Blasphemies Compared

Anne Stensvold is Professor of the Study of Religion at IKOS (Institute of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages), University of Oslo, where she heads Religion and Value Politics research group. Among her recent publications is the edited volume Religion, State and the United Nations. Value Politics. Routledge, 2017.

• Introduction PART I: Background – theoretical reflections and historical discussions 1. Blasphemies compared. An overview 2. The sacred and the secular 3. Destruction. Distortion. Distraction. Three theoretical perspectives on blasphemy 4. Blasphemy as transgressive speech, a natural history 5. Defining blasphemy in medieval Europe: Christian theology, law, and practice 6. Blasphemy through British (post) colonial eyes. The Indian Criminal Code: from a history of sustained paternalism to the genesis of hate crime 7. From ‘blasphemy’ to ‘hate speech’: changing perceptions of ‘insulting god’ 8. Blasphemy in Islamic tradition 9. The OIC and the United Nations: framing blasphemy as a human rights violation PART II: Case studies 10. Blasphemy and the cultivation of religious sensibilities in post-2011 Egypt 11. The Hindus on trial. Blasphemy charges and the study of Hinduism 12. How blasphemy became an anachronism. Free thought and the media market in late nineteenth-century Scandinavia 13. The state and the construction of the ‘blasphemer’ in Bangladesh 14. The politics of blasphemy in Indonesia 15. Buddha, monks and the minor role of blasphemy within the economy of indignation in Sri Lanka 16. Blasphemy and images: depiction and representation in Islamic texts and practices. Two Muslim cases 17. From Pussy Riot’s punk-prayer to Matilda: orthodox believers, critique and religious freedom in Russia Concluding remarks

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