Reactions to the Law by Minority Religions
Eileen Barker and James T. Richardson (eds)

Routledge, http://bit.ly/3jlhGEA

Much has been written about the law as it affects new and minority religions, but relatively little has been written about how such religions react to the law. This book presents a wide variety of responses by minority religions to the legal environments within which they find themselves.

An international panel of experts offer examples from North America, Europe and Asia, demonstrating how religions with relatively little status may resort to violence or passive acceptance of the law; how they may change their beliefs or practices in order to be in compliance with the law; or how they may resort to the law itself in order to change their legal standing, sometimes by forging alliances with those with more power or authority to achieve their goals. The volume concludes by applying theoretical insights from sociological studies of law, religion and social movements to the variety of responses.

The first systematic collection focussing on how minority religions respond to efforts at social control by various governmental agents, this book provides a vital reference for scholars of religion and the law, new religious movements, minority religions and the sociology of religion.

Table of Contents

1. Fight, Flight or Freeze? Reactions to the Law by Minority Religions — Eileen Barker
2. Stand Up For Your Rights: (Minority) Religions’ Reactions to the Law in Estonia — Ringo Ringvee
3. Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Law: “Caesar’s Things to Caesar, but God’s Things to God” — Tony Brace
4. Scientology Behind the Scenes: The Law Changer — Eric Roux
5. No Stranger to Litigation: Court Cases Involving the Unification Church/Family Federation in the United States —Michael L. Mickler
6. Legal Challenges Posed to the Unification Church in Europe: Perspectives from a Unificationist Advocate for Religious Freedom — Peter Zoehrer
7. The “Doukhobor Problem” in Canada: How a Russian Mystical Sect Responded to Law Enforcement in British Columbia, 1903–2013 — Susan Palmer and Shane Dussault
8. Making Sense of the Institutional Demarcation: Tenrikyō’s Response to Legal Environments in France — Masato Kato
9. Strategies in Context: The Essenes in France and Canada — Marie-Ève Melanson and Jennifer Guyver
10. Reactions to Legal Challenges by Aum Shinrikyō and its Successor Organisations —Rin Ushiyama
11. Religious Persecution and Refugees: Legal and Communication Strategies of the Church of Almighty God in Asylum Cases — Massimo Introvigne and Rosita Šorytė
12. Minority Religion Reactions to the European Court Of Human Rights — Effie Fokas
13. Minority Religions Respond to the Law: A Theoretical Excursus — James T. Richardson

FIGHTING IN GOD’S NAME:
RELIGION AND CONFLICT IN LOCAL-GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Edited by Afe Adogame, Olufunke Adeboye, and Corey L. Williams

  http://bit.ly/3iGdqz4  November 2020

Fighting in God’s Name provides a critical, inter-disciplinary exploration of the relationship between religion, conflict, violence, and tolerance from local-global perspectives. It highlights theoretical issues and approaches with contrasting case studies drawn from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South Asia.

https://Rowman.com/Lexington

Hardback: ISBN 978-1-4985-3993-7   
E-book:  ISBN 978-1-4985-3994-4    

Religion and Sexualities: Theories, Themes and Methodologies, by Sarah-Jane Page and Heather Shipley (Routledge 2020) https://www.routledge.com/Religion-and-Sexualities-Theories-Themes-and-Methodologies/Page-Shipley/p/book/9781138504288. This book offers an encompassing account of the sociology of sexuality and religion, considering theoretical and methodological lenses, queer experiences, and how sexuality is gendered in religious contexts.

Intersecting Religion and Sexuality: Sociological Perspectives, edited by Sarah-Jane Page and Andrew Kam-Tuk Yip (Brill 2020) https://brill.com/view/title/38647. This edited collection outlines what an intersectional analysis can offer research into religion and sexuality, over 12 chapters.

Embodying Religion, Gender and Sexuality, edited by Sarah-Jane Page and Katy Pilcher (Routledge 2020) https://www.routledge.com/Embodying-Religion-Gender-and-Sexuality/Page-Pilcher/p/book/9780367649555. Taking the notion of embodiment as its starting point, this volume maps the interconnecting relationships between religion, gender and sexuality.

How does Christianity continue to experience growth in an increasingly authoritarian political system that enforces strict regulations on religion? How are ordinary Christians affected by social and political changes in the country, and how do they make their influence felt in wider society?

Taking Chinese Christians’ experience as a case study, Lim and Sng examine the possibilities and limitations of Christian engagement in society under an authoritarian regime. They look especially at efforts by religious individuals and groups who are seeking to address social issues by engaging in unobtrusive and non-antagonistic activities that interact with controlling state institutions. Their emphasis is on everyday lived religion, analysing how Christians express their faith in their everyday activity and not only in spaces demarcated as falling within the religious domain.

This book is a valuable reference for scholars and students looking to understand religion in relation to politics, culture and everyday life in rapidly modernising East Asian societies and particularly in China.

https://www.routledge.com/Christianity-and-Social-Engagement-in-China/Lim-Sng/p/book/9780367439224

Religion and Belief Literacy by Adam Dinham is now out from Policy Press. 

This book presents a crisis of religion and belief literacy to which education at every level is challenged to respond. 

As understanding different religions, beliefs and influences becomes increasingly important, it fills a gap for a resource in bringing together the debates around religious literacy, from theoretical approaches to teaching and policy.  Beth Crisp from Deakin University said:

“The muddle that has long characterised policy and practice can be fixed. Adam Dinham proposes a coherent intersectoral framework which acknowledges the complexity of religion and beliefs within societies.” 

This timely publication provides a clear pathway for engaging well with religion and belief diversity in public and shared settings. 

Order Religion and Belief Literacy with 20% discount from Policy Press.  

For review copies and press enquiries, contact: bahar.muller@bristol.ac.uk 

How do secular Jewish Israeli millennials feel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, having come of age in the shadow of the Oslo peace process, when political leaders have used ethno-religious rhetoric as a dividing force? This is the first book to analyse blowback to Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli religious nationalism among this group in their own words, based on fieldwork, interviews and surveys conducted after the 2014 Gaza War.

Offering a close reading of the lived experience and generational memory of participants, Stacey Gutkowski offers a new explanation for why attitudes to Occupation have grown increasingly conservative over the past two decades. Examining the intimate emotional ecology of Occupation, this book offers a new argument about neo-Romantic conceptions of citizenship among this group. Beyond the case study, Religion, war and Israel’s secular millennials also provides a new theoretical framework and research methods for researchers and students studying emotion, religion, nationalism, secularism and political violence around the world.

Link to the book: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526129994/

Conversation article about the book: https://theconversation.com/how-secular-israeli-millennials-feel-about-palestinians-148755

Chris Cotter featured the book in the Religious Studies Project podcast last year (before the book was even properly named!) Here’s a link to that recording: 

by Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir

How do Muslims who grew up after September 11 balance their love for hip-hop with their devotion to Islam? How do they live the piety and modesty called for by their faith while celebrating an art form defined, in part, by overt sexuality, violence, and profanity?

In Representing Islam, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir explores the tension between Islam and the global popularity of hip-hop, including attempts by the hip-hop ummah, or community, to draw from the struggles of African Americans in order to articulate the human rights abuses Muslims face. Nasir explores state management of hip-hop culture and how Muslim hip-hoppers are attempting to “Islamize” the genre’s performance and jargon to bring the music more in line with religious requirements, which are perhaps even more fraught for female artists who struggle with who has the right to speak for Muslim women. Nasir also investigates the vibrant underground hip-hop culture that exists online. For fans living in conservative countries, social media offers an opportunity to explore and discuss hip-hop when more traditional avenues have been closed.

Representing Islam considers the complex and multifaceted rise of hip-hop on a global stage and, in doing so, asks broader questions about how Islam is represented in this global community.

Link here: https://iupress.org/9780253053046/representing-islam/