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Religion and Nationalism in Iraq
A Comparative Perspective
David Little
Harvard University Press, 2006
Because the situation in Iraq exhibits some of the standard symptoms of religious nationalism, it seems appropriate to compare it to other cases where the impulses of religion and nationalism have also come together in a highly lethal way. This volume provides a comparative consideration of attempts to manage and resolve nationalist conflicts in Bosnia, Sri Lanka, and Sudan, and examines how lessons from those situations might inform similar efforts in Iraq. In their introduction, Professors Little and Swearer review current scholarly thinking on the connection of religious and ethnic factors to nationalist conflicts, and they demonstrate the salience of religious and ethnic identity to these conflicts. For each country, two prominent thinkers examine the intersection of religion and ethnicity and the struggles to form a nation-state. The volume also contains a summary of the discussion on each country among 20 scholars, appendices providing background on the three countries with which Iraq is compared, and maps of the countries. The central role of ethnic and religious impulses in forming the identity of a people or "nation" directly ties these matters to nationalism and nationalist conflict.
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front cover of The Study of Religion in an Age of Global Dialogue
The Study of Religion in an Age of Global Dialogue
Leonard Swidler
Temple University Press, 2000
Religion is the most fundamental, comprehensive of all human activities. It tries to make sense out of not simply one or other aspect of human life, but of all aspects of human experience. At the core of every civilization lies its religion, which both reflects and shapes it. Thus, if we wish to understand human life in general and our specific culture and history, we need to understand religion.

What is religion? As this comprehensive work shows, religion is an explanation of the ultimate meaning of life and how to live accordingly, based on a notion of  the Transcendent. Normally it contains the four "C's": Creed, Code, Cult, Community-structure.

This volume looks at the ways we humans have developed to study religion. It also examines the new age in human consciousness that is now drawing.  It also examines the new age in human consciousness that is now dawning: The Age of Global Dialogue, a radically new consciousness that shifts the ways we understand everything in life, including religion. This global  dialogical way of understanding life does not lead to one global religion, but it does lead toward a consciously acknowledged common set of ethical principles, a Global Ethic. The book looks at these two movements -- the Age of Global Dialogue and inchoative Global Ethic -- in order to help readers understand what is going on around them, so they may make informed, intelligent decisions about the meaning of life and how to live it.
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