Said Amir Arjomand is Professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author of a number of books, including Authority and Culture in Shi'ism, published by SUNY Press, and the editor of the SUNY Press Series in Near Eastern Studies.

"The only other book that deals with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim fundamentalism is the book by Bruce Lawrence. It does not have the range of Arjomand's book." — Hamid Algar, University of California, Berkeley"In this book, Said Amir Arjomand has brought together a number of brilliant essays, each addressing a particular aspect of that beguiling force of attraction that relentlessly keeps religion and politics in close proximity—in a wavering space where the sacred and the violent vie for power with implacable ferocity." — Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

• Contributors Preface Introduction Part I. Religion and the Institution of Order 1. Religion and the Civilizational Dimensions of PoliticsS. N. Eisenstadt 2. Religion and the Diversity of Normative OrdersSaid Amir Arjomand 3. Religion and Constitutionalism in Western History and in Modern Iran and PakistanSaid Amir Arjomand 4. Church, State, Nation, and Civil Society in Spain and PolandJosé Casanova Part II. Utopian Religious Beliefs and Political Action 5. Lost Primeval Bliss as Re-volutionary Expectation: Millennialism of Crisis In Peru and the PhilippinesManuel Sarkisyanz 6. Note on the Shining Path and Modernized Millennialism in PeruJavier Diaz-Albertini 7. Antinomian Conduct at the Millennium: Metaphorical Conceptions of Time in Social Science and Social LifeKaren E. Fields 8. Culture and Politics in Vietnamese CaodaismManuel Sarkisyanz 9. Millennial Beliefs, Hierocratic Authority, and Revolution in Shi'ite IranSaid Amir Arjomand Part III. Normative Contentions and Current Issues 10. Fundamentalism and the Political Mobilization of WomenMartin Riesebrodt 11. An American Paradox: The Place of Religion in an Ambiguous PolitySteven M. Tipton Index