Common wisdom has long held that the ascent of the modern nation coincided with the flowering of Enlightenment democracy and the decline of religion, ringing in an age of tolerant, inclusive, liberal states. Not so, demonstrates Anthony W. Marx in this landmark work of revisionist political history and analysis. In a startling departure from a historical consensus that has dominated views of nationalism for the past quarter century, Marx argues that European nationalism emerged two centuries earlier, in the early modern era, as a form of mass political engagement based on religious conflict, intolerance, and exclusion. Challenging the self-congratulatory geneaology of civic Western nationalism, Marx shows how state-builders attempted to create a sense of national solidarity to support their burgeoning authority. Key to this process was the transfer of power from local to central rulers; the most suitable vehicle for effecting this transfer was religion and fanatical passions. Religious intolerance--specifically the exclusion of religious minorities from the nascent state--provided the glue that bonded the remaining populations together. Out of this often violent religious intolerance grew popular nationalist sentiment. Only after a core and exclusive nationality was formed in England and France, and less successfully in Spain, did these countries move into the "enlightened" 19th century, all the while continuing to export intolerance and exclusion to overseas colonies. Providing an explicitly political theory of early nation-building, rather than an account emphasizing economic imperatives or literary imaginings, Marx reveals that liberal, secular Western political traditions were founded on the basis of illiberal, intolerant origins. His provocative account also suggests that present-day exclusive and violent nation-building, or efforts to form solidarity through cultural or religious antagonisms, are not fundamentally different from the West's own earlier experiences.

This is the first book to consider John Dewey’s early philosophy on its own terms and to explicate its key ideas. It does so through the fullest treatment to date of his youthful masterwork, the Psychology. This fuller treatment reveals that the received view, which sees Dewey’s early philosophy as unimportant in its own right, is deeply mistaken. In fact, Dewey’s early philosophy amounts to an important new form of idealism. More specifically, Dewey’s idealism contains a new logic of rupture, which allows us to achieve four things: • A focus on discontinuity that challenges all naturalistic views, including Dewey’s own later view; • A space of critical resistance to events that is at the same time the source of ideals; • A faith in the development of ideals that challenges pessimists like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; and • A non-traditional reading of Hegel that invites comparison with cutting-edge Continental philosophers, such as Adorno, Derrida, and Zizek, and even goes beyond them in its systematic approach; In making these discoveries, the author forges a new link between American and European philosophy, showing how they share similar insights and concerns. He also provides an original assessment of Dewey’s relationship to his teacher, George Sylvester Morris, and to other important thinkers of the day, giving us a fresh picture of John Dewey, the man and the philosopher, in the early years of his career. Readers will find a wide range of topics discussed, from Dewey’s early reflections on Kant and Hegel to the nature of beauty, courage, sympathy, hatred, love, and even death and despair. This is a book for anyone interested in the thought of John Dewey, American pragmatism, Continental Philosophy, or a new idealism appearing on the scene.

What happens when an atheist and a believer find themselves next door neighbours? What happens when religion finds itself in a culture of science and secularism? Could they hold hands? Could they fall in love? Faith in Doubt claims that churches speak about faith and God only from within the world view of an ancient culture—as foreign to modern people as Latin. No wonder there is a precipitous decline in church attendance. Faith in Doubt proposes that churches start a conversation with secularism by learning to speak of faith and God from within the assumptions of modern secular culture. Faith in Doubt explains how. Faith in Doubt follows John, a believer, and his neighbour Rosalind, an atheist professional scientist, through their budding romance as they undergo relationship conflicts paralleling their exploration of each other’s opposing views of religion. Can their relationship weather storms of break up, distrust, and deep pain at rejection? Will John and Rosalind—symbolizing faith and science—ever hold hands in a lasting, meaningful relationship? Faith in Doubt grounds the discussion with accounts of real incidents in the author’s own life as a child and later as a priest in urban, rural, and First Nations contexts. He experienced disbelief and strains in important relationships—unexpectedly finding those challenges to be sources of new life and joy. Readers, whether believers or not, may discover similar experiences happening in their own lives.

Tracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.

Based on Eisenhandler's qualitative research study of men and women, sixty years and older, this volume provides a sociological narrative of religious belief that has been sustained and sometimes changed over the course of life. Through extensive interviews, Eisenhandler explores older adults' personal engagement with religion, the role of socialization in retaining faith in late life, and the extent to which older adults participate in religious behavior and find religious beliefs relevant to their present life. Questions at the core of Eisenhandler's research include: Do older adults today f.

Why does religion sometimes increase support for democracy and sometimes do just the opposite? In Faith in Numbers, political scientist Michael Hoffman presents a theory of religion, group interest, and democracy. Focusing on communal religion, he demonstrates that the effect of communal prayer on support for democracy depends on the interests of the religious group in question. For members of groups who would benefit from democracy, communal prayer increases support for democratic institutions; for citizens whose groups would lose privileges in the event of democratic reforms, the opposite effect is present. Using a variety of data sources, Hoffman illustrates these claims in multiple contexts. He places particular emphasis on his study of Lebanon and Iraq, two countries in which sectarian divisions have played a major role in political development, by utilizing both existing and original surveys. By examining religious and political preferences among both Muslims and non-Muslims in several religiously diverse settings, Faith in Numbers shows that theological explanations of religion and democracy are inadequate. Rather, it demonstrates that religious identities and sectarian interests play a major part in determining regime preferences and illustrates how Islam in particular can be mobilized for both pro- and anti-democratic purposes. It finds that Muslim religious practice is not necessarily anti-democratic; in fact, in a number of settings, practicing Muslims are considerably more supportive of democracy than their secular counterparts. Theological differences alone do not determine whether members of religious groups tend to support or oppose democracy; rather, their participation in communal worship motivates them to view democracy through a sectarian lens.

HERMAN JANTZEN (1866-1959) WAS A LINGUIST! GROWING UP IN THE MENNONITE VILLAGE OF HANSAU, IN THE TRACT, IN SAMARA PROVINCE, RUSSIA, HE LEARNED THE LOWLAND DIALECT AT HOME, GERMAN IN SCHOOL, AND RUSSSIAN FROM HIS FATHER'S HIRED HANDS. IN 1880, HIS FATHER WAS THE LEADER OF THE FIRST WAGON TRAIN OF 10 MENNONITE FAMILIES GOING EAST, SEEKING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. FOURTEEN YEAR OLD HERMAN DROVE THE LEAD WAGON. IN KASABINSK, THE FIRST TURKESTANI CITY AND FORT, A WELL EDUCATED YOUNG SARTER, ASKED PERMISSION TO TRAVEL WITH THEM. SEATED BESIDE YOUNG HERMAN ON THE WAGON SEAT, HE BECAME THAT YOUNG MAN'S FIRST UZBECK-TURKISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR! BY THE TIME HE WAS 19, HE WAS SO FLUENT IN THAT LANGUAGE THAT THE LOCAL RULER APPOINTED HIM INTERPRETER IN THE ROYAL COURT!

Drawing on more than 15,000 surveys and 300 in-depth interviews on the subject of faith at work in the US, this book shows how a wide range of workers understand their work vis-a-vis their faith and makes the case that employers should accommodate religious self-expression at work.