Sathianathan Clarke

Stephen Pickard

The twenty-first century has seen violence thunder back onto the world stage. Religious fundamentalism and other economic, political, and cultural forces are increasingly in the business of carving out strong nation-states. Religious fundamentalism and illiberal nationalism also work together to generate, catalog, and circulate a fixed platform of "truths" that are deeply mistaken and that generate division and violence. Against this backdrop and on the heels of several commemorations in 2019 of the 150th anniversary of Mohandes Karamchand Gandhi's birth, this edited volume examines and interprets Gandhi's religious and political ideas of truth for our age. Embedded in the political currents, especially those ranging in India and the United States, the authors carefully excavate and creatively employ Gandhi's thought and practice to reimagine a religiously plural and broadly inclusive nationalism rooted in a universal yet many-sided vision of religious truth. Rather than glorify the Mahatma (great soul), this book revisits Gandhi's ideas of truth-force (satyagraha) in the face of fake news, nonviolence (ahimsa) in the face of religious extremism, and freedom (swaraj) in the face of strong nationalism. Book jacket.

Gandhi's Truths in an Age of Fundamentalism and Nationalism

Why do certain groups and individuals seek to do harm in the name of God? While studies often claim to hold the key to this frightening phenomenon, they seldom account for the crucial role that religious conviction plays, not just in radical Islam, but also in the fundamentalist branches of the world's two other largest religions: Christianity and Hinduism. As the first book to examine violent extremism in all three religions together, Competing Fundamentalisms draws on studies in sociology, psychology, culture, and economicswhile focusing on the central role of religious ideasto paint a richer portrait of this potent force in modern life. Clarke argues that the forces of globalization fuel the aggression of these movements to produce the competing feature of religious fundamentalisms, which have more in common with their counterparts across religious lines than they do with the members of their own religions. He proposes ways to deescalate religious violence in the service of peacemaking. Readers will gain important insights into how violent religious fundamentalism works in the world's three largest religions and learn new strategies for promoting peace in the context of contemporary interreligious conflict.

Violent Extremism in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism

Competing Fundamentalisms

Why do certain groups and individuals seek to do harm in the name of God? While studies often claim to hold the key to this frightening phenomenon, they seldom account for the crucial role that religious conviction plays, not just in radical Islam, but also in the fundamentalist branches of the world's two other largest religions: Christianity and Hinduism. As the first book to examine violent extremism in all three religions together, Competing Fundamentalisms draws on studies in sociology, psychology, culture, and economics--while focusing on the central role of religious ideas--to paint a richer portrait of this potent force in modern life. Clarke argues that the forces of globalization fuel the aggression of these movements to produce the competing feature of religious fundamentalisms, which have more in common with their counterparts across religious lines than they do with the members of their own religions. He proposes ways to deescalate religious violence in the service of peacemaking. Readers will gain important insights into how violent religious fundamentalism works in the world's three largest religions and learn new strategies for promoting peace in the context of contemporary interreligious conflict.

Rowena Robinson

Assistant Professor Department of Humanities and Social Scences Rowena Robinson

Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics Sathianathan Clarke

This volume covers conversion in India to Islam, Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. It looks at the influences on conversion in a comparative perspective. The book seeks to look at the pre-British, British and post-Independence periods.

Modes, Motivations, and Meanings

Religious Conversion in India

The twenty-first century has seen violence thunder back onto the stage of history. Religious, political, social, cultural, and economic constituents and interests thus contribute to the local and global manifestations of violence in our interconnected and contracting global world. Firmly embedded within the field of religion, the authors of this volume concede that religious motifs and impulses are alive and well in this unfolding of bloodshed. It is no wonder then that in our volatile historical age, religious fundamentalism and illiberal nationalism have emerged as dominant contemporary movements. Against this backdrop, the contributors to this edited book look back in order to move forward by reflecting upon the truth-force (Satyagraha) that grounded and guided Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). On the heels of several commemorations in 2019 of the 150th anniversary of Gandhi's birth, we reexamine the truths of his philosophy and nonviolent strategy to resist religious and political fundamentalisms. Embracing truth was, for Gandhi, the only way to achieve complete freedom (poorna Swaraj). The goal of freedom, which Gandhi conceptualized as profoundly personal, expansively communitarian, and organically ecological, emanates from a firm grasp of truth.

Martyn Percy

Mark D. Chapman

The 44 essays in this volume embrace a wide range of academic disciplines: theological; historical; demography and geography; and different aspects of culture and ethics. They are united in their discussion of what is effectively a new inter-disciplinary subject which we have termed 'Anglican Studies'. The contributions are drawn from across the spectrum of theological views and opinions. It shows that the unsettled nature of the polity is part of its own richhistory; and many will see this as a somewhat lustrous tradition. In its comprehensive coverage, this volume is a valuable contribution to Anglican Studies and helps formulate a discipline that mightperhaps promote dialogue and discussion across the Anglican world.

Sathianathan Clarke

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