Synopses & Reviews
"Outstanding and original.
Transnational Transcendence unsettles some widely accepted understandings in the field and brings together a range of expert scholars; the standard is superior."and#151;Fenella Cannell, author of
Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines"Scholars of modernization have not adequately addressed the global 'return of religion' in our time. In this excellent collection, a number of distinguished authors (including the editor himself) help the interested reader to understand the phenomenon in illuminating ways."and#151;Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center
and#147;This broad ranging and theoretically powerful collection is the first serious attempt to come to grips with the relation between religious experience in terms of globalization, not in terms of the mere diffusion of texts and objects but of the social and personal conditions of religious experience in relation to the global displacement of such texts and object. Its searching essays open up a new field of study of the relation between global process and social experience that is sorely needed to get beyond the current object oriented approaches to globalization.and#8221;and#151;Jonathan Friedman, University of California, San Diego
Review
and#8220;Strongly recommended to scholars seeking an advanced understanding of religion and globalisation.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Few studies of transnationalism or globalization have treated religion in such theoretical depth. . . . Recommended.and#8221;
Review
“The volume is a sub substantial contribution to scholarship on globalization.” Journal Royal Anthro Inst
Review
and#8220;In a short review one cannot do justice to a collection like this. [It] cries out for a more detailed response.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The volume is a sub substantial contribution to scholarship on globalization.and#8221;
Synopsis
This innovative collection examines the transnational movements, effects, and transformations of religion in the contemporary world, offering a fresh perspective on the interrelation between globalization and religion. Transnational Transcendence challenges some widely accepted ideas about this relationshipand#151;in particular, that globalization can be understood solely as an economic phenomenon and that its religious manifestations are secondary. The book points out that religion's role remains understudied and undertheorized as an element in debates about globalization, and it raises questions about how and why certain forms of religious practice and intersubjectivity succeed as they cross national and cultural boundaries. Framed by Thomas J. Csordas's introduction, this timely volume both urges further development of a theory of religion and globalization and constitutes an important step toward that theory.
About the Author
Thomas J. Csordas is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Language, Charisma, and Creativity; The Sacred Self; and Body/Meaning/Healing, as well as editor of Embodiment and Experience.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Modalities of Transnational Transcendence
Thomas J. Csordas
1. Missionization in the Postcolonial World: A View from Brazil and Elsewhere
Otand#225;vio Velho
2. Is the Trans- in Transnational the Trans- in Transcendent? On Alterity and the Sacred in the Age of Globalization
Joel Robbins
3. Global Religion and the Reenchantment of the World: The Case of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal
Thomas J. Csordas
4. Veiled Missionaries and Embattled Christians in Colonial Sudan
Janice Boddy
5. Beyond Integration and Recognition: Diasporic Constructions of Alevi Muslim Identity between Germany and Turkey
Esra and#214;zyand#252;rek
6. The Burning: Finitude and the Political-Theological Imagination of Illegal Migration
Stefania Pandolfo
7. Trajectories, Frontiers, and Reparations in the Expansion of Santo Daime to Europe
Alberto Groisman
8. The Orisha Atlantic: Historicizing the Roots of a Global Religion
Peter F. Cohen
9. The Many Who Dance in Me: Afro-Atlantic Ontology and the Problem with "Transnationalism"
J. Lorand Matory
10. Global Breathing: Religious Utopias in India and China
Peter van der Veer
11. The Return Path: Anthropology of a Western Yogi
Kathinka Froystad
12. The Global Reach of Gods and the Travels of Korean Shamans
Laurel Kendall
Contributors
Index