Jonathan Benthall – författare

The articles in this influential journal placed it in the thick of a turbulent period for anthropology. Reacting to current research interests and launching what were often heated debates, it set the agenda for disciplinary change and new research.Once described the American Anthropological Association as creating 'a strong voice for anthropology in the public arena', the Founder Editor, Jonathan Benthall, introduces here a personal selection of articles and letters with his own candid retrospect, arguing that the discipline's greatest strength and potential lies in testing and refining the ideas of other disciplines. Once described by the American Anthropological Association as creating 'a strong voice for anthropology in the public arena', the founder editor, Jonathan Benthall, introduces here a personal selection of articles and letters with his own candid retrospect, arguing that the discipline's greatest strength and potential lies in telling and refining the ideas of other disciplines.

This book is the fruit of twenty years' reflection on Islamic charities, both practically and as a key to understand the crisis in contemporary Islam. On the one hand Islam is undervalued as a moral and political force whose admirable qualities are epitomised in its strong tradition of charitable giving. On the other hand, it suffers from a crisis of authority that cannot be blamed entirely on the history of colonialism and stigmatisation to which Muslims have undoubtedly been subjected - most recently, as a result of the "War on Terror".The book consists of seventeen previously published chapters, with a general introduction and new prefatory material for each chapter. Part one reviews the current situation of Islamic charities from many different viewpoints. Part two expands the coverage to explore the potential for a twenty-first century global "Islamic humanism" devised by Muslims. This means addressing contentious topics such as religious toleration.

Written at a time when disasters both natural - drought, famine - and manmade - the war in Yugoslavia, civil strike in South Africa - fill our TV screens and newspapers, and when politicians are arguing over how many refugees Britain should accept, this book examines the way in which relief agencies and the media interact, and illustrates many of the organizational, moral and political problems facing them. Dr Benthall considers the different styles and "marketing techniques" of the different agencies, with particular attention paid to the power of television. There are also accounts of two modern calamities: the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s and the Armenian earthquake of 1988.

This book is the fruit of twenty years' reflection on Islamic charities, both practically and as a key to understand the crisis in contemporary Islam. On the one hand Islam is undervalued as a moral and political force whose admirable qualities are epitomised in its strong tradition of charitable giving. On the other hand, it suffers from a crisis of authority that cannot be blamed entirely on the history of colonialism and stigmatisation to which Muslims have undoubtedly been subjected - most recently, as a result of the "War on Terror".The book consists of seventeen previously published chapters, with a general introduction and new prefatory material for each chapter. Part one reviews the current situation of Islamic charities from many different viewpoints. Part two expands the coverage to explore the potential for a twenty-first century global "Islamic humanism" devised by Muslims. This means addressing contentious topics such as religious toleration.

How can one explain the resurgence of religion, even in a western context of rationality, postmodernity and scientific endeavour? The persistence of religious expression has compelled even diehard secularists, or proponents of the 'secularization thesis', to rethink their positions. Jonathan Benthall explains precisely why societies are not bound to embrace western liberal rationality as an evolutionary inevitability. He shows that the opposite is true: that where a secular society represses the religious imagination, the human predisposition to religion will in the end break out in surprising, apparently secular, modes and outlets.Concentrating on what he calls 'para-religion', a kind of secular spirituality that manifests itself within movements and organisations who consider themselves motivated by wholly rational considerations, Benthall uncovers a paradox: despite themselves, they are haunted by the shadow of irrationality. Arguing that humanitarianism, environmentalism, the animal rights movement, popular archaeology and anthropology all have 'religiod' aspects, his startling conclusion is that religion, rather than coming 'back', in fact never went away.A human universal, the 'religious inclination' underlies the fabric of who we are, and is essential for the healthy functioning of any society.