Religion

Available as an eBook from Howe Library.

This book offers an empirical and theoretical reflection on the relationships between religion, politics and development in Africa; the meanings of religion in non-Western contexts and the way that is embedded in the everyday life of people in Africa.

This book explores the interaction between religion and nationalism in the Chinese societies of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Cheng-tian Kuo analyses the dominant religions, including Chinese Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam, and folk religions, but he also goes beyond that, showing how in recent decades the Chinese state has tightened its control over religion to an unprecedented degree. Indeed, it could almost be said to have constructed a wholly new religion, Chinese Patriotism. The same period, however, has seen the growth of democratic civil religions, which could challenge the state.

It is the purpose of [this collection of essays] to illustrate the nature of religion's ambivalent power in Africa while suggesting new directions in the study of religion, conflict, and peace studies, with a specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

From the series Religion in Contemporary Africa. Contains multiple essays on Christianity and nations in Africa.

This is an electronic book that you can access through the Howe Library website. With a clear statement of the theoretical issues in the debates about secularization and post-secularism, 'Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology' considers a number of major case studies - from China, Europe, Singapore and South Asia - in order to understand the rise of public religions in the modern state. By distinguishing between political secularization - the separation of state and religion - and social secularization - the transformation of the everyday practice of religion - this volume offers an integrating framework within which to analyze these different societies.