Religions, Nations, and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities

This edited book explores the impact of globalisation on the relationship between religion and politics, religion and nation, religion and nationalism, and the impact that transnationalism has on religious groups. In a post-Westphalian and transnational world, with increased international communication and transportation, a plethora of new religious recompositions religions now take part in a network society that cuts across borders. This collection, through its analysis of historical and contemporary case studies, explores the growth of both national and transnational religious movements and their dealings with the various versions of modernity that they encounter. It considers trends of religious revitalisation and secularisation, and processes of nationalism and transnationalism through the prism of the theory of multiple modernities, acknowledging both its pluralist world view but also the argument that its definition of modernity is often so inclusive as to lose coherence. Providing a cutting edge take on 21st century religion and globalization, this volume is a key read for all scholars of religion, secularisation and transnationalism.

Religions, Nations and Transnationalism in Multiple Modernities: An Introduction.- Contribution to a Socio-history of the Relations between “Nation” and “Religion”—The Case of Catholicism.- “La Farina del Diavolo”: Transnational Migration and the Politics of Religious Liberty in Post-war Italy.- Persianate Islam and its Regional Spread.- Charisma as a Transnational Enterprise.- Islam, Ethno-Nationalism and Transnational “Faith Community” in Kyrgyzstan.- Multiple Modernities and Political Millenarianism: Dispensational Theology, Nationalism and American Politics.- From Holy Sites to Web Sites: Hindu Nationalism, From Sacred Territory to Diasporic Ethnicity.- God is Argentine and so is the Pope! Catholicism, Popular Culture and the National Imagination.- Branding of Spiritual Authenticity and Nationalism in Transnational Sufism.- Religions, Nations and Transnationalism: Conclusion.

Patrick Michel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France and professor (directeur d’études) at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France. In addition to his primary interest in Central Europe, his research focuses on the theoretical aspects of the relation between politics and religion.

 

Adam Possamai is Professor in Sociology and director of research in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University, Australia. He is the past President of the International Sociological Association’s Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion.

 

Bryan S. Turner is the Presidential Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Committee on Religion at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, US and Professor of the Sociology of Religion at the Australian Catholic University, Australia. He was the Alona Evans DistinguishedVisiting Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College.