Religious Internationals in the Modern World Globalization and Faith Communities since 1750

The central idea behind this book is that the globalisation and politicisation of traditional religious identities is a historical phenomenon with deep roots in the 19th-20th centuries. Tracing the emergence of 'Religious Internationals' as a distinctive new phenomenon in world history, it transforms our understanding of the place of religion in the modern world. Leading historians and social scientists break new ground by comparing the historical experiences of different faith communities in an age of globalization without comparing them as religions. In-depth case studies focus on the internationalist dimensions of Buddhism, Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant), Hinduism, Judaism and Islam. Individually, they illuminate the complex processes whereby communities of believers became communities of opinion. Collectively, they shed new light on the origins and nature of global civil society, highlighting the role of religion as one of its motor forces from the start.

ABIGAIL GREEN Fellow and Tutor in History at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, UK. She is the author of Fatherlands: State-building and Nationhood in Nineteenth Century Germany (2001), and of Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero (2010), nominated a Book of the Year by both the TLS and New Republic.
VINCENT VIAENE Ph.D. KULeuven, 1999 has published several edited volumes and 40 articles or book chapters on Catholic internationalism, religious culture, Belgium's foreign relations and Belgian imperialism. As a Marie Curie Fellow at Oxford, UK, he is currently working on a project entitled 'Internationalism and the Congo Question (1875-1914)'.

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction: Rethinking Religion and Globalization
PART I: THE RELIGIONS OF THE BOOK: TRAJECTORIES, COMPARISONS
The Protestant International
Old Networks, New Connections: The Emergence of the Jewish International
Nineteenth-century Catholic Internationalism and its Predecessors
The Islamic World: World System to 'Religious International'
PART II: RELIGIOUS INTERNATIONALS IN TRANSITION
Nationalism versus Internationalism: Russian Orthodoxy in Nineteenth-Century Palestine
Muslim Internationalism between Empire and Nation-State
Religious Internationalism in the Jewish Diaspora – Tunis at the Dawn of the Colonial Period
Transnational Buddhist Activists in the Era of Empires
PART III: RELIGIOUS INTERNATIONALS IN THE MODERN WORLD: LIMITS AND NEW HORIZONS
The Hadhrami Sada and the Evolution of an Islamic Religious International, c. 1750s to 1930s
A Religious International in Southeastern Europe?
Activism as Engine: Jewish Internationalism, 1880s-1980s
Protestant Ecclesiastical Internationals
From State to Civil Society and Back Again: The Catholic Church as Transnational Actor, 1965–2005
The Global Sangh Parivar: a Study of Contemporary International Hinduism