Easter is a time of reflection on life and faith for many Christians around the world, and in politics too it has the potential to inspire truces or ceasefires, as attempted in Ukraine last week. Academics of all faiths and in all corners of the world have long worked on the themes of religion, politics, and peace, and so here Managing Editor Amy Mollett pulls together a selection of book reviews covering current academic work on religious conflict and the intricacies of a peace process.

Interested in the relationship between politics and religion in the UK?

Politics and Religion in the United Kingdom by Steve Bruce
This new volume seeks to provide a significant contribution to our understanding of religion and politics, demonstrating through comparisons with other countries the unusually complex nature of the interaction of religion and politics in the United Kingdom. John Anderson finds that the book offers robust analysis on secular Britain and media representation of religious identities. Read more…

Interested in Christianity in the Middle East?

Radical Christianity in Palestine and Israel: Liberation and Theology in the Middle East by Samuel J Kuruvilla
Christianity arose from the lands of biblical Palestine and, regardless of its twentieth century association with the Arab-Israeli conflict, to Christians around the world it remains first and foremost the birthplace of Christianity. In this book, Samuel J. Kuruvilla argues that Christian Palestinians often employ politically astute as well as theologically radical means in their efforts to appear relevant as a minority community within Israeli and Palestinian societies. Elaine Housby finds that the book contains much valuable and interesting material which anyone who takes an interest in the situation of the Palestinians or in Arab Christianity will find helpful. Read more…

Interested in the the nuts and bolts of a peace process?

Conflicted Are The Peacemakers: Israeli and Palestinian Moderates and the Death of Oslo by Eric N Budd
The 1993 Oslo Accords were a key attempt to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a failure largely attributed to extremists on both sides. This book challenges this conventional wisdom by examining the role of Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers themselves in derailing the peace process. Looking at the role of moderates before and after Oslo, the different agreements and peace proposals they negotiated, and their rhetoric, the book aims to show that these peacemakers retained an inherent ambivalence toward the peace process and one another. Reviewed by Jeff Roquen. Read more…

Interested in the Muslim identities and peace activism?

Being Muslim and Working for Peace: Ambivalence and Ambiguity in Gujarat by Raphael Susewind
Being Muslim and Working for Peace aims to challenge popular notions about Muslims in India and question ill-conceived research designs in the sociology of religion, through an exploration of the various ways in which religious beliefs, ritual practices and dynamics of belonging impact the politics of Muslim peace activists in Gujarat. Kalathmika Natarajan finds that this is a welcome addition to the literature on the diversity of Muslim identities in India and should be of interest to scholars and activists alike. Read more…