Religious Internationals in the Modern World: Globalization and Faith Communities since 1750

391 Pages·2012·1.39 MB·English

by  Abigail Green

p
Religious Internationals in
the Modern World
Globalization and Faith Communities
since 1750
Edited by
Abigail Green
and
Vincent Viaene
ThePalgraveMacmillanTransnationalHistorySeries
Series Editors: Akira Iriye, Professor of History at Harvard University, and
Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at Oxford
University
Thisdistinguishedseriesseeksto:developscholarshiponthetransnationalcon-
nections of societies and peoples in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries;
provideaforuminwhichworkontransnationalhistoryfromdifferentperiods,
subjectsandregionsoftheworldcanbebroughttogetherinfruitfulconnection;
andexplorethetheoreticalandmethodologicallinksbetweentransnationaland
otherrelatedapproachessuchascomparativehistoryandworldhistory.
EditorialBoard:ThomasBender,UniversityProfessoroftheHumanities,Profes-
sor of History and Director of the International Center for Advanced Studies,
NewYorkUniversity;JaneCarruthers,ProfessorofHistory,UniversityofSouth
Africa; Mariano Plotkin, Professor, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero,
BuenosAiresandmemberoftheNationalCouncilofScientificandTechnolog-
icalResearch, Argentina;Pierre-Yves Saunier,Researcher attheCentre National
de la Recherche Scientifique, France and Visiting Professor at the University of
Montreal;IanTyrrell,ProfessorofHistory,UniversityofNewSouthWales
Titlesinclude:
GregorBentonandEdmundTerenceGomez
THECHINESEINBRITAIN,1800–PRESENT
Economy,TransnationalismandIdentity
SugataBoseandKrisManjapra(editors)
COSMOPOLITANTHOUGHTZONES
SouthAsiaandtheGlobalCirculationofIdeas
SebastianConradandDominicSachsenmaier(editors)
COMPETINGVISIONSOFWORLDORDER
GlobalMomentsandMovements,1880s–1930s
MartinConwayandKiranKlausPatel(editors)
EUROPEANIZATIONINTHETWENTIETHCENTURY
HistoricalApproaches
JoyDamousi,MarianoBenPlotkin(editors)
THETRANSNATIONALUNCONSCIOUS
EssaysintheHistoryofPsychoanalysisandTransnationalism
DesleyDeacon,PennyRussellandAngelaWoollacott(editors)
TRANSNATIONALLIVES
BiographiesofGlobalModernity,1700–present
JonathanGantt
IRISHTERRORISMINTHEATLANTICCOMMUNITY,1865–1922
AbigailGreenandVincentViaene(editors)
RELIGIOUSINTERNATIONALSINTHEMODERNWORLD
EricHotta
PAN-ASIANISMANDJAPAN’SWAR,1931–45
MartinKlimbeandJoachimScharloth(editors)
1968INEUROPE
AHistoryofProtestandActivism,1956–77
ErikaKuhlman
RECONSTRUCTINGPATRIARCHYAFTERTHEGREATWAR
Women,GenderandPostwarReconciliationbetweenNations
DeepKantaLahiriChoudhury
TELEGRAPHICIMPERIALISM
CrisisandPanicintheIndianEmpire,c.1830–1920
BruceMazlish
THEIDEAOFHUMANITYINTHEGLOBALERA
GlendaSluga
THENATION,PSYCHOLOGY,ANDINTERNATIONALPOLITICS,1870–1919
MarkTilse
TRANSNATIONALISMINTHEPRUSSIANEAST
FromNationalConflicttoSynthesis,1871–1914
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Religious Internationals
in the Modern World
Globalization and Faith Communities
since 1750
Editedby
Abigail Green
CUFLecturerandFellowinModernHistory,BrasenoseCollege,OxfordUniversity
and
Vincent Viaene
MarieCurieFellow,BrasenoseCollege,OxfordUniversity
Editorialmatter,selectionandintroduction©AbigailGreenand
VincentViaene2012
SeriesEditors’Foreword©RanaMitterandAkiraIriye2012
Allremainingchapters©theirrespectiveauthors2012
Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition2012 978–0–230–31950–9
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Contents
SeriesEditors’Foreword vii
Acknowledgements ix
NotesonContributors x
1 Introduction:RethinkingReligionandGlobalization 1
AbigailGreenandVincentViaene
Part I TheReligionsoftheBook:
Trajectories,Comparisons
2 TheProtestantInternational 23
ChristopherClarkandMichaelLedger-Lomas
3 OldNetworks,NewConnections:
TheEmergenceoftheJewishInternational 53
AbigailGreen
4 Nineteenth-CenturyCatholicInternationalism
andItsPredecessors 82
VincentViaene
5 TheIslamicWorld:WorldSystem
to‘ReligiousInternational’ 111
FrancisRobinson
Part II ReligiousInternationalsinTransition
6 NationalismversusInternationalism:
RussianOrthodoxyinNineteenth-CenturyPalestine 139
SimonDixon
7 MuslimInternationalism
betweenEmpireandNation-State 163
AmiraK.Bennison
v
vi Contents
8 ReligiousInternationalismintheJewishDiaspora–
TunisattheDawnoftheColonialPeriod 186
YaronTsur
9 TransnationalBuddhistActivistsintheEraofEmpires 206
AdamYuetChau
Part III ReligiousInternationals
intheModernWorld:LimitsandNewHorizons
10 TheHadhramiSadaandtheEvolutionofanIslamic
ReligiousInternational,c.1750sto1930s 233
WilliamG.Clarence-Smith
11 AReligiousInternationalinSoutheasternEurope? 252
PaschalisM.Kitromilides
12 ActivismasEngine:JewishInternationalism,1880s–1980s 269
JonathanDekel-Chen
13 ProtestantEcclesiasticalInternationals 292
JamesC.Kennedy
14 FromStatetoCivilSocietyandBackAgain:
TheCatholicChurchasTransnationalActor,1965–2005 319
R.ScottAppleby
15 TheGlobalSanghParivar:
AStudyofContemporaryInternationalHinduism 343
ChristopheJaffrelotandIngridTherwath
Index 365
Series Editors’ Foreword
For a very long time, historians tended to treat modernity and
secularismasbedfellows.Religion,bydefinition,wasmetaphysicaland
numinous, and was hard to categorize in the civic-minded taxonomy
oftheEnlightenment.Forthemostdeterminedsecularists,religionwas
notjustsomethingtoplaceinaseparatecategoryofexistence,butmore
ofaholdoverofaprimitivepast,destinedforelimination.Inparticular,
the rise of the nation-state in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
might have seemed to spell doom for religion. For whether modern
or traditional, religion’s assumptions often took pride in dismissing
boundaries and frontiers as designed by earthly leaders. Instead, the
nation-state, territorially and mentally bounded, would be the future
and religion would have to play its part in building that state rather
thanstandingathwartit.Europeinparticularseemedtobeheadingin
thisdirectioninthepastcentury,asitgrewricherandmoresecular.
Yetatthedawnofthetwenty-firstcentury,itisclearthatthesecular
directionofonepartoftheglobe,Europe,maynotbeaharbingerforthe
rest of the world. In the United States, religious language and concep-
tionsofidentityremainimportantastheywerefromtheearliestdaysof
its foundations (although contemporary usage tends often to conflate
‘religion’ and ‘Christianity’ in a way that the Founding Fathers might
have found surprising). But in the parts of the world where economies
and self-confidence are rising in equal measure, it is often the most
transnationalformsofreligion,fromevangelicalChristianitytoaresur-
gentIslam,thataremakingthemostimpactinsocietiesthatareatthe
cutting edge of what modernity means in a world where the West no
longerdominates.
As with so many historical phenomena, we should have seen this
onecoming.Andthisvolumedoesawonderfuljobofpointingoutthe
clearhistoricalprecedentsforexactlythisphenomenon.Farfrombeing
eclipsedbymodernity,religion,eveninthehighageofthenation-state,
changedmodernityandwaschangedbyitinturn.Theideaofthe‘reli-
gious internationals’, a group that took premodern religious ideas and
adapted them in a world of faster communications and flatter hierar-
chies,isanexcitingonethataddsanimportantnewdimensiontoour
understandingoftheevolutionofmodernity.
vii
viii SeriesEditors’Foreword
Nor were the ‘religious internationals’ concerned with spiritual or
other-worldly issues. The communities bound by religion also tackled
some of the most important transnational issues of the era. The aboli-
tionoftheslavetradeinvolvednotjustarethinkingofthecommercial
economy,butthemoralonetoo.ForOttomanMuslims,therestoration
oftheCaliphatewascentraltoveryreal,verydangerousissuesofpower
in a part of the world left desperately unstable in the aftermath of the
Great War. And the quest to define and consolidateJewish identityled
to a whole variety of movements whose political and social impact is
stillrelevanttoday.
The book also takes us beyond Europe and the West to show the
global nature of the religious internationals. From Tunisia to Taiwan,
weseetheinterweavingofcomplexdiscoursesofempireandliberation
withthelanguageandpracticeofreligion.Whilethemonotheisticreli-
gionsofwestEurasiaareofnecessityprominent,wealsohearaboutthe
impactoftransnationalideasonthereshapingofverydifferentreligious
discoursessuchasBuddhism.
This is a book to take what we thought familiar and reorient it in
provocativenewwaystomakeusthinkagain.Itistransnationalhistory
at its best; but more than that, it is also a work of profound impor-
tance for understanding our present condition, and developments yet
tocome.
RanaMitterandAkiraIriye
Oxford,January2012
Acknowledgements
Religious Internationals in the Modern World is the first product of an
ongoingcollaborationbetweenacoregroupofsixscholarsworkingon
thehistoriesofChristianity,JudaismandIslam.Wearehugelygrateful
to Amira Bennison, Chris Clark, Simon Dixon and Michael Ledger-
Lomas for the time they have so far devoted to this endeavour. They
havecontributedenormouslybothtothedevelopmentofthereligious
internationalparadigmandtotheorganizationofanexploratorywork-
shop,heldinJanuary2009atBrasenoseCollege,Oxford.Thisworkshop
was generously funded by the John Fell Fund, the Modern European
HistoryResearchCentreandtheHebrewandJewishStudiesUnitatthe
UniversityofOxford,andbytheKADOCDocumentationandResearch
Centre for Religion, Culture and Society at the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven. We are extremely grateful for the enthusiastic support both
universities have shown for this venture.Ultimately, however, the suc-
cess of this volume owes most to those who attended what proved
to be an exceptionally rewarding workshop – described by one par-
ticipant as a high-point of his academic career to date. Besides those
whohavewrittenchaptersforthisvolume,wewouldliketorecordour
thanks to Robert Gildea, Ruth Harris, David Hopkin, Paula Kane, Julia
Mannherz, Hugh McLeod, Eugene Rogan and Jeremy Stolow for con-
tributinginsuchstimulatingwaystoourdiscussions.Finally,wewould
liketoexpressourgratitudetothecommunityofscholarsatBrasenose
whohavegenerouslycontributedtowardspublicationexpensesthrough
the Jeffery Bequest to Brasenose College, and provided a wonderfully
conducive environment for the elaboration of these ideas both at the
ReligiousInternationalsWorkshopitselfandoverlunchintheSCR.
AbigailGreenandVincentViaene
ix