Synopses & Reviews
Beneath the histories of religious traditions--from biblical wars to crusading ventures and great acts of martyrdom--violence has lurked as a shadowy presence. Images of death have never been far from the heart of religion's power to stir the imagination. In this wide-ranging and erudite book, Mark Juergensmeyer asks one of the most important and perplexing questions of our age: Why do religious people commit violent acts in the name of their god, taking the lives of innocent victims and terrorizing entire populations?
This, the first comparative study of religious terrorism, explores incidents such as the World Trade Center explosion, Hamas suicide bombings, the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack, and the killing of abortion clinic doctors in the United States. Incorporating personal interviews with World Trade Center bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, Christian Right activist Mike Bray, Hamas leaders Sheik Yassin and Abdul Azis Rantisi, and Sikh political leader Simranjit Singh Mann, among others, Juergensmeyer takes us into the mindset of those who perpetrate and support violent acts. In the process, he helps us understand why these acts are often associated with religious causes and why they occur with such frequency at this moment in history.
Terror in the Mind of God places these acts of violence in the context of global political and social changes, and posits them as attempts to empower the cultures of violence that support them. Juergensmeyer analyzes the economic, ideological, and gender-related dimensions of cultures that embrace a central sacred concept--cosmic war--and that employ religion to demonize their enemies.
Juergensmeyer's narrative is engaging, incisive, and sweeping in scope. He convincingly shows that while, in many cases, religion supplies not only the ideology but also the motivation and organizational structure for the perpetrators of violent acts, it also carries with it the possibilities for peace.
Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000
Review
“[An] insightful and ambitious new book.”
Review
“An informative and highly readable account that puts faces and names on what is quickly becoming the major expression of Christianity around the globe.”
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“Offers scholarly precision and journalistic engagement, not a fast and easy series of happy stories—but it's worth the effort.”
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“This book is a delight to read. The sense that you are discovering a new and exciting spiritual movement inhabits every page.”
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“This is a highly recommended and readable book.”
Synopsis
Sexuality and the occult arts have long been associated in the western imagination, but it was not until the nineteenth century that a large and sophisticated body of literature on sexual magicand#151;the use of sex as a source of magical powerand#151;emerged. This book, the first history of western sexual magic as a modern spiritual tradition, places these practices in the context of the larger discourse surrounding sexuality in American and European society over the last 150 years to discover how sexual magic was transformed from a terrifying medieval nightmare of heresy and social subversion into a modern ideal of personal empowerment and social liberation. Focusing on a series of key figures including American spiritualist Paschal Beverly Randolph, Aleister Crowley, Julius Evola, Gerald Gardner, and Anton LaVey, Hugh Urban traces the emergence of sexual magic out of older western esoteric traditions including Gnosticism and Kabbalah, which were progressively fused with recently-discovered eastern traditions such as Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. His study gives remarkable new insight into sexuality in the modern era, specifically on issues such as the politics of birth control, the classification of sexual and#147;deviance,and#8221; debates over homosexuality and feminism, and the role of sexuality in our own new world of post-modern spirituality, consumer capitalism, and the Internet.
Synopsis
"This book offers a fascinating account of the development of Western sexual magic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Urban focuses on an extraordinary set of historical figures, and his rich analysis illuminates the sexualand#151;and supernaturaland#151;undercurrents that have shaped modernity."and#151;Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World
Synopsis
Why has the turn of the twenty-first century been rocked by a new religious rebellion? From al Qaeda to Christian militias to insurgents in Iraq, a strident new religious activism has seized the imaginations of political rebels around the world. Building on his groundbreaking book, The New Cold War?: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, Mark Juergensmeyer here provides an up-to-date road map through this complex new religious terrain. Basing his discussion on interviews with militant activists and case studies of rebellious movements, Juergensmeyer puts a human face on conflicts that have become increasingly abstract. He revises our notions of religious revolution and offers positive proposals for responding to religious activism in ways that will diminish the violence and lead to an accommodation between radical religion and the secular world.
Synopsis
"This is an indispensable book in helping us understand the new world disorder that seems to be overtaking us. Juergensmeyer points out that much of the world neither understands nor finds attractive the idea of a 'secular state.' He helps us see that religious nationalism is a fact of life that will be with us for a long time to come. Deconstructing any simple notion of 'fundamentalism,' he shows us how it is possible to live with religious nationalism constructively without demonizing it. That is a major achievement."Robert Bellah, coauthor of
Habits of the HeartFor years, Mark Juergensmeyer has served as a kind of Cassandra figure, warning us all about the rise of religious violence, the global reach of religious nationalism, and the challenges posed by new religious identities to the secular nation-state. Now that the world is finally listening, Juergensmeyer remains our best guide in unraveling the complex interplay between religion and politics in the modern world. Global Rebellion once again demonstrates why Juergensmeyer is the foremost authority on the global sociology of religion. This is an awe-inspiring work by arguably the most important thinker on the subject. Reza Aslan, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
Synopsis
How and why is Christianity's center of gravity shifting to the developing world? To understand this rapidly growing phenomenon, Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori spent four years traveling the globe conducting extensive on-the-ground research in twenty different countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The result is this vividly detailed book and accompanying online material, which together contain the most comprehensive information available on Pentecostalism, the fastest-growing religion in the world. Rich with scenes from everyday life, Miller and Yamamori dispel many stereotypes about this religion as they build a wide-ranging, nuanced portrait of a major new social movement. The online ancillary material features footage of Pentecostal religious worship, testimony, and social activism, and includes interviews with Pentecostal pastors and leaders from around the world.
Synopsis
"This book is an important contribution. Written in an engaging style and filled with highly instructive material, it provides an impressive picture of what is arguably the most dynamic religious phenomenon of our time: the worldwide explosion of Pentecostalism. Miller and Yamamori deftly reveal how religion is effecting societies and cultures around the globe."Peter L. Berger, Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University
"Miller and Yamamori are explorers bringing word to the First World of a large Third World religious development that, until now, has barely broken the surface of our awareness. This book marks the beginning of what will be a large and significant discussion."Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize winner for God: A Biography
"Global Pentecostalism is immensely important, informative, and readable. The scope of the research is also amazingly impressive. The simultaneously wide-ranging and yet grass-rootsy empirical data collection provides a truly unique character for the book."Christian Smith, author of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
"Global Pentecostalism is beautifully written and friendly to an audience of practitioners as well as to academic and professional researchers. The empirical research is unprecedented, and the volume will stand alone in the marketplace."Doug Petersen, Margaret S. Smith Professor of Intercultural Studies, Vanguard University
Synopsis
A complex body of religious practices that spread throughout the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions; a form of spirituality that seemingly combines sexuality, sensual pleasure, and the full range of physical experience with the religious lifeand#151;Tantra has held a central yet conflicted role within the Western imagination ever since the first "discovery" of Indian religions by European scholars. Always radical, always extremely Other, Tantra has proven a key factor in the imagining of India. This book offers a critical account of how the phenomenon has come to be.
Tracing the complex genealogy of Tantra as a category within the history of religions, Hugh B. Urban reveals how it has been formed through the interplay of popular and scholarly imaginations. Tantra emerges as a product of mirroring and misrepresentation at work between East and West--a dialectical category born out of the ongoing play between Western and Indian minds. Combining historical detail, textual analysis, popular cultural phenomena, and critical theory, this book shows Tantra as a shifting amalgam of fantasies, fears, and wish-fulfillment, at once native and Other, that strikes at the very heart of our constructions of the exotic Orient and the contemporary West.
Synopsis
"A powerful book demonstrating how the Western study of Hinduism, Indian religious texts, and American popular culture have become related to one another in exceptionally intimate and creative ways. Urban refuses to narrate yet another postcolonial narrative about the evil West, producing instead a subtle and much more accurate reading of the cultural encounter that produced, intentionally or not, a new form of erotic mysticism-Western Tantra."and#151;Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna
Synopsis
Completely revised and updated, this new edition of Terror in the Mind of God incorporates the events of September 11, 2001 into Mark Juergensmeyer's landmark study of religious terrorism. Juergensmeyer explores the 1993 World Trade Center explosion, Hamas suicide bombings, the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack, and the killing of abortion clinic doctors in the United States. His personal interviews with 1993 World Trade Center bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, Christian Right activist Mike Bray, Hamas leaders Sheik Yassin and Abdul Azis Rantisi, and Sikh political leader Simranjit Singh Mann, among others, take us into the mindset of those who perpetrate and support violence in the name of religion.
Synopsis
"By studying different 'cultures of violence' Mark Juergensmeyer has provided a plausible and imaginative interpretation of this phenomenon. He presents a lucid and compelling argument that does not belittle or demonize its subjects. This is an important contribution to our knowledge of the relationship between religion and violence."and#151;Martha Crenshaw, editor of
Terrorism in Context "In this important book Juergensmeyer argues that the violence associated with religion is not an aberration but comes from the fundamental structures of the belief system of all major religions. Juergensmeyer has achieved what very few scholars can do with much success, providing an insightful analysis of the function of religion in national and international life while moving in broad sweeps from culture to culture and continent to continent."and#151;Ainslie T. Embree, former cultural attachand#233;, United States Embassy, New Delhi
"Half of the world's thirty most dangerous terrorist groups claim religion as their motivation. How can the word of God sanction acts of terror against human beings ? How can violence become a sacred duty ? These are the questions at the heart of Mark Juergensmeyer's calm, lucid, insightful and compassionate book. What sets it apart is Juergensmeyer's dedicated attempt to talk to former terrorists and work his way into their state of mind. His book shines light on the dark places from which terror springs." and#151; Michael Ignatieff, author of The Warrior's Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience
Synopsis
Zorba the Buddha is the first comprehensive study of the life, teachings, and following of the controversial Indian guru known in his youth as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and in his later years as Osho (1931and#150;1990). Most Americans today remember him only as the and#147;sex guruand#8221; and the and#147;Rolls Royce guru,and#8221; who built a hugely successful but scandal-ridden utopian community in central Oregon during the 1980s. Yet Osho was arguably the first truly global guru of the twentieth century, creating a large transnational movement that traced a complex global circuit from the post-Independence India of the 1960s to Reaganand#8217;s America of the 1980s and back to a developing new India in the 1990s. The Osho movement not only reflects but critically embodies some of the most important economic and spiritual currents of the last forty years, emerging within and adapting to an increasingly interconnected and conflicted late-capitalist world order. Based on extensive ethnographic and archival research, Hugh Urban has created a rich and powerful narrative that is a must-read for anyone interested in religion and globalization.
About the Author
Donald Miller, Professor of Religion and Executive Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, is the author of Reinventing American Protestantism (UC Press) and editor of Gen X Religion, among other books. Tetsunao Yamamori, President Emeritus of Food for the Hungry International and Senior Fellow of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, is the author and editor of two dozen books including Exploring Religious Meaning and Penetrating Missions' Final Frontier.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface, Acknowledgments, and Apologies
introduction
Sex Magic, Modernity, and the Search for Liberation
1. the recurring nightmare, the elusive secret
Historical and Imaginary Roots of Sex Magic in the Western
Tradition
2. sex power is god power
Paschal Beverly Randolph and the Birth of Sex Magic in
Victorian America
3. the yoga of sex
Tantra, Kama Sutra, and Other Exotic Imports from the
Mysterious Orient
4. the beast with two backs
Aleister Crowley and Sex Magick in Late Victorian England
5. the yoga of power
Sex Magic, Tantra, and Fascism in Twentieth-Century Europe
6. the goddess and the great rite
Sex Magic and Feminism in the Neo-Pagan Revival
7. the age of satan
Satanic Sex and the Black Mass, from Fantasy to Reality
8. sexual chaos
Chaos Magic, Cybersex, and Religion for a Postmodern Age
conclusion
The Lessons of King Lamus: Religion, Sexuality,
and Liberation in a and#147;Post-Orgyand#8221; World
Notes
Bibliography
Index