Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Humanities — Religion — African and African American Studies

Zaman (Princeton Univ.) presents a thematically organized, deeply detailed, urgently relevant history of leading figures, groups, and movements that have attempted to represent Islam appropriately from the time of colonial rule in South Asia and continuing to the present in Pakistan--the world's second most populous Muslim nation. He provides insight into the role of Muslim modernists in the social and political life of British India, their teaching institutions, and their influence on the formation of the new nation. The modernists are contrasted with what are called Islamists and with the scholars of traditional texts and correct practices based on them (the 'ulama)--with spokespersons for majority (Sunni) and minority (Shi'a) sub-traditions divided by divergent understandings of how authority passed down from the Prophet Muhammad, with the custodians of spiritual centers based on the charisma of Sufi mystics and with marginalized and contended movements such as the Ahmadis and the Taliban. No other book offers a guide to ways in which the meaning and significance of Islam have been understood by proponents in South Asia.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Nichols (philosophy and religion, Saint Joseph's College) provides a nuanced character study of Mara and her evolution from Buddhism's beginnings in India to appearances on the British television show Doctor Who. Though it may be tempting to simply equate Mara with Western ideas of devils and demons, Nichols shows that such an understanding is woefully deficient. Wishing to rehabilitate the status of Mara, to raise her from a minor to a major aspect of Buddhism, Nichols argues that Mara plays a complex variety of soteriological roles central to Buddhism's understanding of, and attempt to navigate, the human condition. In addition, Nichols contends, Mara functions not only as a kind of "meta myth" used to distinguish Buddhism from other religions but also as a "meta-meta-myth" to distinguish Mahayana Buddhism from its earlier forms. The warp of the book is the idea that the nature and evolution of Mara reflect the sociohistorical conditions and concerns of particular Buddhist communities. Described by the author as literary and mythical in its approach, as opposed to explicitly philosophical or linguistic, the book is evenhanded, carefully researched, and rich in detail and nuance. It is sure to be a key text in studies of Mara and the concept's importance for understanding Buddhist soteriology and its evolving history.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

This collection appears at an opportune time, a time when the societies that produced Islamic jurisprudence have given way to secular, modern nation-states with their institutions, boundaries, passports, and, above all, coercive power. The book, as a whole, argues against the views that Shari`a is a state function to regulate the behavior of a populace or that Shari`a is divine law that is uniform across Muslim societies. In the introduction, Sajoo (Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures, Simon Fraser Univ.) states that the theme that runs throughout the volume is that Shari`a is "the good life as a daily pursuit ... an ongoing human quest to grasp the substance of divine guidance in the conduct of devotional, social, and economic life, including how one relates to the natural environment." The contributors discuss, among other things, the foundations of Shari`a, ethical theory and practice, spiritual refinement, gender equality, finance, bioethics, and Muslim societies in Ottoman Turkey, democratic Indonesia, and the West. Each essay includes helpful suggestions for further reading. This book opens the way to a new inquiry: Shari`a as the linking of divine will and human good. It makes for excellent reading and thinking.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Unearthed about a hundred years ago in a cave in Dunhuang, Tibet, Masters of the Lanka comprises early (eighth-century CE) Zen Buddhist texts. A specialist in the Buddhism of Tibet and research manager of the British Library's International Dunhuang Project, Van Schaik provides a translation of these texts in the second half of this book. In the first part of the book he discusses the history and lineage of Zen Buddhism from the earliest days to the present. The quarrels between academic scholars and non-scholar practitioners of Zen receive generous attention. The author does justice to the many different opinions and interpretations of Zen that have proliferated in recent decades. His treatment of Zen is superb--judicious, deep, thoroughly grounded in both the old manuscripts and recent commentary. This book is indispensable for those interested in the history or current practice of Zen. Van Schaik's scholarship is exemplary.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.