culture and identity, opening up alternative spaces for spiritual realization and religious change. These local processes further mobilize responses of individuals and groups to state forces and political reforms, in turn, influencing the shape of translocal and transnational Christian practices.