Overview

Full Product Details

9781990263125

Table of Contents

Reviews

A rich, fascinating intellectual odyssey, this book places religion in a wide historical and politico-economic context to reveal its dynamics and entanglements with multifarious forces that have impacted its development over the centuries.+ Respectful in tone, vast in scope, thrilling in detail and replete with instructive case studies, it is a journey that challenges common conceptions about human identity, spirituality and purpose.+'AEiAlamin Mazrui, Professor of Sociolinguistics and Cultural Studies, Rutgers University This astonishingly wide-ranging and generous work explores the role of religion in societies through time and across the world, and its relationship to politics and economics, art and culture. It is a book about humanity's search for truth, both in the physical and metaphysical spheres, a search often corrupted by power and greed, but with the potential for showing us how to live well together on our beautiful but threatened planet.'AEi Elizabeth Jones, MA, Teacher, Quaker, Former Co-editor of Christian Today, UK, This is a fact-based book that genuinely expresses things as they are. Some will criticize it, others will praise it, openly or privately. In the end I believe that the world will be a better place due to the tolerance+that it will inject into the society.'AEiMahmood Hameer, MBChB, MMed (Pediatrics) This brilliant empathetic exploration of religion encompasses Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism together with folk religions, some smaller religions, Confucianism and secularism. Hirji convincingly argues that whatever the originating theology, which frequently challenged existing power structures, in practice religions are colored by the social, economic, political and cultural context and tend to serve power. And yet, the original theological message also becomes a vehicle for continued resistance to power. Besides summarizing the beliefs and structures of religions, this book pays particular attention to the role of women in religion and the relationship between religion and neo-liberalism. 'AEiAbdul Paliwala

A rich, fascinating intellectual odyssey, this book places religion in a wide historical and politico-economic context to reveal its dynamics and entanglements with multifarious forces that have impacted its development over the centuries. Respectful in tone, vast in scope, thrilling in detail and replete with instructive case studies, it is a journey that challenges common conceptions about human identity, spirituality and purpose. --Alamin Mazrui, Professor of Sociolinguistics and Cultural Studies, Rutgers University This astonishingly wide-ranging and generous work explores the role of religion in societies through time and across the world, and its relationship to politics and economics, art and culture. It is a book about humanity's search for truth, both in the physical and metaphysical spheres, a search often corrupted by power and greed, but with the potential for showing us how to live well together on our beautiful but threatened planet.-- Elizabeth Jones, MA, Teacher, Quaker, Former Co-editor of Christian Today, UK, This is a fact-based book that genuinely expresses things as they are. Some will criticize it, others will praise it, openly or privately. In the end I believe that the world will be a better place due to the tolerance that it will inject into the society.--Mahmood Hameer, MBChB, MMed (Pediatrics) This brilliant empathetic exploration of religion encompasses Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism together with folk religions, some smaller religions, Confucianism and secularism. Hirji convincingly argues that whatever the originating theology, which frequently challenged existing power structures, in practice religions are colored by the social, economic, political and cultural context and tend to serve power. And yet, the original theological message also becomes a vehicle for continued resistance to power. Besides summarizing the beliefs and structures of religions, this book pays particular attention to the role of women in religion and the relationship between religion and neo-liberalism. --Abdul Paliwala

Author Information

Karim F Hirji is a retired Professor of Medical Statistics and a Fellow of the Tanzania Academy of Sciences. A recognized authority on statistical analysis of small sample discrete data, the author of the only book on the subject, he received the Snedecor Prize for Best Publication in Biometry from the American Statistical Association and International Biometrics Society for the year 1989. He has published many papers in the areas of statistical methodology, applied biomedical research, the history and practice of education in Tanzania, and written numerous essays on varied topics for the mass media and popular magazines. He is the author of Exact Analysis of Discrete Data (Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2005), Statistics in the Media: Learning from Practice (Media Council of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, 2012) and Growing Up With Tanzania: Memories, Musings and Maths (Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2014). He also edited and is the main author of Cheche: Reminiscences of a Radical Magazine (Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2011). His most recent books are The Enduring Relevance of Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Daraja Press, Montreal, 2017), The Banana Girls (Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2017) and The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher (Daraja Press, Montreal, 2018). He resides in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and may be contacted at kfhirji@aol.com. Zarina Patel is a Kenyan South Asian woman, who not only struggled against the oppression faced by fellow women, but who was also involved in other movements, above and underground, which fought against injustice. She has worked with people from different walks of life; across cultures, gender, generation, religion and region, ethnicities and races. Zarina has not led the stereotypical life of a South Asian woman. She has followed in the footsteps of Makhan Singh, the father of trade unionism in Kenya; Manilal Desai who worked closely with Harry Thuku in the anti-colonial struggles and her grandfather, Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, who bestowed Jeevanjee Gardens to Nairobians. She has authored the biographies of all three personalities as well as the work of South Asian journalists in The In Between World of Kenya's Media. She is the Managing Editor of AwaaZ magazine that started with recording the lives of East African heroes of South Asian descent, and now focuses on minority and diversity issues. AwaaZ is now in its eighteenth year of publication and has the SAMOSA Festival as its cultural arm. Although she was born and raised in an upper middle class family, she rejected opulence and sought personal liberty and fulfillment by identifying with multi-ethnic and multi-racial groups that were struggling for human rights and freedom from exploitation and domination. She not only liberated herself from the shackles of patriarchal Asian society, but also interacted with Kenyans of similar character and thinking. Zarina's fight for women, her struggles against a corrupt Bohra priesthood, fruitful efforts to save Jeevanjee Gardens from land grabbers, to working with the organization Kikuyus for Change and the Kenyan Constitution Review process and being one of the founder members of the Kenya Asian Forum - are a few illustrations of her diverse contributions to post-independence Kenya. She understood the connection between freedom of creative expression and the struggles for democratic space and the concomitant benefits of conscientising the public of the prevailing social, political, cultural, global, and economic circumstances. Rosa K. Hirji is an experienced attorney for educational, civil, and disability rights of children and youth. She has assisted families since 2001, in schools and districts throughout Southern California, and on behalf of children with a wide range of disabilities. She represents youth and their families at IEP meetings, mediation, due process hearings and in state and federal court.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available