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9781108477147

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Advance praise: 'Karl Jasper's powerful notion of 'transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina Advance praise: 'This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Advance praise: 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan Advance praise: 'Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas Advance praise: `Karl Jasper's powerful notion of `transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina Advance praise: `This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Advance praise: 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan Advance praise: `Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas

'Karl Jasper's powerful notion of 'transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University 'This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Advance praise: 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan Advance praise: 'This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Advance praise: 'Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas Advance praise: 'Karl Jasper's powerful notion of 'transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan `This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona `Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas `Karl Jasper's powerful notion of `transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina

Advance praise: 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan Advance praise: 'This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Advance praise: 'Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas Advance praise: 'Karl Jasper's powerful notion of 'transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina Advance praise: 'As an extraordinarily original, articulate analysis of the relation between religious thought and political power during some three thousand years, this is a tour de force that bears comparison to some of Max Weber's classic writings. Strathern's combination of theoretical sophistication, intellectual ambition, and elegant writing has no contemporary rival.' Victor B. Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan Advance praise: `This ambitious and highly sophisticated work of comparative history offers a wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between religion and politics in the pre-modern world. It seeks to uncover the logic underlying the way in which traditional sacred kingship responded, by means of ruler conversion, to the spread of transcendentalist religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. This is an important and richly rewarding book.' Joan-Pau Rubies, ICREA Research Professor, Universiat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Advance praise: `Unearthly Powers is a magisterial and masterful study. By combining a sweeping historical vision with a sharp anthropological lens, Strathern provides a comprehensive framework to explore the dilemmas of religion and politics - god and king - that continue to animate humanity.' A. Azfar Moin, University of Texas Advance praise: `Karl Jasper's powerful notion of `transcendence' in the Axial Age has provoked scholars and thinkers over several generations. Strathern subjects the idea to new scrutiny exploring how this invisible source of such immense historical power came to dominate the pre-modern world by its management of immanentist religion and political power.' Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor, Duke University. North Carolina

Author Information

Alan Strathern is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Oxford, and Tutor and Fellow in History at Brasenose College, Oxford. He is the author of Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth Century Sri Lanka: Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land (Cambridge, 2008), and co-editor with Zoltán Biedermann of Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History (2017). He was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in History in 2010.

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