Claiming Society for God

Claiming Society for God focuses on common strategies employed by religiously orthodox, even fundamentalist, movements around the world. Rather than using terrorism, as much of post-9/11 thinking suggests, these movements use a patient, under-the-radar strategy of taking over civil society. Nancy J. Davis and Robert V. Robinson tell the story of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Shas in Israel, Comunione e Liberazione in Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States. They show how these movements build massive grassroots networks of religiously-based social service agencies, hospitals, schools, and businesses to bring their own brand of faith to popular and political fronts.

Nancy J. Davis is Lester Martin Jones Professor of Sociology at Depauw University. Robert V. Robinson is the Class of 1964 Chancellor's Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington.