We God's People

Jocelyne Cesari Holds the Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham, UK, is Senior Fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center on Religion, Peace and World Affairs and the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School (2018-2021). Her other books include: What is Political Islam? (2018) (special mention of the religion and international section of the International Studies Association), and The Awakening of Muslim Democracy: Religion, Modernity, and the State (Cambridge, 2014).

• Introduction; 1. Framing the question; 2. State, Islam, Nation, and Patriotism: never ending tensions; 3. The nexus of Secularism and Communalism or Hinduism as a political project; 4. Religion and the transcendent state in China; 5. Orthodoxy: between nation and empire; 6. Patterns of religion-politics interactions; Conclusion; Appendix I; Bibliography; Index.

'In We God's People, Joceleyne Cesari demonstrates the diffusion of the Western concept of the nation-state across the world brought with it the Western concept of religion which, in turn, profoundly influences religious politics across the world. This seemingly simple insight is profound and complex in its application and Cesari masterfully takes us through this process in multiple settings. It is an unprecedented tour de force based on interdisciplinary and historical original research that provides groundbreaking insights on the new theoretical and methodological approaches on religion, politics and secularism. Once again her insights cause me to see much of what I thought I knew about religion and politics, secularism in a new light.' Jonathan Fox, The Yehuda Avner Professor of Religion and Politics, Bar Ilan University