Religious Internationals in the Modern World: Globalization and Faith Communities since 1750 (Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series)

Tracing the emergence of 'Religious Internationals' as a distinctive new phenomenon in world history, this book transforms our understanding of the role of religion in our modern world. Through in-depth studies comparing the experiences of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, leading experts shed new light on 'global civil society'. The central idea behind this book is that the globalisation and politicisation of traditional religious identities is a historical phenomenon with deep roots in the 19th-20th centuries. Tracing the emergence of 'Religious Internationals' as a distinctive new phenomenon in world history, it transforms our understanding of the place of religion in the modern world. Leading historians and social scientists break new ground by comparing the historical experiences of different faith communities in an age of globalization without comparing them as religions. In-depth case studies focus on the internationalist dimensions of Buddhism, Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant), Hinduism, Judaism and Islam. Individually, they illuminate the complex processes whereby communities of believers became communities of opinion. Collectively, they shed new light on the origins and nature of global civil society, highlighting the role of religion as one of its motor forces from the start Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Rethinking Religion and Globalization....Pages 1-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 The Protestant International....Pages 23-52 Old Networks, New Connections: The Emergence of the Jewish International....Pages 53-81 Nineteenth-Century Catholic Internationalism and Its Predecessors....Pages 82-110 The Islamic World: World System to ‘Religious International’....Pages 111-135 Front Matter....Pages 137-137 Nationalism versus Internationalism: Russian Orthodoxy in Nineteenth-Century Palestine....Pages 139-162 Muslim Internationalism between Empire and Nation-State....Pages 163-185 Religious Internationalism in the Jewish Diaspora – Tunis at the Dawn of the Colonial Period....Pages 186-205 Transnational Buddhist Activists in the Era of Empires....Pages 206-229 Front Matter....Pages 231-231 The Hadhrami Sada and the Evolution of an Islamic Religious International, c.1750s to 1930s....Pages 233-251 A Religious International in Southeastern Europe?....Pages 252-268 Activism as Engine: Jewish Internationalism, 1880s–1980s....Pages 269-291 Protestant Ecclesiastical Internationals....Pages 292-318 From State to Civil Society and Back Again: The Catholic Church as Transnational Actor, 1965–2005....Pages 319-342 The Global Sangh Parivar: A Study of Contemporary International Hinduism....Pages 343-364 Back Matter....Pages 365-383