Harvard University Press - RELIGION

Divided by Faith

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Benjamin J. Kaplan
Can people coexist in peace when their basic beliefs are irreconcilable? Kaplan responds by taking us back to early modern Europe, when the issue of religious toleration was no less pressing than it is today. Divided by Faith is both history from the bottom up and a much-needed challenge to our belief in the triumph of reason over faith. This compelling story reveals that toleration has taken many guises in the past and suggests that it may well do the same in the future.
Paperback October 2009

Islam and the Secular State

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im
What should be the place of Shari‘a—Islamic religious law—in predominantly Muslim societies of the world? In this book, a Muslim scholar and human rights activist envisions a positive and sustainable role for Shari‘a, based on a profound rethinking of the relationship between religion and the secular state in all societies.
Paperback October 2009

Dominion of God

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Brett Edward Whalen
Brett Whalen explores the compelling belief that Christendom would spread to every corner of the earth before the end of time. During the High Middle Ages—an era of crusade, mission, and European expansion—the Western followers of Rome imagined the future conversion of Jews, Muslims, pagans, and Eastern Christians into one fold of God’s people, assembled under the authority of the Roman Church.
Hardcover October 2009

Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Kenneth B. Moss
Between 1917 and 1921, as revolution convulsed Russia, Jewish intellectuals and writers across the crumbling empire threw themselves into the pursuit of a “Jewish renaissance.” Here is a brilliant, revisionist argument about the nature of cultural nationalism, the relationship between nationalism and socialism as ideological systems, and culture itself, the axis around which the encounter between Jews and European modernity has pivoted over the past century.
Hardcover October 2009

Green Sisters

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Sarah McFarland Taylor
Green sisters are environmentally active Catholic nuns working to heal the earth as they cultivate new forms of religious culture. Inviting us into their world, Taylor offers a firsthand understanding of the experiences of women whose lives bring together orthodoxy and activism, and whose lifestyle provides a compelling view of sustainable living.
Paperback September 2009

Power of Place

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EDT

James Robson
Throughout Chinese history mountains have been integral components of the religious landscape. Early in Chinese history a set of five mountains were co-opted into the imperial cult and declared sacred peaks, yue, demarcating and protecting the boundaries of the Chinese imperium. James Robson’s analysis of these topics demonstrates the value of local studies and the emerging field of Buddho-Daoist studies in research on Chinese religion.
Hardcover September 2009

An Early Tibetan Survey of Buddhist Literature

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Kurtis R. Schaeffer
Edited by Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp
This volume is a study and edition of Bcom Idan ral gri's (1227-1305) Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od. Likely composed in the last decades of the thirteenth century, this systematic list of Buddhist Sutras, Tantras, Shastras, and related genres translated primarily from Sanskrit and other Indic languages holds an important place in the history of Buddhist literature in Tibet.
Hardcover July 2009

Daoist Modern

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Xun Liu
This book explores the Daoist encounter with modernity through the activities of Chen Yingning (1880–1969), a famous lay Daoist master, and his group in early twentieth-century Shanghai. In contrast to the usual narrative of Daoist decay, with its focus on monastic decline, clerical corruption, and popular superstitions, this study tells a story of Daoist resilience, reinvigoration, and revival.
Hardcover July 2009

Earthly Paradise

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Milad Doueihi
Translated by Jane Marie Todd
Paradise haunts the Biblical West. At once the place of origin and exile, utopia and final destination, it has shaped our poetic and religious imagination and informed literary and theological accounts of man’s relation with his creator, with language and history. In Earthly Paradise, Milad Doueihi contemplates key moments in the philosophical reception and uses of Paradise, marked by the rise of critical and historical methods in the Early Modern period. Is Paradise the source of human error or an utopian vision of humanity itself?
Hardcover June 2009

A Bull of a Man

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EDT

John Powers
The androgynous, asexual Buddha of contemporary popular imagination stands in stark contrast to the muscular, virile, and sensual figure presented in Indian Buddhist texts. In this groundbreaking study of previously unexplored aspects of the early Buddhist tradition, John Powers skillfully adapts methodological approaches from European and North American historiography to the study of early Buddhist literature, art, and iconography, highlighting aspects of the tradition that have been surprisingly invisible in earlier scholarship.
Hardcover June 2009

Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Matthew Avery Sutton
Aimee Semple McPherson was the most flamboyant and controversial minister in the United States between the world wars, building a successful megachurch, a mass media empire, and eventually a political career to resurrect what she believed was America's Christian heritage. Sutton's definitive study reveals the woman as a trail-blazing pioneer, her life marking the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance to the mainstream of American culture.
Paperback May 2009

Christiad

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Marco Girolamo Vida
Translated by James Gardner
Marco Girolamo Vida (1485–1566), humanist and bishop, came to prominence as a Latin poet in the Rome of Leo X and Clement VII. It was Leo who commissioned his famous epic, the Christiad, a retelling of the life of Christ in the style of Vergil, which was eventually published in 1535. This translation, accompanied by extensive notes, is based on a new edition of the Latin text.
Hardcover May 2009

For Prophet and Tsar

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Robert D. Crews
In stark contrast to the popular "clash of civilizations" theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support. For Prophet and Tsar unearths the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.
Paperback May 2009

To Serve God and Wal-Mart

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Bethany Moreton
This extraordinary biography of Wal-Mart’s world shows how a Christian pro-business movement grew from the bottom up as well as the top down, bolstering an economic vision that sanctifies corporate globalization. The author has assigned her royalties and subsidiary earnings to Interfaith Worker Justice (www.iwj.org) and its local affiliate in Athens, GA, the Economic Justice Coalition (www.econjustice.org).
Hardcover May 2009

Arguing the Just War in Islam

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 EDT

John Kelsay
Jihad, with its many terrifying associations, is a term widely used today, though its meaning is poorly grasped. Kelsay's timely and important work focuses on jihad of the sword in Islamic thought, history, and culture. Making use of original sources, Kelsay delves into the tradition of shari'a--Islamic jurisprudence and reasoning--and shows how it defines jihad as the Islamic analogue of the Western "just" war.
Paperback May 2009

Two Faiths, One Banner

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Ian Almond
When, in our turbulent day, we hear of a “clash of civilizations,” it’s easy to imagine an unbridgeable chasm between the Islamic world and Christendom stretching back through time. Two Faiths, One Banner shows how in Europe, Muslims and Christians were often comrades-in-arms, repeatedly forming alliances to wage war against their own faiths and peoples. This bold book reveals how the idea of a “Christian Europe” long opposed by a “Muslim non-Europe” grossly misrepresents the facts of a rich, complex, and—above all—shared history.
Hardcover April 2009

Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Peter J. Bowler
Bowler doesn't minimize the hostility of many of the faithful toward evolution, but he reveals the less well-known existence of a long tradition within the churches that sought to reconcile Christian beliefs with evolution by finding reflections of the divine in scientific explanations for the origin of life. By tracing the historical forerunners of these rival Christian responses, Bowler provides a valuable alternative to accounts that stress only the escalating confrontation.
Paperback April 2009

Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Karel van der Toorn
The scribes of ancient Israel are indeed the main figures behind the Hebrew Bible, and this book tells their story for the first time. Drawing comparisons with the scribal practices of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, van der Toorn details the methods, assumptions, and material means that gave rise to biblical texts. Traditionally seen as the copycats of antiquity, the scribes emerge here as the literate elite who held the key to the production and the transmission of texts.
Paperback April 2009

A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

John Rawls
Edited by Thomas Nagel
Introduction by Joshua Cohen
Introduction by Thomas Nagel
Commentary by Robert Merrihew Adams
John Rawls never published anything about his own religious beliefs, but after his death two texts were discovered which shed extraordinary light on the subject. A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith is Rawls’s undergraduate senior thesis, submitted in December 1942, just before he entered the army. The present volume includes these two texts, together with an Introduction by Joshua Cohen and Thomas Nagel, which discusses their relation to Rawls’s published work, and an essay by Robert Merrihew Adams, which places the thesis in its theological context.
Hardcover March 2009

Christianity and American Democracy

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Hugh Heclo
Foreword by Theda Skocpol
Christianity, not religion in general, has been important for American democracy. With this bold thesis, Heclo offers a panoramic view of how Christianity and democracy have shaped each other over the years, and how their relationship is changing in the present day. Responding to his challenging argument, Mary Jo Bane, Michael Kazin, and Alan Wolfe criticize, qualify, and amend it. The result is a lively debate about a momentous tension in American public life.
Paperback March 2009

Ecology and the Environment

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Donald K. Swearer
Foreword by Dan Schrag
In this slim volume, seven world-class scholars discuss the wide range of perspectives that the fields of literature, history, religion, philosophy, environmental ethics, and anthropology bring to the natural environment and our place in it. The book represents a continuation of the Center for the Study of World Religions’ highly regarded Religions of the World and Ecology series.
Paperback March 2009

Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Edited by Ronald L. Numbers
Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed conversion to Einstein’s belief in a personal God who “didn’t play dice with the universe.” Each chapter in Galileo Goes to Jail shows how much we have to gain by seeing beyond the myths.
Hardcover March 2009

Greetings in the Lord

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

AnneMarie Luijendijk
This is the first book-length study on Christians in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, the site where some of the most important and oldest fragments of early Christian books were unearthed. Bringing the people in these dry papyrus letters and documents back to life, the book reveals how diverse Christians lived in this city of diverse situations.
Paperback March 2009

Naming Infinity

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Loren Graham
Jean-Michel Kantor
In 1913, Russian imperial marines stormed an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Athos, Greece to haul off monks engaged in a dangerously heretical practice known as Name Worshipping. Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor take us on an exciting mathematical mystery tour as they unravel a bizarre tale of political struggles, psychological crises, sexual complexities, and ethical dilemmas. The men and women of the leading French and Russian mathematical schools are central characters in this absorbing tale that could not be told until now. Naming Infinity is a poignant human interest story that raises provocative questions about science and religion, intuition and creativity.
Hardcover March 2009

The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Sachiko Murata
William C. Chittick
Weiming Tu
Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Liu Zhi (ca. 1670–1724) was one of the most important scholars of Islam in traditional China. His Tianfang xingli (Nature and Principle in Islam), the Chinese-language text translated here, focuses on the roots or principles of Islam. The copious annotations to the translation explain Liu’s text and draw attention to parallels in Chinese-, Arabic-, and Persian-language works as well as differences.
Hardcover March 2009

Stri

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Kevin McGrath
This book is a study of heroic femininity as it appears in the epic Mahabharata, and focuses particularly on the roles of wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, on how these women speak, and on the kinship groups and varying marital systems that surround them.
Paperback March 2009

Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Malcolm David Eckel
Bhaviveka (ca. 500–560 ce) lived at a time of unusual creativity and ferment in the history of Indian Buddhist philosophy. Bhaviveka’s “Verses on the Heart of the Middle Way” (Madhyamakahrdayakarika˙) with their commentary, known as “The Flame of Reason” (Tarkajvala), give a unique and authoritative account of the intellectual differences that stirred the Buddhist community in this creative period. Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents gives a clear and accessible translation of Chapters 4 and 5 of this text: the chapters on the Sravakas, or eighteen schools, and the Yogacaras, Bhaviveka’s most important Mahayana opponents. The book also contains a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of Bhaviveka’s verses and the Tibetan translation of the verses and commentary.
Hardcover March 2009

The Teleology of Poetics in Medieval Kashmir

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Lawrence J. McCrea
This book examines the revolution in Sanskrit poetics initiated by the ninth-century Kashmiri Anandavardhana. Anandavardhana replaced the formalist aesthetic of earlier poeticians with one stressing the unifunctionality of literary texts, arguing that all components of a work should subserve a single purpose—the communication of a single emotional mood (rasa). Attention was redirected from formal elements toward specific poems, viewed as aesthetically integrated wholes, thereby creating new literary critical possibilities.
Hardcover March 2009

Everyday Jihad

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Bernard Rougier
Translated by Pascale Ghazaleh
As southern Lebanon becomes the latest battleground for Islamist warriors, Rougier plunges us into the heavily populated Palestinian refugee camp at Ain al-Helweh, which became a site for militant Sunni Islamists in the early 1990s. Rougier documents how Sunni fundamentalists, through their own interpretations of sacred texts and jihad, took root in this Palestinian milieu, and explains how radical religious allegiances overcome traditional nationalist sentiment in communities marked by poverty and despair.
Paperback February 2009

God's War

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Christopher Tyerman
The Crusades are perhaps both the most familiar and most misunderstood phenomena of the medieval world, and here Christopher Tyerman explores the centuries of violence committed in the name of religious devotion Tyerman uncovers a system of belief bound by paranoia and wishful thinking, and a culture founded on war as an expression of worship, social discipline, and Christian charity. Drawing on the most recent scholarship, and told with great authority, God's War is the definitive account of a fascinating story that continues to haunt our contemporary world.
Paperback February 2009

The Secret Revelation of John

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST

Karen L. King
Karen L. King offers an illuminating reading of this ancient text, said to be Christ's revelation to his disciple John. In her analysis, the Revelation becomes a comprehensible religious vision--and a window on the religious culture of the Roman Empire. A translation of the complete Secret Revelation of John is included.
Paperback February 2009

Charisma and Compassion

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

C. Julia Huang
Tzu-Chi (Compassion Relief) began as a tiny, grassroots women's charitable group; today in Taiwan it runs three state-of-the-art hospitals, a television channel, and a university. Based on extensive fieldwork in Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and the United States, this book explores the transformation of Tzu-Chi.
Hardcover January 2009

The Islamic Marriage Contract

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

Edited by Asifa Quraishi
Edited by Frank E. Vogel
It is often said that marriage in Islamic law is a civil contract, not a sacrament. This volume collects papers from many disciplines examining the Muslim marriage contract. Articles cover doctrines as to marriage contracts (e.g., may a wife stipulate monogamy?); historical instances; comparisons with Jewish and canon law; contemporary legal and social practice; and projects of activists for women worldwide.
Hardcover January 2009

The Clash Within

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST

Martha C. Nussbaum
While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Nussbaum reveals in this penetrating look at India today, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to its democratic traditions and secular state. Nussbaum's long-standing professional relationship with India makes her an excellent guide to its recent history.
Paperback January 2009

Christianity and the Transformation of the Book

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Anthony Grafton
Megan Williams
Christianity and the Transformation of the Book combines broad-gauged synthesis and close textual analysis to reconstruct the kinds of books and the ways of organizing scholarly inquiry and collaboration among the Christians of Caesarea, on the coast of Roman Palestine. The book explores the dialectical relationship between intellectual history and the history of the book, even as it expands our understanding of early Christian scholarship.
Paperback December 2008

Deliverance and Submission

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Kelly H. Chong
South Korea is home to some of the largest evangelical Protestant congregations in the world. This book investigates the meaning of—and the reasons behind—a particular aspect of contemporary South Korean evangelicalism: the intense involvement of middle-class women. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Seoul that explores the relevance of women’s experiences to Korean evangelicalism, Kelly H. Chong not only helps provide a broader picture of the evangelical movement’s success in South Korea, but addresses the global question of contemporary women's attraction to religious traditionalism.
Hardcover December 2008

Journey to the East

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Liam Matthew Brockey
It was one of the great encounters of world history: highly educated European priests confronting Chinese culture for the first time in the modern era. This “journey to the East” is explored by Brockey as he retraces the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China.
Paperback December 2008

The Peculiar Life of Sundays

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Stephen Miller
From Augustine to Caesarius, through the Reformation and the Puritan flight from England, down through the ages to contemporary debates about Sunday worship, Miller explores the fascinating history of the Sabbath.
Hardcover December 2008

Tradition and Composition in the Epistula Apostolorum

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Julian V. Hills
In the first major study in English of the Epistle of the Apostles (Epistula Apostolorum), Julian V. Hills probes its remarkable witness to the traditions that circulated in Jesus' name in the second century. Hills tackles the document's literary framework, collecting and assessing signals to its composition. In detailed analyses of passages, Hills shows how older traditions were reshaped and interpreted according to the distinctive communal situation and theological vision of the author. This expanded edition of the out-of-print original, published in 1990, includes a new preface and bibliography.
Paperback December 2008

Beyond Essence

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Lori K. Pearson
This book demonstrates the intimate connection between Troeltsch's philosophical writings on the essence of Christianity and his historical investigations of Christianity's past. Pearson argues that as a result of his historical work, Troeltsch moved beyond the category of essence and sought new ways of theorizing Christian identity in the context of modernity's pluralistic yet fragmented society.
Paperback November 2008

Leaves from Paradise

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger
A pair of leaves recently acquired by Houghton Library presents an opportunity to examine the illuminated sequence composed in honor of John the Evangelist. The richly decorated fragments promise to transform our understanding of the special place of Christ’s “beloved disciple” in 14th-century art, liturgy, theology, and mysticism.
Paperback November 2008

Migration Miracle

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Jacqueline Maria Hagan
Migration Miracle humanizes the immigration controversy by exploring the harsh realities of the migrants’ desperate journeys. Drawing on over 300 interviews with men, women, and children, Hagan focuses on an unexplored dimension of the migration undertaking—the role of religion and faith in surviving the journey.
Hardcover November 2008

Seven Deadly Sins

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Aviad Kleinberg
Translated by Susan Emanuel
With intellectual insight and deadpan humor, Kleinberg deftly guides the reader through Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman thoughts on sin. Each chapter weaves the past into the present and examines unchanging human passions and the deep cultural shifts in the way we make sense of them.
Hardcover November 2008

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST

Barbara Dianne Savage
Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent.
Hardcover November 2008