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Mas examines Anidjar's response to Nancy in order to argue against readings that understand Anidjar's treatment of the concept of Christianity as indiscriminately referring to secularism, globalisation, the West, or Westernisation. In Mas's reading, Christianity is simply a conceptual instantiation of the continuity between, of, and from civilisational and imperial power. Mas argues that to understand the discursivity of Christianity as a concept is to examine how its shifts and expansions are organised, deployed, and put into movement by power. Mas then goes on to ask what a concept is, and thereby semantically uncovers the functioning of power at the moment of the "is." This insistence on the question of power allows Mas to unpack and develop the problematic that lies behind Anidjar's engagement with the nature of the concept as a polemical (and thus dividing, separating, and isolating) exercise within the grammar it has mapped out. This polemical exercise functions as the expansive moment of "Christianity" in its conceptual extension to "religion" (and also to "secularism), an extension that is divisive in function and thus operative of power.

The weakness of Brazil's black consciousness movement is commonly attributed to the fragility of Afro-Brazilian ethnic identity. In a major account, John Burdick challenges this view by revealing the many-layered reality of popular black consciousness and identity in an arena that is usually overlooked: that of popular Christianity.Blessed Anastacia describes how popular Christianity confronts everyday racism and contributes to the formation of racial identity. The author concludes that if organizers of the black consciousness movement were to recognize the profound racial meaning inherent in

A review essay on a book by Daniel J. Goldhagen, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (New York: Knopf, 2002).

AbstractThis paper will look at converted Christian communities on the Indian subcontinent and the emergent rich bricolage of religious traditions. A narrative of Indian Christianity takes us almost imperceptibly into the realm of cultural convergence and communication. While the concepts of 'syncretism' or 'composite culture' have framed many discussions regarding this interaction, newer perspectives have begun to emerge. Syncretism sometimes implies the harmonious interaction of different religious traditions, while ethnographies bring up a far more complicated picture of contestation and struggle. We also need to look closely at patterns of religious interaction and engagement. Christianity may take from Hinduism, but this is not always the case. Sometimes both Christianity and Hinduism simultaneously engage with a different religious and cultural environment. Processes are more complex than they at first sight appear and, as this paper will attempt to show, some amount of historicisation is essential when understanding the ways in which they work.

Religious fundamentalism in the twenty-first century : a beast with many heads -- Christian fundamentalism -- Muslim fundamentalism -- Hindu fundamentalism -- Competing religious fundamentalisms -- Countering violence and nurturing peace in the context of competing religious fundamentalisms

Charting the rise and development of Christianity, Carter Lindberg has succeeded in writing a concise and compelling history of the world's largest religion. He spans over 2,000 years of colorful incident to give an authoritative history of Christianity for both the general reader and the beginning student. Ranges from the missionary journeys of the apostles to the tele-evangelism of the twenty-first century.Demonstrates how the Christian community received and forged its identity from its development of the Bible to the present day.Covers topics fundamental to understanding the course of West

Introduction: what is mysticism? -- The birth and development of the Abrahamic faiths -- The roots of Judaism and Christianity -- The emergence of Jewish mystical thought -- Early Christian mysticism -- A third player on the stage: Muslim mysticism from the Qur'an to Ibn 'Arabi -- Medieval Jewish mysticism form Merkavah to Kabbalah -- Medieval Christian mysticism from Assisi to Avila -- The spread of and variety within Sufism -- Variations within Jewish and Christian mysticism from the Renaissance through emancipation -- Still searching: the persistence of mysticism in the modern era -- Unfinished epilogues