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Since the fourth century, Christians have wrestled with how they should interact with political authority. The most common view holds that while their ultimate loyalty rightfully belongs to God, Christians also have allegiance to their countries and a moral responsibility to transform their political systems. The author provides a normative critique of this conventional view and advances an alternative approach. While it may seem natural for the church to fervently engage in political life and cultivate a close relationship with the state, Saiya argues that such beliefs result in a 'paradox of privilege'. As he shows, when the church yields to the seduction of political power when enjoying the benefits of an alliance with the state, it struggles to adhere to its tenets, and when it resists the allure of state power, it does its best work.

Since the fourth century, Christians have wrestled with how they should interact with political authority. The most common view holds that while their ultimate loyalty rightfully belongs to God, Christians also have allegiance to their countries and a moral responsibility to transform their political systems. The author provides a normative critique of this conventional view and advances an alternative approach. While it may seem natural for the church to fervently engage in political life and cultivate a close relationship with the state, Saiya argues that such beliefs result in a 'paradox of privilege'. As he shows, when the church yields to the seduction of political power when enjoying the benefits of an alliance with the state, it struggles to adhere to its tenets, and when it resists the allure of state power, it does its best work.

ABSTRACTMany younger scholars have experience writing research articles and grant proposals but know relatively little about academic book publishing. Graduate training often provides little guidance to students regarding how to navigate the academic book-publishing process. This is unfortunate given that book publishing differs dramatically from publishing research articles. Drawing on the author's own experiences and conversations with editors, this article provides concrete advise for first-time authors who hope to publish a scholarly book with a university press. The specific topics discussed include crafting proposals, finding appropriate presses, reaching out to editors, the peer-review process, securing and negotiating contracts, and production.

The twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes presents a good occasion for scholars and policymakers to take stock of what has been learned about Islamist, anti-American terrorists. In this article, the author evaluates a number of proposed causes of terrorism against the empirical record of 60 individuals who, claiming to have been motivated by their understanding of Islam, have plotted or carried out attacks against the American homeland. The analysis finds that while many theories of terrorism fail to explain the phenomenon of Islamist, anti-American terrorism, these terrorists do share a few traits, namely that they tend to be well-educated, young men reared in countries characterized by government repression, many of which happen to be security partners of the United States. The insights of this analysis suggest a number of policy prescriptions. ; Published version