Christianity and Freedom: Volume 2, Contemporary Perspectives

Description

Volume 2 of Christianity and Freedom illuminates how Christian minorities and transnational Christian networks contribute to the freedom and flourishing of societies across the globe, even amidst pressure and violent persecution. Featuring unprecedented field research by some of the world's most distinguished scholars, it documents the outsized role of Christians in promoting human rights and religious freedom; fighting injustice; stimulating economic equality; providing education, social services, and health care; and nurturing democratic civil society. Readers will come away surprised and sobered to learn how this very Christian link to freedom often invites persecution. What are the dimensions of persecution and how are Christians responding to that pressure? What resources - theological, social, or transnational - do they marshal in leavening their societies? What will be lost if the Christian presence is marginalized? The answers to these questions are of crucial relevance in a world awash with religious extremism and deepening instability.

Allen D. Hertzke is an internationally recognized scholar of religion and politics. He is author of Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights and editor of The Future of Religious Freedom. A past fellow for the Pew Research Center, he directed the study, 'Lobbying for the Faithful: Religious Advocacy Groups in Washington DC'. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Timothy Samuel Shah is associate director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and Global Politics at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He is the author, most recently, of Religious Freedom: Why Now?: Defending an Embattled Human Right and God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics (with Monica Duffy Toft and Daniel Philpott).

'This book is rich in ethnography, marked by brilliant historical analyses, and rooted in relevant theories ... well-conceived and executed book. The quality of each chapter is high.' Nimi Wariboko, Journal of Church and State 'I had no idea of the extent and severity of persecution of Christians today. ... Not only were the descriptions of present day persecution eye-opening for me. They brought me up short.' Nicholas Wolterstorff, Comment 'The observations of the contributing authors are judicious and do not reinforce stereotypes. ... If one lesson emerges from this wide survey, it is that cultural contexts in which Christians spread their faith, and are sometimes oppressed for it, are extremely diverse.' Stephen Schwartz, First Things