Unknown - Prayer and Politics

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 cant? How should you pray and how shouldnt 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.

Peter van der Veer is the Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Gttingen, Germany. He is also a Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He has published widely on the comparative study of religion and nationalism in Asia and Europe. His latest book is The Value of Comparison (Duke University Press, 2016).

Edited by
Peter van der Veer

First published 2017
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ISBN 13: 978-1-138-28921-5

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The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.

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Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

Peter van der Veer

Sonja Luehrmann

Z. Fareen Parvez

Sanal Mohan

Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi

Ebenezer Obadare

Ruth Marshall

Elizabeth McAlister

The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article, as follows:

Introduction
Peter van der Veer
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 15

The politics of prayer books: Delegated intercession, names, and community boundaries in the Russian Orthodox Church
Sonja Luehrmann
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 622

Prayer and pedagogy: Redefining education among Salafist Muslim women in France
Z. Fareen Parvez
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 2339

Creation of social space through prayers among Dalits in Kerala, India
Sanal Mohan
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 4057

Mimetic failure: Politics, prayer and possession
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 5874

The Muslim response to the Pentecostal surge in Nigeria: Prayer and the rise of charismatic Islam
Ebenezer Obadare
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 7591

Destroying arguments and captivating thoughts: Spiritual warfare prayer as global praxis
Ruth Marshall
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 92113

The militarization of prayer in America: White and Native American spiritual warfare
Elizabeth McAlister
Journal of Religious and Political Practice, volume 2, issue 1 (February 2016) pp. 114130

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Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University (USA) since 2007. He is the Editor of Violence: Ethnographic Encounters (Berg Press, 2009). He is the author of Muslimische Heilige in Gujarat: Sufismus, Synkretismus, und Praxis im westlichen Indien (Editio Cortis Aquilae, 2008) and Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India (Princeton University Press, 2012).

Sonja Luehrmann is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Her research focuses on religion and ideology in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. She is the author of Secularism Soviet Style: Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic (Indiana University Press, 2011) and Religion in Secular Archives: Soviet Atheism and Historical Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Ruth Marshall is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and numerous scholarly articles on the political implications of Pentecostalism and postcolonial politics.

Elizabeth McAlister is a Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University and her research focuses on Afro-Caribbean religions, transnational migration, neo-pentecostalism, and race theory. She is the author of Rara! Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora, a book and CD (University of California Press, 2002) and co-editor of Race, Nation, and Religion in the Americas (with Henry Goldschmidt, Oxford University Press, 2004).

Sanal Mohan is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India. His current research focuses on Dalit Christian prayers and prayer practices in Kerala. He is the author of Modernity of Slavery: Struggles against Caste Inequality in Colonial Kerala (Oxford University Press, 2015).