Since the events of 9/11 the representation of Islam has increasingly come adrift from its actuality. Scholars and pundits have effectively demonised a whole faith by wilfully apportioning blame and by ignoring the differences within the Islamic movement. 'Religion and the Domestication of Dissent' examines how the classifications we use to name and negotiate our social worlds - notably 'religion' - are implicitly political. The study ranges widely from contemporary film and art to the War on Terror and will be invaluable to readers interested in the politics behind the portrayal of...

It is widely accepted that Jesus was a Jew. However, both Christian and New Testament scholarship have a strong anti-Jewish history. 'The Symbolic Jesus' presents the controversies surrounding the Jewishness of Jesus. It examines the insistence among historical Jesus scholars that Jesus was a Jew and the ways this frames the figure of Jesus in ancient Christian literature. The book examines the anti-Jewish legacy of the past and more recent approaches to biblical scholarship. Contemporary identity issues - scholarly, political, religious and cultural - are shown to lie at the heart of the...

If religion is continually in a state of flux how can the study of religion critically examine contemporary religious beliefs and values? 'Representing Religion' critically examines this "crisis of representation." The volume traces the history of religious studies, critiquing the concept that "experience" is central to understanding religion. The views of influential semioticians and philosophers - notably Nietzsche, Saussure, Foucault, Barthes, and Bakhtin - are used to construct a new methodology for the critical study of religion. Representing Religion will be of interest to students and...