Religion and Politics in America's Borderlands brings together leading academic specialists on immigration and the borderlands, as well as nationally recognized grassroots activists, who reflect on their varied experiences of living, working, and teaching on the US-Mexico border and in the borderlands. These authors demonstrate the groundbreaking claim that the borderlands are not only a location to think about religiously, but they’re also a place that reshapes religious thinking. In this pioneering book, scholars and activists engage with Scripture, theology, history, church practices, and personal experiences to offer in-depth analyses of how the borderlands confront conventional interpretations of Christianity.

What is to be the church's response to the immigrant? Most immigrants in American society are seeking a better life. They are among the most vulnerable, possessing little and at the mercy of those they work for in the communities where they live. The essays in this book address issues for churches to consider as they seek to better understand how to respond to immigration. The book examines biblical, ethical, theological, and homiletical areas of the topic and includes contributions from experienced pastors, theologians, legal experts, and activists. With contributions from: Sarah Ellen Eads Adkins Claudio Carvalhaes Jason W. Crosby Miguel A. De La Torre Rebecca Hensley Robert Hoch Melanie A. Howard Maha Kolko Gerald C. Liu Joy Moore Heidi Neumark Owen K. Ross Lis Valle Michael Waters

In 1905 Rev. Francis Clement Kelley founded the Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America. Drawing attention to the common link of religion, Kelley proclaimed the Extension Society’s duty to be that of preventing American Protestant missionaries, public school teachers, and others from separating people from their natural faith, Catholicism. Though domestic evangelization was its founding purpose, the Extension Society eventually expanded beyond the national border into Mexico in an attempt to solidify a hemispheric Catholic identity. Exploring international, racial, and religious implications, Anne M. Martínez’s Catholic Borderlands examines Kelley’s life and actions, including events at the beginning of the twentieth century that prompted four exiled Mexican archbishops to seek refuge with the Archdiocese of Chicago and befriend Kelley. This relationship inspired Kelley to solidify a commitment to expanding Catholicism in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in response to the national plan of Protestantization, which was indiscreetly being labeled as “Americanization.” Kelley’s cause intensified as the violence of the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero Rebellion reverberated across national borders. Kelley’s work with the U.S. Catholic Church to intervene in Mexico helped transfer cultural ownership of Mexico from Spain to the United States, thus signaling that Catholics were considered not foreigners but heirs to the land of their Catholic forefathers.

"John W. I. Lee and Michael North bring together international and interdisciplinary scholars to analyze a wide scope of border issues and to encourage a nuanced dialogue addressing the concepts and processes of borderlands"--

This book chronicles the child performer as part of the Chicana/o/Mexican-American theatre experience. Borderlands Children’s Theatre explores the phenomenon of the Chicana/o/Mexican-American child performer at the center of Chicana/o and Latina/o theatre culture. Drawing from historical and contemporary theatrical traditions to finally the emergence of Latina/o Youth Theatre and Latina/o Theatre for Young Audiences, it raises crucial questions about the role of the child in these performative contexts and about how childhood and adolescence was experienced and understood. Analyzing contemporary plays for Chicana/o/Mexican-American child performer, it introduces theorizations of "performing mestizaje" and "border crossing" borderlands performance, gender, and ethnic identity and investigates theatre as a site in which children and youth have the opportunity to articulate their emerging selfhoods. This book adds to the national and international dialogue in theatre and gives voice to Chicana/o/Mexican-American children and youth and will be of great interest to students and scholars of Theatre studies and Latina/o studies.

Presenting 16 new essays addressing important issues, movements and personalities in Latino religions in America, this book aims to overthrow the stereotype that Latinos are politically passive and that their churches have supported the status quo, failing to engage in or support the struggle for civil rights and social justice.

Regional struggles, wars and local confrontations have marked the south of Lebanon since the end of the 1960s. They have transformed this marginalized and rural region into a battlefield and redefined the relationships between international, regional and local actors. The most recent of these actors the Palestinian refugees and their armed resistance, the Islamic Shi i movement Hizbullah, and the UN local mission (UNIFIL) have marked and shaped the place, and in turn operating in this borderland has affected their identities. Based on Daniel Meier s extensive fieldwork in the region, this book offers interviews with militants, his own observations of this conflict-ridden and dangerous region as well as incisive political analysis concerning the armed militias operating in the area. It is through this in-depth examination of the southern borderlands of Lebanon that Meier sheds new light on some of the major Middle Eastern confrontations of the last half a century."

This encyclopedia is the first comprehensive survey of Hispanic American religiosity, contextualizing the roles of Latino and Latina Americans within U.S. religious culture. Spanning two volumes, Hispanic American Religious Cultures encompasses the full diversity of faiths and spiritual beliefs practiced among Hispanic Americans. It is the first comprehensive work to provide historic contexts for the many religious identities expressed among Hispanic Americans. The entries of this encyclopedia cover a range of spiritual affiliations, including Christian religious expressions, world faiths, and indigenous practices. Coverage includes historical development, current practices, and key individuals, while additional essays look at issues across various traditions. By examining the distinctive Hispanic interpretations of religious traditions, Hispanic American Religious Cultures explores the history of Latino and Latina Americans and the impact of living in the United States on their culture.

A major new account of the Eurasian borderlands as 'shatter zones' which have generated some of the world's most significant conflicts.

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Borderlands maps the relationship between gender and borderlands at a global scale and sets the agenda for developing a global composite field of gender and borderlands studies. This interdisciplinary collection seeks to understand the complex nexus at which gender and the borderlands intersect, modelling radical relationality at epistemological, ontological, and activist levels. Going beyond border studies’ frequent site at the U.S.–Mexico Border, this book examines the power relations of borderlands as they play out in, influence, and reflect gender dynamics. Contributors draw on case studies from around the world, and their chapters span diverse fields from anthropology, literature, and history, to political science, religious studies, sociology, and the arts. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Borderlands is an indispensable resource for scholars and students engaged in border studies, gender studies, and the wide range of interlocking disciplines that inform and enrich these fields. Chapters 1, 15 and 20.of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY) 4.0 license.