War and Peace: Ogawa Takemitsu's Theological Engagement with State and Religion

Ideological minorities in Japan have received rather less sociological attention than ethnic ones. This paper explores some central facets of the position of one of these less studied minorities — Japanese Christians — in their relationship to the mainstream society. Japanese Christians are located within the tensions created by their unclear relationship to the major religious traditions of Shintō and Buddhism as cosmological systems and as elements in Japanese politics. The nature of scholarship on Japanese Christianity is briefly introduced and an alternative perspective based on an analysis of Japanese Christianity's relationships to three important cultural themes — selfhood, nature and ancestralism — is proposed. Japanese Christians are examined as a self‐selected minority, distinguished not by ethnicity or language, but by voluntary adherence to a system of religious beliefs and practices at substantial variation with those of the vast majority of the population. This gives rise to problems about the location of Christians within the networks of reciprocity vital to the functioning of everyday Japanese social and cultural life. Finally, Japanese Christians are located in relation to the pressures of internationalization and globalization on Japanese society and on the shifting boundaries of Otherness and deviance in their society.

The Question of Christian Community Online: The Case of the 'Artist World Network' Heidi Campbell Patricia Calderon Introduction The past decade has seen a steady growth of technologies and practices that can be described as religion online. In many respects Christian groups and users have led the way in using the web for spiritual practices. From church websites becoming a common form of congregational advertising and communication to the rise of cyber churches and online prayer meetings, numerous forms of Christian practice have been transposed online. The Christian community has also been at the forefront of debates over the potential impact of 'doing religion' online. Concerns voiced by theologians, pastors and Christian scholars have included the potential that technology might become a substitute for God, the Internet could draw people away for organised religion towards individualised spiritualities, and that the Internet might re-shape notions of traditional ritual and community. In light of these questions a new area of research has developed which involves exploring how Christian religious practice is being transformed in the age of Internet technology. The development of the study of Christianity online can be conceptualised in sequential terms by what Hojsgaard and Warburg identify as three waves. The first wave of research on religion online focused on the new and extraordinary aspects of cyberspace, where religion 'could (and probably would) do almost anything'.1 In the mid-1990s the Internet was seen as a tool for religious and social transformation. Initial interest in many studies was on how this new technology created possibilities for new versions of Christianity or at least provided parishioners the possibility to reinvent traditional religious practices online. First wave studies were often overly utopian or dystopian in their views; the Internet was seenas either building or even transforming Christian solidarity or potentially [End Page 261] destroying traditional forms of Christian community and morality. The second wave built upon early descriptive studies but moved towards a 'more realistic perspective' by seeking concrete ways to define and compare different forms of online religious phenomena. Researchers began to understand that it was not simply the technology, but people who were generating these new forms of religious expression online and moved towards studying more the motivations on Christian online users and how online Christian religious practices mirrored or influenced offline religious ones. As research has further matured, Hojsgaard and Warburg surmised that a third wave of research 'may be just around the corner'.2 They describe this research as a 'bricolage of scholarship coming from different backgrounds with diverse methodological preference'.3 Current third wave research is being marked by more collaborative, longitudinal and interdisciplinary explorations, looking at what religion online has to tell us about the religion in general in an information age.4 Within such studies, the question of Christian or religious community online continues to surface as a central area of concern. As more andmore Christian Internet users become involved in various chat, emailand blogging groups, they are increasingly seeing and referring to these online social networks as religious communities. For many believers their Christian community involves both online and offline friendships and affiliations, a concept still problematic and contentious to many religious leaders. Thus, the purpose of this article is to investigate what constitutes a Christian community online and the possibilities and challenges that exist when Christians who gather for religious purpose online begin to conceive of their group as a Christian community. This is done by exploring a particular Christian online bulletin board, the 'Artist World Network', in order to understand how this group sees itself and functions as community. This investigation provides a way to address the question of what constitutes an online Christian community. It also opens up discussion on the possibilities and challenges online religious communities pose for offline Christian community. Defining and Studying Online Community Since the 1980s, many examples of religious groups using computers to facilitate new...

IMPLICIT FAITH, GENERAL REVELATION AND THE STATE OF NON-CHRISTIANS CHRISTIANS HAVE generally taught that membership in the Christian community is necessary for salvation.1 This teaching is not so odd as it is sometimes made to seem. Other religious communities have analogous doctrines. Theravada Buddhism, for example, teaches that Nirvana can be attained only by the following of the Excellent Eightfold Path. Religious traditions which propose specific ultimate goals for human life-as Christianity, Theravada and other major traditions clearly do-have generally not shown themselves to be indifferent about the means by which these goals are achieved. The capacities to attain and enjoy certain kinds of ends of life depend in large measure on courses of life shaped by the particular practices, values and beliefs commended by religious communities in their central doctrines. It is not from arrogance that a religious community teaches that a certain course of life is necessary for the attainment of the true aim of life, or that other courses of life can delay, divert or impede human beings who might otherwise be set on the right track. One way of making this point in Christianity has been to say that membership in the Christian community is necessary for salvation. Since Christians have also fairly consistently taught that salvation is the true aim of life for all human beings without exception and that this is willed by God, Christian theologians 1 This paper is a slightly revised version of one delivered at a University of Dallas convocation honoring St. Thomas Aquinas in 198!!. I have benefited from several clarifications offered in two papers by Dallas faculty respondents on that occasion, Mark D. Jordan of the Department of Philosophy and Peter C. Phan of the Department of Theology. 209 uo J. A. DINOIA, O.P. have historically devoted considerable intellectual energy to establishing the possibility of a hidden or virtual association with the Christian community on the part of persons who are the members of other religious communities or who profess no religious allegiances at all but nonetheless appear to be on the right track. In arguing for the possibility of a hidden affiliation of this kind, theologians ha.ve commonly relied on the presumption that the morally upright and altruistic lives of nonChristians , and perhaps even some of their communities' doctrines , express their possession of an implicit Christian faith activated by some general, extra-Christian revelation. In much the same way that explicit faith makes human beings openly confessing members of the Christian community, the disposition of implicit faith is said to constitute non-Christian persons as hidden members of the Christian community. Perhaps no more comprehensive and elaborate a version of this view has ever been offered in Christianity than the proposal advanced in our own day in Karl Rahner's theology of religions (under the tag of " anonymous Christianity ") . Such a view of the state of non-Christians has certain definite advantages. It permits Christians a measure of optimism about the prospects for salvation of countless good people who are not explicit, practicing members of the Christian community. Generally speaking, it can be claimed, such a view fosters the development of attitudes of respect for the upright lives of nonChristians and esteem for their religious traditions. But, as I shall argue in this paper, the concept of implicit faith, which is crucial to the elaboration of views of this kind, in fact poses intractable philosophical and theological difficulties when used as the basis for general descriptions of the religious (and moral) states and dispositions of non-Christian persons . These difficulties seem all the more acute in circumstances -such as those prevailing in the Catholic Church today -in which a Christian community has adopted an official policy of interreligious dialogue. Participation in interreligious dialogue demands (among other things) a readiness on the part IMPLICIT FAITH ~11 of Christians to entertain distinctive religious proposals on the part of the members of other religious communities. The idea that a non-Christian can be covertly Christian tends to lead inevitably to an inappropriate underestimation of the distinctiveness and integrity of the patterns of life fostered by other religious communities in their particular teachings. My object in...

The question of how to manage diverse religious communities within a single political community for social peace is a recurring one. If one accepts that religious differences are permanent features of societies, and could not and should not be eliminated by force (expulsion or genocide) or overcome by coercion (forced conversion), formulating systems of governance to manage different religious communities within the nation-state becomes imperative. Historically, several systems of religious governance of multicultural polities have been practiced. The Ottoman millet system is one such system, whereby recognized religious communities were granted jurisdictional autonomy over a limited area of personal law. The millet system is still practiced in some form in certain former Ottoman territories. In contrast, within the Anglo-European context, secular governance (either in emphasizing separation or in emphasizing even-handedness among different religious groups) became the dominant approach to address religious difference. Secular governance posits that peaceful coexistence could be established if states develop a unified form of political authority that was differentiated and furthermore neutral as among rival religious communities. In this chapter, I argue that the primary organizing factor in the state’s structure of governance of religious communities is whether they are regarded as private or public subjects of regulation. The consideration of whether religious communities are conceptualized as private actors or public actors is integral for the purposes of organizing structural approaches to the regulation of religious communities in multicultural polities. This itself reflects whether the state conceptualizes society as being a community of individuals or of ‘nations’. Where religious communities are private actors, they are treated like associations and their members interact with the state primarily as individuals. Where religious communities are treated as public actors, the communal aspect of those communities tends to be emphasized, often over the individual interests within the community. Consequently, the primary regulatory approach towards private religion tends to be one of self-regulation, in addition to general statutory regulation. In comparison, where religious communities are treated as public actors, the state relies on a broader range of regulatory approaches, namely religion-specific statutory regulation, co-regulation, in addition to self-regulation. This article therefore examines the particular challenge of multicultural polities, introduces the modes and dimensions of regulation, dominant approaches to regulating religious communities as public or private subjects, and lastly, the ideological postures that determines the regulatory reach of the state.

Numerous Arabic manuscripts of the “Psalms of David” contain not the Biblical Psalms but Muslim compositions in the form of exhortations addressed by God to David. One rewritten version of Psalm 2 manipulates the form and content of the Biblical Psalms so as to highlight a conflict between the Christian and Muslim communities, and the incompatibility of their scriptural canons. Yet it also embraces the imagined idea of the Psalms of David, and incorporates elements of the Quran, ?ad?th, Islamic sermons, and Tales of the Prophets so as to highlight a division that cuts through both the Muslim and Christian communities, separating worldly believers from those who, like the shared figure of David, repent and pursue a life of otherworldly piety. This illustrates how sacred texts can serve as symbols of religious communities, especially in situations of conflict, and how apparently interreligious arguments can turn out to be intrareligious disputes. It shows how the content, form, and imagined identity of someone else’s sacred text can be used to manipulate the boundaries of textual canons and religious communities, and it demonstrates the need for both interreligious and intrareligious frames of reference in the comparative enterprise.

The UN System and Religious Actors in the Context of Global Change Josef Boehle Introduction Past political efforts of achieving large‐scale global systemic change have been successful if they have been rooted in and supported by large alliances of non‐governmental and civil society organizations. The examples of the movements for banning land mines and for the establishment of an International Criminal Court, the Jubilee 2000 campaign and the Make Poverty History campaign are some of the more recent examples. The fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany caused by a grassroots citizen movement, supported by Christian communities in the former East Germany, as well as the Solidarnosc trade union movement supported by the Catholic Church in Poland, are among the best known examples of recent history where citizen movements and religious actors joint forces. Given that the pre‐eminent global forum, where regular interactions of NGOs, transnational civil society networks and governments take place is the UN System and given the importance of citizen movements and religious actors for sustainable global change, a closer look at how civil society and religious actors engage with the UN System can make an important contribution both to analysis and strategic planning when responding to contemporary global challenges. In this article, I will look at religious actors in the wider context of global civil society and in the context of the UN System, then look at the pioneering programs for engaging with religious actors that have been developed within UNESCO, and finally reflect on the crucial contribution that religious actors are making to development cooperation and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Alliances between grassroots movements, non‐profit organizations, religious communities, and spiritual organizations, supported by religious and spiritual leaders, can have an immense global impact. The Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign for poor countries is one example of such an alliance across a great diversity of participating groups that had won the support of many religious leaders and communities. Other less well‐known examples of the influence of global movements of religious NGOs are, for example, the participation of religious and spiritual organizations in the UNESCO led Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and the support of religious and spiritual organizations for the 2001‐2010 UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non‐violence for the Children of the World (Boehle, 2001, p. 217–218). NGOs often start the initial initiatives that result years later in changes in national and international law, in (re)forming international values and norms, and in (re)shaping international institutions and their programs. For example, seen from a long‐term perspective, it can be argued that it was the over 100‐years‐old international interreligious movement with its countless events and activities throughout the last century that prepared the ground for the major international interreligious events during the last decade like the Millennium World Peace Summit held in New York in 2000 or the “High‐level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace” of the UN General Assembly in 2007 (http://www.un.org/ga/president/62/issues/hld-interreligious.shtml). The “Millennium World Peace Summit” (28–31 August 2000) brought together more than 1,000 senior religious, spiritual, and indigenous leaders from over 50 countries at the UN to address together major world problems and increase interreligious understanding and cooperation (Boehle, Josef 2001, p. 230ff). In Development and Faith, a book of case studies from around the world of religious organizations engaging with development and peace issues, Marshall and van Saanen point to the Millennium World Peace Summit and its impact: Yet since that meeting in 2000, faith groups have steadily intensified their engagement in the MDG framework, and religious actors are now poised to play even more significant roles. The major areas of engagement include national, regional, and global advocacy and mobilization around the MDGs; implementing specific programs to help fulfill them; and monitoring progress. (Marshall and van Saanen, 2007, p. 24) More recently, a major global event was the “High‐level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace” (4, 5, and 8 October 2007), the first formal high‐level session of the UN...

ABSTRACTThis article looks at guilt, forgiveness, and “in-group” behavior using Cyprian of Carthage’s response to the third-century persecutions in dialogue with modern psychology and the science of guilt. Using Cyprian’s writings, we see the foundation of much of Christian behavior in regard to inclusion in a Christian community and the theology of penance. The broader issue of inclusivity and forgiveness connects to what evolutionary science presents on the issue regarding guilt and shame, and recent psychological work on achieving reconciliation and forgiveness between persons or in a community. By placing the Christian tradition into dialogue with these modern scientific studies, we find that a fruitful dialogue is possible which enriches both the religious and scientific communities.

By the end of the sixteenth century, the Japanese mission had become the largest overseas Christian community that was not under the rule of a European power. Its uniqueness was emphasized by Alessandro Valignano since 1582, who promoted a deeper accommodation to Japanese culture. It was also understood by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who issued the first national anti-Christian laws while he was unifying the Japanese empire. The main reason the religious success of the Catholic Church in Japan was, undoubtedly, the engagement of many converts and their descendents. This article deals with the role of Japanese lay people within the Church, analyzing how individuals gave support to daily activities and how the communities strengthened themselves through the formation of brotherhoods. Japan was then the sole overseas country where all members of those confraternities were locals, in spite of the presence of a colonial elite. KEYWORDS: Portuguese - Japanese Christianity - local communities - brotherhoods (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) The Portuguese sustained contact with the Japanese nearly a century (1543-1639).1 The main reason the regular visits of the nanbanjin ... (southern barbarians) to the islands was trade, since the Portuguese controlled much of the Sino-Japanese commerce several decades and founded two new and distinctive cities in the China Sea region: Macao and Nagasaki.2 The ships that sailed between those cities, however, did not carry only goods trade. They also brought men of different races, animals, many objects (such as glasses, chairs, buttons, or firearms), and scientific knowledge in areas such as geography, medicine, astronomy (see Nakayama 1969) and mathematics (Leitao 2000), which opened a new era in Japan. After centuries of isolation from Europe, Japanese civilization acquired a more accurate understanding of Earth and an awareness of contemporary technological developments.3 The Portuguese, in turn, were initially received by a medieval and anarchic society in the mid-sixteenth century, and were subsequently expelled a century later by a modern and centralized empire. The sengoku had been replaced by the taihei-an evolution that cannot be explained without reference to the nanbanjin contributions (Nosco 2003), who exhibited for once [...] a genuine international dimension in a period of Japanese history (Elison 1981, 60). Along with European trade goods and Western cultural influences a new religion also came to Japan. The propagation of Christianity was always one of the motivations which pushed the Portuguese during the Age of Discoveries.4 There was a sincere desire that Christendom would profit from those voyages, enlarging the areas and the populations under the leadership of the Catholic Church, and by the 1460s the Portuguese Crown acquired absolute control of overseas ecclesiastic activities. Later, from the middle of the sixteenth century, when private traders became more autonomous, pushing Portuguese influence to areas where state authority was weak, those adventurers also brought with them clergymen, just as the king's representatives had done before.5 Therefore, the arrival of Portuguese explorers to Japan in 15436 opened a new field to missionary activity, and the first clerics of the Society of Jesus landed in Kagoshima in 1549.7 Christianity in Japan A SUCCESSFUL MISSION The Jesuits were able to found a sizable community in Japan, which had about three hundred thousand baptized by the end of the sixteenth century. It was at the time the largest and most important overseas Christian community not under the control of a colonial power, as was the case with Christian missions in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, the Philippines, or India.8 Most Japanese Christians lived in Kyushu, but Christianization was not a regional phenomenon and had a national impact. By the end of the sixteenth century it was possible to find baptized people in virtually every province of Japan,9 many of them organized in communities. …

Reviewed by: The Dream of Christian Nagasaki: World Trade and the Clash of Cultures, 1560–1640 by Reinier H. Hesselink Lane R. Earns The Dream of Christian Nagasaki: World Trade and the Clash of Cultures, 1560–1640. By Reinier H. Hesselink. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016. 300pages. Softcover $49.95. Reinier Hesselink’s book represents a prodigious effort to confront the complexity of issues involved in writing a history of early Christian Nagasaki and demonstrates the multifarious skills required to do so effectively. To accomplish his ambitious task, it was necessary for Hesselink to research Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian missionaries (Jesuit, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Dominican) and traders who came to Japan via India, Southeast Asia, China, the Philippines, and Mexico to spread word of the [End Page 76] Catholic Reformation and gain riches by filling a void in the lucrative world and regional silver trade. And this work was just on the European side; the author, of course, also had to navigate numerous contemporaneous Japanese documents generated at the central and local levels. The introduction of Christianity into Japan, and specifically Nagasaki, depended on Jesuit missionaries serving as trade and cultural intermediaries between southern European traders on the one hand and Japanese political, military, and merchant officials on the other. This strategy proved to be dangerous in the long run, however, as it resulted in the exile, torture, and sometimes death of not only European missionaries but many of their Japanese Christian followers as well. While it took less than a century for the Christian vision to end in tragedy for the missionaries and converts, for Japanese leaders the Christian encounter ultimately endowed them with primacy over the country’s foreign trade and political, military, and administrative dominance over the territory of Nagasaki. It also led to Japanese control measures that eliminated Christianity in the port town and sent surviving Japanese Christians underground into rural hamlets, coastal towns, and sparsely populated islands in the region. Hesselink lays out the book’s theme in the opening statement of his introduction: “This is the story of the birth of the city of Nagasaki, where two different worlds [Japan on one side and Portugal and Spain on the other] intersected in a prolonged and intensive manner” (p. 1), most intensely in the arenas of trade and religion (and possibly political administrative control). Through military might, the Portuguese established trading posts and administrative centers for their sea-based empire in Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China before making their way to Japan in search of a trading entrepôt in Kyushu. They eventually established a port town at Nagasaki, which allowed them to fill the vacuum of trade for Chinese silk and Japanese silver that had been opened up following the Ming government’s crackdown on rampant piracy in the area. The Society of Jesus, then recently established, took the lead in spreading Catholicism to Asia and, as in Europe and the Americas, had considerable early success converting the upper classes, who in turn forced the conversion of others in their territories. In Japan, this meant that the Jesuits not only tried to convert the samurai, especially the daimyo, but at times even behaved as samurai themselves. To Hesselink, the Jesuits “became the founders of a military colony, called Nagasaki” (p. 4). Soon, however, their strategy presented problems, in that the “Society of Jesus ostensibly [was] dedicated to spiritual goals and its priests in Japan [had] founded a strategic stronghold dedicated to monopolizing the China trade brought by the Portuguese merchants. Without the China trade, it was impossible for the mission to survive in Japan” (p. 5). This contradiction, between faith and trade, eventually led to the Society’s downfall in Japan. It also contributes to one of Hesselink’s primary challenges in the book: he claims the Jesuits’ positioning between economic and religious interests makes their records ultimately historically unreliable because they tried to deny, or at least dramatically downplay, their role in the temporal affairs of Kyushu and Nagasaki. [End Page 77] Hesselink organizes the book into three overarching chronological parts, each composed of subsections assigned a topical title and a representative individual. While this framework offers a structured and personalized approach...

Comparative research offers some insights into the genesis of movements under highly repressive conditions in which dissident groups are systematically denied the organizational and political resources necessary to mount a sustained challenge to the state. During the 1970s and 1980s there were circles of dissidents in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany), but most grievances were not expressed in an organized form, and there were few opportunities to mobilize protest against the Communist regime. State repression and party control of society meant that opposition had to be organized within institutions that were shielded from state control. Religious subcultures offered a rival set of identities and values while generally accommodating the demands of the regime. Within the free social space offered by the church, a peace movement developed during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The effort to build an independent citizens' peace movement based in the church played an important role in linking together various groups committed to nonviolent protest, peace, ecology, and human rights into a coherent, if still organizationally weak, opposition during the East German revolution of 1989.

The prominence of American and European clergymen in recent demonstrations in favor of international peace has been a source of encouragement to those who believe that war contradicts the most fundamental tenets of Christianity. However, it is a well known fact that Christian institutions have historically found it possible not only to tolerate the use of violence to settle international disputes, but even to advocate it with enthusiasm. The tendency of clergymen to view war as a necessary or desirable component of international relations was particularly pronounced in the decades immediately preceding the outbreak of the first world war, when churchmen found themselves caught up in the nationalistic frenzy that poisoned relations among the major European powers. The religious community in Germany was especially susceptible to this kind of belligerent nationalism and indeed ranked as one of the most patriotic sectors of Wilhelmine society. Perhaps nowhere was this orientation more evident than in the relations between the religious community and the organized peace movement in Germany.

This research aims to determine the strategy for realizing social harmony in Islamic and Christian communities in Bukit Malintang District, Mandailing Natal Regency, knowing the forms and forms of social harmony and the efforts made to create social harmony in Islamic and Christian communities in Bukit Malintang District, Mandailing Regency. Christmas 2024. This research uses qualitative research methods. Data collection in this research uses observation, interviews and documentation techniques. Social harmony is compatibility, suitability, balance and justice which provides a sense of security, peace and prosperity to all mankind. Broadly speaking, it means the existence of brotherhood and togetherness between religious communities even though they are different in terms of ethnicity, race and class. The results of this research show that in the villages of Promisematogu and Lambou Dahlul Ihsan, each religion teaches to live in peace and tranquility. The importance of awareness among the adherents of each religion makes it very easy to establish social harmony in society. So that people can live in peace, help each other, respect each other, in everyday life. Religious figures also often emphasize the importance of tolerance as a basis for peaceful coexistence. By implementing the Dalihan Na Tolu system, the kinship system has an important meaning that looks at the relationship between Islamic and Christian communities in the kinship system incorporated in Dalian Na Tolu, overcoming relationships that are built on the basis of inter-religious brotherhood.

The era of globalization makes the relationship between humans and between religions in Polman closer to Islam and Christianity. Sophisticated technology makes communication between religious communities more intimate. However, in this highly developed era, the behavior of a handful or a group of uncivilized humans is still very much against religious teachings, and can even threaten religious harmony in Polman. The purpose of this research is, first, how the harmony of the Muslim and Christian communities is, Second, the forms of Islamic and Christian community harmony activities, Third, what are the driving and inhibiting factors for religious harmony in Polman. The method uses qualitative research with data collection techniques of observation, interviews, and analysis. The results of religious harmony in Polman must be built and we believe that inter-religious harmony is the main element of national harmony. For the Muslim and Christian communities in Polman, the celebration of the Indonesian Independence Day is a medium to establish good communication between them. Muslims and Christians carry out joint activities to celebrate the Indonesian Independence Day in various activities, religious harmony is a state of inter-religious relations based on tolerance, mutual understanding and mutual respect. Conclusion For years, the Polman community has made efforts so that this diverse community lives in harmony. Inter-religious harmony between Islam and Christianity is one of the main pillars in maintaining the unity and harmony of Islamic and Christian communities in Polman. Harmony is often interpreted as living and living conditions that reflect an atmosphere of peace, order, peace, prosperity, respect, respect, respect, tolerance, mutual cooperation in accordance with the teachings of each religion. 
 
 Keywords: Harmony, Islam, Christianity.

This chapter focuses on Christian community. We start with a consideration of real Christian community, finding that it is unique because of the relationship that is expected to exist between members: this relationship is one of “love,” in a “fellowship” dictated by the common status of “believer in Christ.” Secular communities are broader in type, and do not necessarily have this bond underpinning. There is evidence that both secular and religious communities have largely broken down in Western cultures. Many have found that the computer and virtual communities that are emerging are actually assisting people to find community once again. Some of the helpful factors in kindling virtual communities are the “levelling” and organisational structuresthat virtual communities make possible. Increasingly, it appears that virtual communities are providing an alternative to conventional religious communities. Debbie Gaunt provides a useful comparison between six models of Christian community and virtual community. And while the possibilities of virtual Christian communities are exciting, they are limited in (1) the lack of physical presence within which to express the most primitive aspects of community and (2) lack of guarantee that the type of relationship is that “love” that flows from the mutual status in Christ.

Lev Weitz. Between Christ and Caliph: Law, Marriage and Christian Community in Early Islam . Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. 352 pages, 6 illustrations. ISBN 978-0-8122-5027-5. $65. Historians of Islam during its formative period have a strong tendency to focus their attention on Muslim elites—who were a minority—at the expense of non-Muslim subjects of the caliphate—who were a majority. In Between Christ and Caliph , Lev Weitz reframes the historical narrative about the emergence of Islam by placing non-Muslims at the center of this narrative, with special attention to the field of law. He argues that Christian, Muslim, and other elites were part of what Hodgson called an “Islamicate” culture that was shared by all subjects of the caliphate. He asks: How did Christians respond to Islamic legal institutions and practices and what effect did this response have on legal institutions and communal identity? He answers: Islamic imperial governance motivated Syriac Christian elites to modify their communal institutions and to redefine their identity as religious communities by creating a new Christian law that treated obligations between husbands, wives, and other family members as defined by new rules relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and the household ( baytā ). The argument unfolds in three parts of uneven length that are framed by an introduction and conclusion: Part I, Empire, Household, and Christian Community from Late Antiquity to the Abbasid Caliphate (chapters 1–3); Part II, Christian Family Law in the Making of Caliphal Society and Intellectual Cultures (chapters 4–8); and Part III, Islamic Family Law and Christian Jurists after Imperial Fragmentation (chapter 9). Each chapter begins with a short selection from a Christian legal source that exemplifies the problematic of that chapter. In Chapter 1 Weitz reviews the position of the Church on monogamy and the indissolubility of marriage as reflected in the New Testament, second-century church orders, and the proceedings of ecumenical synods in the fourth and fifth centuries, followed by a review of Christian marriage practices in Byzantium and …