Civilization and Christianity depend heavily upon one another. There is no true civilization which is not religious; nor can there be a healthy religion among a populace which is not supported by civilization. Today, too many Christians see no inconsistency in the juxtaposition of a private religion and an irreligious society, nor do they perceive how ruinous this is for both society and religion. But how are society and religion to be joined without either making religion a tool of the secular power, or the secular power a tool of religion?

Powerful Devices studies spiritual warfare performances as an apparatus for disestablishing structures of power and knowledge, and establishing righteousness in their stead. Drawing on performance studies’ emphasis on radicality and breaking of social norms as devices of social transformation, the book demonstrates how Christian groups with dominant cultural power but who perceive themselves as embattled wield the ideas of performance activism. Combining religious studies with ethnography, Powerful Devices explores Nigerian Pentecostals and US Evangelicals’ praxis of transnational spiritual warfare. By closely studying spiritual warfare prayers as a “device,” Powerful Devices shows how the rituals of prayer enable an apprehension of time, paradigms of self-enhancement, and the subversion of politics and authority. A critical intervention, Powerful Devices explores charismatic Christianity’s relationship to science and secular authority, technology and temporality, neoliberalism, and reactionary ideology.

Prayer is an important religious practice that is rarely studied from the perspective of politics – and yet it should be. Though some forms of Protestantism teach that prayer should be individual and private, this is an exception rather than a rule. In many other religions and cultures, the regulation of collective and public prayer cannot be separated from the complex world of politics. Where is prayer allowed, and where not? Who can participate, and who can’t? How should you pray – and how shouldn’t you? Prayer is subject to a host of both written and unwritten political rules. From the Pentecostal religious battle – where prayer is both sword and shield against the Satanic Other – to the relations between Islam and Christianity, prayer as spiritual warfare can be found cross-culturally and across the world. This book brings together case studies of the political salience of prayer in Nigeria, France, India, Russia, and the United States. It deals with Christian, Muslim, and Hindu practices. In a world where religious tensions are ever-present, it reminds us of the intensely political nature of prayer. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Religious and Political Practice.

The daughter of renowned theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who wrote The Serenity Prayer, reclaims the true history of the prayer and recounts the efforts made by those who, like Niebuhr, devoted their lives to the causes of social justice, racial equality, and democratic freedom.

What is it like to be young and religious in migration society? This volume presents research at the intersection of religion, age and race. The chapters’ foci range from methodological challenges to conceptual work and empirical case studies. The authors present research on various religious traditions including contributions on young Alevis, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, and apply an array of theoretical angles among them feminist, post- and de-colonial perspectives. Furthermore, the volume engages in the debate over novel conceptual frameworks attuned to investigate contemporary manifestations of youth religiosity, for example in digital spaces. The methodological chapters advocate for reflexivity in the context of empirical research on religion in migration society and promote a self-evaluative assessment of researchers’ positionalities.

Against a historical backdrop of relic theft and propaganda campaigns waged by two cities vying for patriarchal authority in medieval Venetia, Thomas Dale shows how Romanesque mural painting shaped sacred space and institutional identity. His focus is on the late twelfth-century murals in the crypt of Aquileia Cathedral. The crypt, which contains the relics of Aquileia's founding bishop, Saint Hermagoras, has a historical significance rooted in a legend identifying the saint as a direct disciple of Saint Mark the Evangelist. On this basis, the Carolingians promoted the city's status as patriarchal see of Venetia--a claim that prompted Venice to steal Mark's relics from Alexandria, Egypt, and appropriate Aquileia's history. This book, the first English-language study of the crypt, explores how the paintings complement the relics of Hermagoras in their distinct devotional and political roles. Hermagoras's intercessory power is activated by his orant image displayed over the central aisle within a larger hierarchy of apostles, martyrs, and bishops. The surrounding hagiographic cycle justifies in legalistic fashion Aquileia's patriarchal title and the consecration of the city as locus sanctus of Venetia by the blood of its martyrs. The iconic images in the eastern lunettes present the Virgin's compassio as a pictorial model for the vicarious experience of Christ's Passion. Finally, a fictive curtain over the socle presents allegories of spiritual warfare in the form of exempla from crusades, pilgrimage, and the epic poem Psychomachia, which Dale analyzes as a gloss on the main program.

Distinguished Catholic and Jewish scholars, theologians, and linguists offer important insights into the functions of language as well as penetrating analyses of the feminists' influence on Scripture and worship.