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I connect the invention of Japanese 'religion' since the Meiji era (1868–1912) with the invention of other modern imaginaries, particularly the Japanese Nation State and Japanese History. The invention of these powerful fictions in Japan was a specific, localised example of a global process. The real significance of this idea that religion has always existed in all times and places is that it normalises the idea of the non-religious secular as the arena of universal reason and progress. The invention of Japanese 'religion' had—and still has—a significant function in the wider, global context of colonial capital and the continual search for new 'investment' opportunities. Meiji Japan illustrates, in fascinating detail, a process of cognitive hegemony, and the way a globalising discourse on 'progress' transformed the plunder of colonial sites into a civilising mission. The idea that there is a universal type of practice, belief or institution called 'religion' as distinct from government, 'politics' or 'science' was not only new to Japan. It hardly existed in England or more widely in Protestant Europe and North America until the eighteenth or even 19th century. The idea of a secular constitutional nation state was only emergent in the late 18th century with the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Most of Europe—including the colonial powers England and France—were still Christian confessional church states through most of the 19th century. The franchise was granted only to Christian men of substantial property, and denied to women, servants, wage labour, colonised subjects, and slaves. This critical, deconstructive narrative helps us to see more clearly the ideological function of the generic category of religion in the wider configuration of modern secular categories such as constitutional nation state, political economy, nature, history, and science. I also discuss the relation between History as a secular academic science, and the invention of 'the Past' in universal Time. I argue here that ...

"Hebraism in Religion, History, and Politics is an investigation into Hebraism as a category of cultural analysis within the history of Christendom. Its aim is to determine what Hebraism means or should mean when it is used. The characteristics of Hebraism indicate a changing relation between the Old and New Testaments that arose in Medieval and early modern Europe, between on the one hand a doctrinally universal Christianity, and on the other various Christian nations that were understood as being a 'new Israel'. Thus, Hebraism refers to the development of a paradoxically intriguing 'Jewish Christianity' or an 'Old Testament Christianity'. It represents a 'third culture' in contrast to the culture of Roman or Hellenistic empire and Christian universalism. There were attempts, with varying success, during the twentieth century to clarify Hebraism as a category of cultural history and religious history. Steven Grosby expertly contributes to that clarification. In so doing, the possibility arises that Hebraism and Hebraic culture offer a different way to look at religion, its history, and the history of the West." -- book jacket

Genocide is commonly understood to be a terrible aberration in human behavior, performed by evil, murderous regimes such as the Nazis and dictators like Suharto and Pinochet. John Docker argues that the roots of genocide go far deeper into human nature than most people realize. Genocide features widely in the Bible, the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and debates about the Enlightenment. These texts are studied in depth to trace the origins of violence through time and across civilizations. Developing the groundbreaking work of Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term 'genocide', Docker guides us from the dawn of agricultural society, through classical civilization to the present, showing that violence between groups has been integral to all periods of history. This revealing book will be of great interest to those wishing to understand the roots of genocide and why it persists in the modern age

In this thesis, I analyze the rhetoric circulating during the 1977-78 textbook controversy debates and further probe into the politics of religion and identity in post-Independence India. I discuss the subsequent issues that have emerged due to a deeply divided and disputed historical narrative about who Indians are (and who they should be) as well as how Hindus and Muslims have internalized their identities. Further, I analyze Rajya Sabha debates from 1977-78 to trace the ideograph as it moves through Indian political discourse and discuss its implications for Indian multiculturalism and communal coexistence.

This book includes studies of main conflict areas in modern Western societies where religion has been a central element, ranging from popular movements and narratives of opposition to challenges of religious satire and anti-clerical critique. Special attention is given to matters of politics and gender. With this theme, it provides a useful guide to conflict areas in modern European religious history.

A four-year-old Muslim boy was brought to a local Cologne emergency room by his mother, who was concerned about minor bleeding around the site of a circumcision. A District Court there found that circumcision, notwithstanding parental consent or religious motivation, constituted a criminal bodily injury and child abuse. Ultimately, on July 19, 2012 the Bundestag resolved that "Jewish and Muslim religious life be viable in Germany," and in December a bill was passed that legislatively overrode the ruling of the District Court and recognized circumcision as a non-punishable undertaking when undertaken for religious reasons by someone professionally trained. Two years of rancorous debate revealed a whole range of historical and contemporary fissures. This essay examines the dynamics of the debate and its various outcomes. In particular it asks whether the conflicts generated by practices like male circumcision can in immigrant societies be assimilated to prevailing religious freedom models. The key questions aired were: (1) Germany's relations with its Muslim immigrants; (2) Germany's relations with its fragile Jewish minority; (3) proper weightings of the relationship among parents, child, and state; and (4) the deference owed medical thinking. Immigrant integration, religious freedom, group rights, and the meaning of "enlightenment" all remain sharply contested.

Collett reviews 'Not by Reason Alone: Religion, History and Identity in Early Modern European Thought' by Joshua Mitchell.