Claiming Society for God: Religious Movements and Social Welfare
Author(s): Class Robert V Robinson (Author)
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication Date: 30 May 2012
Language: English
Print length: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0253002346
ISBN-13: 9780253002341
Book Description
Claiming Society for God focuses on common strategies employed by religiously orthodox, “fundamentalist” movements around the world. Rather than employing terrorism, as much of post-9/11 thinking suggests, the most prominent and successful religiously orthodox movements use a patient, under-the-radar strategy of infiltrating and subtly transforming civil society. Nancy J. Davis and Robert V. Robinson tell the stories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Shas in Israel, Comunione e Liberazione in Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States. They show how these orthodox movements are building massive grassroots networks of religiously based social service agencies, hospitals and clinics, rotating credit societies, schools, charitable organizations, worship centers, and businesses. These networks are already being called states within states, surrogate states, or parallel societies, and in Egypt have now brought the Muslim Brotherhood to control of parliament. This bottom-up, entrepreneurial strategy is aimed at nothing less than making religion the cornerstone of society.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Illuminating intersections of religion and public life in four different nations, this book is topical. Given that two of these nations are in the Middle East and one of them is the U.S., it is of very contemporary relevance. Given that one of them is Egypt, it is timely, even urgent.” R. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at Chicago “[A]n engaging read from beginning to end … I can think of no other recent book on orthodox movements that is as broad in its scope, rich and detailed in its narrative, well-grounded in its theory and insightful in its analysis as Claiming Society for God.”–Review of Religious Research
Review
“. . .a brilliant piece of work–a beautiful example of sociology at its very best. . . . professionally researched and analyzed, both pragmatic and theoretical, overwhelmingly convincing, and an important corrective to a lot of current beliefs. . . .a great read–fascinating from beginning to end.” -Wendell Bell, Yale University
About the Author
Nancy J. Davis is Lester Martin Jones Professor of Sociology at DePauw University.
Robert V. Robinson is the Class of 1964 Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Together they have published on religion and politics in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and Sociology of Religion, winning recognition from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the American Sociological Association’s sections on the sociology of religion and collective behavior & social movements.
Wow! eBook
