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This book provides an overview and analysis of the recent history of Christian-Muslim dialogue in the United States, and the ways in which it has been furthered and enriched since September 11, 2001. Starting with a brief history of Christian-Muslim relations, the text deals with Islam in America, models of dialogue, problems that can occur in interfaith engagement, pluralism as it is understood by Christians and Muslims, and new avenues for dialogue. The specific examples cited suggest to the reader some of the kinds of cooperative events that are taking place, as well as the variety of thinking on the part of both Christians and Muslims as to what it means to be in dialogue and to take seriously the elements of faith held by the other.

Mounting evidence shows that zero-tolerance policies, suspensions, and restrictive security policies fail to improve school safety and student behaviors, and are linked with increased risk of dropping out. Minority students are suspended at disproportionate rates, and over a million cases of corporal punishment are reported each year. Against this dismal backdrop, David Dupper presents a transformative new model of school discipline that is preventive, proactive, and relationship-based. Unlike traditional punitive and exclusionary practices, the model developed in this Workshop volume focuses on enhancing students' connection to school through building relationships and bolstering social skills. Drawing on the latest research about what works, and what doesn’t, this highly practical guide catalogs an array of proven and promising practices designed to engage, instead of exclude, students. Rather than illustrate a one-size-fits-all approach, it guides practitioners and administrators in identifying their school's unique needs and selecting appropriate strategies for use at the universal, targeted, and remedial levels. A five-step strategic planning model helps schools transition toward a holistic, relationship-based approach to discipline. Boxes, evidence summaries, and practice tips make this an accessible, forward-thinking resource for school personnel seeking to engage students and reduce behavior problems in the most effective, pragmatic, and cost-efficient manner possible.

With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other “disorderly” people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have wholeheartedly embraced “zero-tolerance” or “broken window” policing efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if they return—effectively banished from public places. This book offers an exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers. Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the chapters chart the rise of banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a highly questionable policy—it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty. Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more difficult. At a time when ever more cities and governments in the U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex social problems, the book provides a challenge to exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and the rights of those it targets.

Most Americans say they believe in God, and more than a third say they attend religious services every week. Yet studies show that people do not really go to church as often as they claim, and it is not always clear what they mean when they tell pollsters they believe in God or pray. This book presents up-to-date information about religious trends in the United States, in a succinct and accessible manner. The book provides essential information about key developments in American religion since 1972, and is the first major resource of its kind to appear in more than two decades. The book looks at trends in diversity, belief, involvement, congregational life, leadership, liberal Protestant decline, and polarization. It draws on two important surveys: the General Social Survey, an ongoing survey of Americans' changing attitudes and behaviors, begun in 1972; and the National Congregations Study, a survey of American religious congregations across the religious spectrum. The book finds that American religious life has seen much continuity in recent decades, but also much change. It challenges the popular notion that religion is witnessing a resurgence in the United States—in fact, traditional belief and practice is either stable or declining. The book examines why the decline in liberal Protestant denominations has been accompanied by the spread of liberal Protestant attitudes about religious and social tolerance, how confidence in religious institutions has declined more than confidence in secular institutions, and a host of other crucial trends.

The early Quakers denounced the clergy and social élite but how did that affect Friends' relationships with others? Drawing upon the insights of sociologists and anthropologists, this study sets out to discover the social consequences of religious belief. Why did the sect appoint its own midwives to attend Quaker women during confinement? Was animosity to Quakerism so great that Friends were excluded from involvement in parish life? And to what extent were the remarkably high literacy rates of Quakers attributable to the Quaker faith or wider social forces? Using a wide range of primary source material, this study demonstrates that Quakers were not the marginal and isolated people that contemporaries and historians often portrayed. Indeed the sect had a profound impact not only upon members, but more widely by encouraging a greater tolerance of diversity in early modern society.

In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the origins, development, and contemporary importance of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, each chapter offers a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to its topic. Written by leading specialists and incorporating the latest scholarship, the alphabetically arranged chapters cover the topics of authority, the caliphate, fundamentalism, government, jihad, knowledge, minorities, modernity, Muhammad, pluralism and tolerance, the Qur'an, revival and reform, shari'a (sacred law), traditional political thought, ‘ulama’ (religious scholars), and women. Read separately or together, these chapters provide an indispensable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics.

In recent years, North American and European nations have sought to legally remake religion in other countries through an unprecedented array of international initiatives. Policymakers have rallied around the notion that the fostering of religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and protections for religious minorities are the keys to combating persecution and discrimination. This book argues that these initiatives create the very social tensions and divisions they are meant to overcome. It looks at three critical channels of state-sponsored intervention: international religious freedom advocacy, development assistance and nation building, and international law. It shows how these initiatives make religious difference a matter of law, resulting in a divide that favors forms of religion authorized by those in power and excludes other ways of being and belonging. In exploring the dizzying power dynamics and blurred boundaries that characterize relations between “expert religion,” “governed religion,” and “lived religion,” the book charts new territory in the study of religion in global politics. The book provides new insights into today's most pressing dilemmas of power, difference, and governance.

As human populations grow and resources are depleted, agriculture will need to use land, water, and other resources more efficiently and without sacrificing long-term sustainability. This book presents an entirely new approach to these challenges, one that draws on the principles of evolution and natural selection. It shows how both biotechnology and traditional plant breeding can use Darwinian insights to identify promising routes for crop genetic improvement and avoid costly dead ends. It explains why plant traits that have been genetically optimized by individual selection—such as photosynthesis and drought tolerance—are bad candidates for genetic improvement. Traits like plant height and leaf angle, which determine the collective performance of plant communities, offer more room for improvement. Agriculturalists can also benefit from more sophisticated comparisons among natural communities and from the study of wild species in the landscapes where they evolved. The book reveals why it is sometimes better to slow or even reverse evolutionary trends when they are inconsistent with our present goals, and how we can glean new ideas from natural selection's marvelous innovations in wild species.

This book argues that commitments by certain dissenting Protestants to the right of private judgment in matters of Biblical interpretation, an outgrowth of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, helped promote religious liberty and religious disestablishment in the early modern West. This movement climaxed in the disestablishment of religion in the early American colonies and nation. It describes a continuous strand of this religious thought—as well as the thinkers who spread it—from the early Protestant Reformation, across the European continent, through the English reformation, civil war, and restoration, into the American colonies. It examines eight key thinkers, as well as a number of other figures, who played a major role in the development of this religious trajectory as it came to fruition in the American political and legal contexts. The seven main figures are Martin Luther, William Penn, John Locke, Elisha Williams, Isaac Backus, William Livingston, John Witherspoon, and James Madison. The connections of ideas and beliefs between these figures are traced, either directly or through other background figures who provided these connections. The project aims to show that religion played more than a pragmatic role in contributing to religious disestablishment in America. It argues that one main theme of dissenting Protestant tradition contributed to the ideology behind disestablishment among both American common people as well as among the educated elite.Law and Religion.

A collection of fifteen new papers on themes from the philosophy of T. M. Scanlon. The contributions include discussions of issues in metaethics and the theory of value (reasons and reasoning, valuing, desire and action); normative ethics (contractualism, aggregation, promising, tolerance); political philosophy (conservatism, global justice, freedom of expression, distribution), and the theory of responsibility (psychopathy, blame, and opprobrium). Contributors: Christine M. Korsgaard, Samuel Scheffler, Niko Kolodny, Michael Smith, Pamela Hieronymi, Rahul Kumar, Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Angela M. Smith, G. A. Cohen, Charles R. Beitz, Joshua Cohen, Aaron James, Gary Watson, Susan Wolf, and R. Jay Wallace. Together, the papers contribute to a deeper understanding of Scanlon’s views, while advancing the discussion of the important issues addressed in his ground-breaking work.

This book problematizes tolerance as a conceptually helpful or coherent concept for understanding the significance of the dhimmī rules, the Islamic legal doctrines that governed and regulated non-Muslim permanent residents in Islamic lands. In doing so, it suggests that the Islamic legal treatment of non-Muslims is symptomatic of the more general challenge of governing a diverse polity. Far from being constitutive of an Islamic ethos, the dhimmī rules are symptomatic of the messy business of ordering and regulating a diverse society. This understanding of the dhimmī rules allows us to view the dhimmī rules in the larger context of law and pluralism, and in that fashion, creates new spaces for analyzing Sharīʿa as one among many legal systems that, far from being unique, suffers similar challenges as other legal systems that also contend with the challenges of governing amidst diversity.