Bloomsbury Religious Studies

Paperbacks and Conversations: Amanullah De Sondy on Masculinity in Islam

Islam has always been a hot topic of discussion, especially in our current socio-political context. However, lately there has been more of a push to define Islamic identity and what it entails.Gender is an important aspect of this identity and literature on gender and sexuality is slowly making its way to the forefront of the study of the Islamic faith and culture. One of Bloomsbury’s authors, Amanullah De Sondy in the The Crisis of Islamic Masculinity provides an important contribution to the conversation as he tackles the question of the Muslim notions of manhood in various interpretive traditions.

Click to hear author Amanullah De Sondy in conversation with New Books in Religion’s Kristian Peterson as he discusses feminists’ approaches to the Qur’an, notions of love and sexual boundaries, the Mughal poet Mirza Ghalib, gender fluidity, Sufism in South Asia, and same-sex love.

Keep a look out for the paperback version of The Crisis of Masculinity, fresh out of the press this season!

“De Sondy makes an original and rich contribution to the burgeoning literature on Islamic masculinities while engaging productively with Muslim feminist thought.” –  Kecia Ali, Associate Professor of Religion, Boston University, USA.

With the recent explosive debate between Ben Afflect, Sam Harris and Bill Maher on "Real Time with Bill Maher," the questions relating to Islamic faith and culture have once again flooded the internet and Author De Sondy's book seeks to provide answers to one of the aspects of the debate.

Leave a comment below to join the conversation and find out more about this book here.

Diwali: out of darkness comes light!

It’s that time of year again, when the Festival of Lights brings a touch of warmth and colour to the dismal autumnal skies currently lowering over our office in London. And why shouldn’t we follow suit and, in the spirit of Diwali, try to brighten things up a bit too? While November ushers in winter, it also heralds exciting new titles on Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism from our Religious Studies list. New Year, New Books!

Hinduism and the 1960s

UK November 2014 / US January 2015

 

“Oliver's engaging and thought-provoking survey explores the influence of Hindu spirituality on a generation of Western youth. In addition to providing welcome historical context, the book offers a number of important insights into the religious culture of those years. Anyone desiring a greater understanding of that period will find it a very satisfying read.” – Lance E. Nelson, Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, University of San Diego, USA
 

Religion, Devotion and Medicine in North India

UK November 2014 / US January 2015

 “In this provocative study of an Indian healing goddess, Sitala, Ferrari draws from an impressive array of sources to counter a prevailing narrative of a "capricious goddess of smallpox." … Anyone interested in healing practices and goddess cult in contemporary India will find it a surprising treasure.” – Jinah Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art & Architecture, Harvard University, USA
 

And, launching our new Bloomsbury Studies in Religion and Popular Music series:

Sacred and Secular Musics

UK November 2014 / US January 2014

 

“In Sacred and Secular Musics, Virinder Kalra presents a remarkable abundance of original data on Sikh music, qawwali, and other genres in Pakistani and Indian Punjab, offering astute interpretive perspectives on these understudied genres and regional dynamics.” – Peter Manuel, Professor, Music Department of the Graduate Center, City University, New York, USA

 And finally, keep an eye out for:

Jainism: A Guide for the Perplexed

UK January 2015 / US March 2015

 “An enticing book, which teaches Jainism the way it is learnt by those who follow it-through stories” – Arvind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion, McGill University, Canada

Happy Diwali 2014 all!

Capitalizing Religion: Ideology and the Opiate of the Bourgeoisie - Interview with Author Craig Martin

Recently published in the UK and still to come in the US, Capitalizing Religion, by Craig Martin, is a critical account of 'spirituality' or 'individual religion', arguing that much of what is labelled as 'spirituality' can be understood as consumerist ideology. We talked briefly with the author about his new book:

1.What particular areas of religious studies interest you and why?

For some reason I’ve been captivated by abstract, theoretical questions and concerns. I’m almost always less interested in the content of a particular religious tradition than the vocabulary that practitioners and scholars use to talk about those traditions. Why is it that, despite the fact that those forms of culture we call religion are not systematic and are not just about “beliefs,” practitioners and scholars continue to refer to them as “belief systems”? When what we call religion is so clearly public, why do people call it a “private” matter? When people opposed to “organized religion” organize themselves into communities devoted to “spirituality,” what’s going on there? I generally find that one doesn’t have to dig too deep into it to find that these are loaded terms—tied to varying social interests—and the social work they accomplish fascinates me.

2. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

That’s a hard question! Since I think the book ties together several theoretical concerns, how I would summarize it would depend on which theoretical strand I was thinking of at the moment.

First, Capitalizing Religion addresses the discourse of individualism in religious studies: Individuals, upon inspection, always turn out to be conforming to social codes; however, it appears that the rhetoric of individualism—an overtly normative rhetoric used both by scholars and religious practitioners—masks how subjects are constituted by their social worlds.

Second, this book addresses how discourses assign agency and responsibility to subjects: Individualism displaces all responsibility for social ills to individuals as opposed to social structures, protecting the latter from criticism or revision.

Third: Many “spirituality” and related “self-help” discourses recommend quietism, consumerism, and worker productivity in a way seemingly designed to reproduce the status quo within neoliberal capitalism.

3. When did you start researching for this book?

I would say that this book has, in a sense, three points of origin. First, I read Jeremy Carrette and Richard King’s Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion when it first came out in 2005. The book’s thesis—that our ways of talking about “religion” and “spirituality” are both implicitly and explicitly tied to capitalism—made a huge impact on me and I’ve never stopped thinking through the critical implications of their work.

Second, when I was working on my Ph.D. I spent quite a bit of time studying Christian discourses on theodicy and free will, according to which because individual humans had “free will,” the Christian god was not to be held responsible for evil or suffering in the world. I couldn’t help but notice the parallel between Christian theodicy and the common claim today that “poor people are poor because they are lazy.” Since then I’ve wanted to publish something drawing attention to this parallel.

Third, as I note in the “Introduction” to the book, before my father’s death he dealt with being laid off during an economic downturn by reading self-help literature that encouraged positive thinking yet blamed him for his inability to find a job. According to this literature, all of us have it within our power to improve our life’s station, if only we think positively; the necessary corollary is that we have only ourselves to blame for our failures. It broke my heart to see my father blame himself for his underemployment and financial woes, and that heartbreak lies behind much of my analysis in Capitalizing Religion.

4. Which part of writing a book have you enjoyed most?

While I hated reading “spirituality” and “self-help” literature for my research—as it seemed so frustratingly naïve and superficial to me—I did enjoy writing about that literature. For the second half of the book, where I offer an ideology critique of “spirituality,” I found I could write a chapter in just a few days because I knew exactly what I wanted to say. There was something cathartic in taking these authors to task.

5. Any tips for people reading the book?

If you’re not interested in the theoretical questions of part 1, jump to part 2 for the fun stuff!

6. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

Easy: Mark Twain. I read a lot of Twain in high school and college, and his work has made an indelible impact on who I am today.

If you would like anymore information on this title or any of our others, please visit our website here

Sex, Death and Witchcraft: A Contemporary Pagan Festival - Interview with Author Douglas Ezzy

Published this year in the UK and US, Sex, Death and Witchcraft, by Douglas Ezzy, explores a controversial Pagan festival Faunalia and develops a new relational theory of culture. We talked briefly with the author about his new book:

1. What particular areas of religious studies interest you and why?

The book is both a rich ethnographic account of controversial Pagan festival and a provocative reflection on the role of emotions, symbols, and ritual in theories of religion.  The festival involves “a recreation of the Witches' sabbat … It's R-rated, it contains adult themes, nudity and sex references”, according to Harrison – one of the festival participants I interviewed.  The theory develops what Graham Harvey and I are calling “relational theory” in the study of religion.

I’m interested in studies of religion that expose the way we find meaning and purpose in life.  I’m particularly interested in religious responses to difficult and confronting life situations.  These expose aspects of being human that are harder to see in everyday situations are a sort of “breaching experiment” to use Harold Garfinkel’s term.  The religious breaching experiments expose the centrality of relationships, emotions, practices and symbols.  These are central to both religion, and to what it is to be human. 

2. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

In one sentence: The book develops a theory of the role of symbols, emotions, and performance in religious practice, illustrated through an ethnographic account of a Pagan festival involving theatrically elaborate rituals that explore sex and death.

3. When did you start researching for this book?

The project was conceived in 2003. I conducted the research in 2005.  I then spent a long time working out how to theorise the data.  My initial attempts focused on the shock value: “Oh wow! 80 people dancing naked around a bonfire!”  I soon realised that behind the confronting nature of the rituals were some very mundane, but profoundly challenging issues about how we understand what it is to be human: we fear and desire sex; we are deeply ambivalent about loss, death, and dying.  These aspects of the rituals always fascinated me, but it took a long time to work out how to write about them in a way that focused on the theoretical issues that they point to.

4. What’s the meaning behind the title?

The title of the book references the two main rituals at the festival.  The first is a death rite, in which participants role play their own death.  The ritual is a re-enactment of the Greek myth of Persephone’s descent into the Underworld.  The second rite is highly erotic.  Participants dance naked around a bonfire and interact with an hermaphroditic deity called “Baphomet”.

5. Which part of writing a book have you enjoyed most?

The book moves between description and theory.  Some sections are largely narrative, based on participant accounts.  I find these sections very emotionally engaging – they provide a rich sense of the experience of the rituals.  Other sections are very theoretical.  It is these theoretical sections that I found most satisfying intellectually.  I have come to understand religious ritual and its purpose in a much more sophisticated way.

6. Any tips for people reading the book?

The Introduction is deceptively descriptive.  The book becomes quite theoretically sophisticated in the later chapters.  The book is best read in the order that it is written.  It is tempting to flick forward to the description of the sex rite, and if people choose to do this, then that is OK. Theoretically, these sections will take on greater significance if they are contextualised by the earlier chapters.

7. Where will your research go from here?

My current research builds on the relational approach to religion developed in this book.  I’m particularly interested in the role of emotions and ritual in shaping our response to climate change.  I expect the next decades to be particularly challenging for the world as the economic impacts of climate change begin to have an impact.  I hope that we can work out creative and compassionate responses to the grief and loss that this will create.

8. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

Paul Ricoeur and Jessica Benjamin are two of the most significant influences on my thought.  Ricoeur’s hermeneutics helped me see beyond the narrow methodological atheism that constrains much of academia.  Benjamin’s concept of mutual recognition still challenges me, both intellectually and practically.  I’d love to talk through some of their ideas with both of them over a beer and an evening meal.

If you would like anymore information on this title or any of our others, please visit our website here

Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed - Interview with Author Philip Sheldrake

 

Publishing next month in the UK and in November in the US, Spirituality: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Philip Sheldrake, provides students and  general readers with a reliable and comprehensive guide to 'spirituality' as an area of study, religiously, historically, philosophically and in the social sciences. We talked briefly with the author about his new book:

 

1. What particular areas of religious studies interest you and why?

My particular interests are in the area of “spirituality”. I have taught and written about the theology and history of Christian spirituality for many years but more recently have become involved in interreligious dialogue and the role of spirituality in other religions. I’ve also been asked to speak to professional groups (e.g. in healthcare and in architecture) about what “spirituality” may add to the theory and practice of their work.

2. How would you describe your book in one sentence?

The book is written for general readers and students to provide a reliable guide to “spirituality” both in a range of religions and in non-religious forms.

3. When did you start researching for this book?

In one sense, many years ago! But, directly for this book, about four years ago.

4. What’s the meaning behind the title?

The subtitle suggests that the notion of “spirituality” is complex and is often ill-defined which makes it difficult to pin down. Yet spirituality fascinates many people these days. Hopefully the book makes the topic more approachable and coherent.

5. Which part of writing a book have you enjoyed most?

Probably I most enjoyed the profound challenge of dealing with so much varied material, coming to understand it myself and then shaping it into a coherent pattern without oversimplifying matters.

6. Any tips for people reading the book?

It is important to read Part 1, especially chapters 1 & 4, before anything else. That gives the vital background and definitions. After that it is possible to dip into the chapters of Parts 2 & 3 that interest you most. And don’t forget the additional “Suggested Reading” at the end if you want to do some more in-depth study of any particular area! I have only provided an introduction.

7. Where will your research go from here?

I am now working intensively on the theme of “spirituality and the urban” which I outlined briefly in Chapter 10.

8. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?

This is a difficult question! Do I want to be entertained or to be able to quiz someone who tantalises me? If I went for the latter, I suspect I’d settled for Jesus Christ as the teacher, role model and revealer of the divine, who inspired what became Christianity. What does he think about religion and what we humans have done with it across time?! Also, according to the Christian gospels, Jesus regularly had meals with all kinds of people and so having dinner and being quizzed would be familiar to him!

 

If you would like anymore information on this title or any of our others, please visit our website here

Religion in Science Fiction

We are thrilled to announce that our upcoming title Religion in Science Fiction: The Evolution of an Idea and the Extinction of a Genre has just published in the UK and will publish in September for the US.

Speculating on the societal impacts of as-yet-undiscovered technologies is, after all, one of the distinguishing characteristics of science fiction literature.  A more surprising theme may be a parallel exploration of religion:  its institutional nature, social functions, and the tensions between religious and scientific worldviews.

Religion in Science Fiction investigates the history of the representations of religion in 19th century proto-science fiction, and genre science fiction from the 1920s through the end of the century.Taken together, Steven Hrotic argues that these stories tell an overarching story—a ‘metanarrative’—of an evolving respect for religion, paralleling a decline in the belief that science will lead us to an ideal (and religion-free) future.This metanarrative serves as a model for cognitive anthropology, providing new insights into how groups and identities form in a globalized world, and into how crucial a role narratives may play.

Douglas E. Cowan, (Professor of Religious Studies and Social Development Studies, Renison University College at University of Waterloo, Canada) raves that Religion in Science Fiction is "a delightful read that fills a much needed gap in the study of religion’s occasionally ambiguous relationship with science fiction", while Susanne Bach (Department for English and American Studies, University Kassel, Germany) calls Hrotic's study "learned, intelligent, often original" and "unputdownable".

Steven Hrotic is a cognitive anthropologist, currently teaching and writing at the University of Vermont, USA.

Visit our website here for more information about Religion in Science Fiction and other titles.

Post-Materialist Religion

We are eagerly awaiting the release of our title, Post-Materalist Religion by Mika T. Lassander, which is due to publish in late August in the UK and in October in the US. 

Graham Harvey, Head of the Department of Religious Studies at The Open University, states:

'So much of the contemporary world (including religion, values, modernity and Europe) makes so much more sense when Lassander’s expert conjoining of approaches and data meld into a powerful, discipline-changing argument. Far more exciting than a mere application or critique of previous theorisation, Post-Materialist Religion offers important advances in understanding how people’s value priorities and hence their religiosities change with changing societies from generation to generation.'

Post-Materialist Religion discusses the transformations of the individual's worldview in contemporary modern societies, and the role general societal value change plays in these. In doing so, Mika T. Lassander brings into conversation sociological theories of secularisation and social-psychological theories of interpersonal relations, the development of morality, and the nature of basic human values. The long-term decline of traditional religiosity in Europe and the emerging ethos that can be described as post-secular have brought religion and values back into popular discussion. One important theme in these discussions is about the links between religion and values, with the most common assumption being that religions are the source of individuals’ values. This book argues for the opposite view, suggesting that religions, or people’s worldviews in general, reflect the individual’s priorities. 

Mika T. Lassander argues that the transformation of the individual's worldview is a direct consequence of the social and economical changes in European societies since the Second World War. He suggests that the decline of traditional religiosity is not an indication of linear secularisation or of forgetting traditions, but an indication of the loss of relevance of some aspects of the traditional institutional religions. Furthermore, he argues that this is not an indication of the loss of ethical value base, but, rather, a change in the value base and consequently the transformation of the legitimating framework of this value base.

More information on this title, and others, can be found on our website here

Religion, Postcolonialism, and Globalization: A Sourcebook

Later this year we publish Religion, Postcolonialism, and Globalization: A Sourcebook by Jennifer Reid. In his pre-publication endorsement Charles H. Long (Professor Emeritus, History of Religions, University of California, USA) praises the sourcebook for laying ‘the groundwork for a serious historical and religious discussion of the practical and discursive meanings of globalization.'

He goes onto say that: ‘[Jennifer Reid’s] narratives and the informative articles move the meaning of globalization beyond the limited economic focus and reveals the wide range of implications evoked by the terms of the title. The Sourcebook opens the concepts and practices of all the Human Sciences for radical interrogation and critique. This is an important and needed addition to an important cultural inquiry.'

 

Religion, Postcolonialism, and Globalization: A Sourcebook shows how the roots of our globalized world run deeper than the 1980s or even the end of WWII, tracing back to 15th century European colonial expansion through which the 'modern world system' came into existence. 

The Sourcebook is divided into four sections, each with a critical introduction by the editor, a series of readings, and discussion questions based on the readings. Canonical readings in religion, globalization and postcolonialism are paired with lesser-known texts in order to invite critical analysis. Extracts explored include work by Max Weber, Edward Said, David Chidester, and Kant, as well as political documents such as the British Parliament's 1813 Act regarding the East India Company. Sources range from the origins of the common phrase "jihad vs. McWorld" in the work of Benjamin Barber, to personal essays reflecting religious responses to globalization.  

Focusing on a history of religions approach, Religion, Postcolonialism, and Globalization provides an alternative to existing sociological work on religion and globalization. Guidance on useful web resources can be found on the book's webpage.

More information on this book, and others, available here.

Confronting Secularism in Europe and India

Confronting Secularism in Europe and India an edited volume in which scholars of varied disciplines contribute to contemporary discourse on the role of political secularism is now available in the UK and will publish in August in the Americas. In recent times, secularism’s potential to continue to provide a foundation for political legitimacy has been increasingly questioned.

Confronting Secularism in Europe and India adds to this debate by staging a creative encounter between European and Indian conceptions of secularism with a view to continuing new and distinctive trajectories of thought about the place and role of secularism. Maria Dimova-Cookson (Durham University) calls the work a “thought-provoking and visionary collection” which, “by investigating the unique character of Indian secularism”, “develop[s] new perspectives on European secularism, aiming to improve its capacity to accommodate deep religious diversity”.

The work is edited by Brian Black, Gavin Hyman, and Graham M. Smith. Black is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at Lancaster University and author of The Character of the Self in Ancient India. Hyman is Lecturer in Religious Studies at Lancaster University and author of A Short History of Atheism. He has published widely in contemporary philosophy and religious thought, and his most recent book is Traversing the Middle: Ethics, Politics, Religion. Smith is Lecturer in Politics at Lancaster University and author of Friendship and the Political: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schmitt.

Visit our website here for more information about Confronting Secularism in Europe and India and other titles.

Loss and Hope - new in interfaith relations

We are eagerly anticipating the release of our new title, Loss and Hope: Global, Interreligious and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. In this work, provocative thinkers and leading scholars examine the universal themes of hope and loss within survivors and victims' perspectives, and interreligious and ethical perspectives.The book includes contributions by those who have suffered: survivors of genocide and state terror. It features case studies of loss and hope from around the world, and examines a variety of religions including Buddism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism.

As Professor Perry Schmidt (University of Muenster, Germany) describes, "'Loss' and 'hope' are not only universal features of human existence; they also characterize much of contemporary sentiment." Schmidt continues, "Moving and throught-provoking,the case studies and principle reflections in this volume envisage crucial human experiences within a global, multi-religious and multi-perspectival framework. They shed fresh light on our understanding of human condition."

Editor Peter Admirand brings together this diverse group of writings to highlight the need for responses to atrocity that transcend differences within gender, class, religion, race and ethnicity. Without minimizing the extent of losses in the world, the volume attempts to establish an ethics of hope in the face of destabilizing losses. Admirand is Lecturer in the School of Theology in the Mater Dei Institute of Dublin City University in Ireland.

Visit our website here for more information about Loss and Hope and other titles.