Gods in the Global Village

Lester R. Kurtz is Professor of Public Sociology at George Mason University, where he teaches the comparative sociology of religion, peace and conflict, social movements, globalization, and both Western and non-Western social theory. He has lectured regularly at the European Peace University and was previously Director of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Prof. Kurtz holds a Master’s in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He is editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (Elsevier), coeditor of the two-volume Women, War and Violence (Praeger), Nonviolent Conflict and Civil Resistance (Emerald), Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (Blackwell), and The Web of Violence: From Interpersonal to Global (University of Illinois Press). He is also the author of numerous books and articles on religion and conflict peace, including The Nuclear Cage: A Sociology of the Arms Race (Prentice Hall) and The Politics of Heresy: The Modernist Crisis in Roman Catholicism (University of California Press), which received the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Distinguished Book Award. He is currently working on books titled Gods and Bombs: Religion and the Rhetoric of Violence and another on Fighting Violence. Prof. Kurtz is the past Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Association as well as the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association, which awarded him its Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award in 2005. He received the Lester F. Ward Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied and Clinical Sociology in 2014 and has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Delhi University in India, and Tunghai University in Taiwan.

• About the AuthorPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Religious Life in the Global VillageReligion and the Globalization of Social LifeReligion and the Sociological TraditionTools of the TradeThree Pillars of Analysis: Beliefs, Rituals, and InstitutionsMajor Themes in the Sociology of Religion2. A Sociological Tour: Turning EastTypes of Religious TraditionsHinduism, or Sanatana DharmaBuddhismSikhismReligious Life in China and East Asia3. The Tour: Western Religions - Judaism, Christianity, and IslamProlegomena: The Ancient GreeksJudaismChristianityIslamKinship Network Continuities in Judaism and IslamThe Social Construction of Religious TraditionsThe Elementary Forms of Religious Life4. Indigenous ReligionsIndigenous BeliefsIndigenous RitualsIndigenous InstitutionsIndigenous Environmentalism5. The Religious EthosConstructing a Religious EthosReligion and Identity ConstructionReligion and StratificationReligious Taboo Lines and Ethical SystemsReligion and SexualityReligion and PoliticsThe Ethos of the Global Village6. Modernism and MulticulturalismFrom Local to CosmopolitanThe Challenge of ModernismHistorical Outcomes of the Modernist CrisisThe Modernist Crisis and the 21st CenturyThe Crisis of Multiculturalism7. Religious Movements for a New CenturyCivil Religion and NationalismReligious Syncretism and Alternative Religious MovementsNew Forms of ReligiosityWomen’s MovementsReligious Environmental MovementsConstructing and Reconstructing Religious Life8. Religion and Social ConflictA Theory of Religious ConflictReligion and the Problem of ViolenceReligious Contributions to NonviolenceIslam and NonviolenceChaos or Community?NotesReferencesGlossary/Index