The True Israel: uses of the names Jew, Hebrew and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature.

published by E.J. Brill, 1996.  

Synopsis  
What do the names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel mean in the vernacular? That is, how did writers from 300 BCE to 200 CE use these names? What were they influenced by? And how did readers interpret them? Judaism was and continues to be culturally diverse, and writers sought to be clear and therefore “politically correct” even then. This book takes into account written as well as oral works that circulated during this 500-year period. Taking neither an etymological nor an archaeological approach, The True Israel instead applies the theory of associative fields to explore the full range of associations of the names in their actual context to better understand how the words were actually used. Divided into three parts, concerned with the names ‘Jew’, ‘Hebrew’, and ‘Israel’ respectively, the volume argues a case about ancient polemics about the nature of Israel (the people). Within each section, individual chapters are dedicated to specific literature (including Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Josephus, Philo and the first Christians). This book makes a significant contribution to Jewish self-definition, then and now.

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Words Remembered, Texts Renewed: Festschrift for Prof. John F.A. Sawyer.

Co-edited with Jon Davies and Wilfred Watson;

published by Sheffield Academic Press, 1995.

Synopsis
To mark the retirement of John F. A. Sawyer, Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, colleagues and former students from around the world have contributed studies on his areas of interest: the study of Hebrew, the books of the Jewish Bible, and the culture and traditions of Judaism. The essayists consider not simply the origin of the meaning of word and text, but also the many ways in which word and text become transposed, re-oriented and often enough traduced by later interests and purposes. They engage with the broadest issues of the relationship between sacred texts and private and public lives. The roll call of scholars reads: Philip Alexander, Francis Andersen, Graeme Auld, Calvin Carmichael, Robert Carroll, David Clines, Richard Coggins, Jon Davies, Philip Davies, James Dunn, John Elwolde, John Gibson, Graham Harvey, Peter Hayman, Dermot Killingley, Jonathan Magonet, Robert Morgan, Takamitsu Muraoka, Christopher Rowland, Deborah Sawyer, Clyde Curry Smith, Max Sussman, William Telford, Marc Vervenne, Wilfred Watson, Keith Whitelam and Isabel Wollaston.

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Law and Religion in Contemporary Society: Communities, Individualism and the State.

Co-edited with Peter Edge;

published by Ashgate (Aldershot), 2000.

Synopsis
The relationship between law and religion has traditionally been analysed according to two basic paradigms. One has focused on the relationship between religious communities and the State (the Church/ State paradigm), while the other has concentrated on the relationship between the State and the individual (the liberal-individualist or civil liberties paradigm). This book enriches the analysis of law and religion in society by emphasising a third and complementary analytical dimension involving the relationship between religious communities and religious individuals. In particular, the contributors explore the various facets of the multiple tensions that exist in the legal relationships between religious organisations, State and adherents in the period leading up to the third Christian millennium.

Against the background of the complex and sometimes contradictory responses of religious organisations and the State to the Human Rights Act, this interdisciplinary collection draws on contributions from leading scholars active in the field of religious rights and the interaction of law and religion based in the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and elsewhere, and makes a timely and significant contribution to international debates in a variety of academic disciplines. Contributors explore international concerns over religious liberty, focusing particularly on the boundaries of ethnicity and religious community, the status of the 'established' Churches in the UK, and the proper place for religious organisations under generally applicable legal regimes of non-discrimination. Themes discussed are closely related to wider interests within legal and socio-legal studies involving gender, discrimination, equality, community and the nature and limits of individualism and individual legal rights

Reviews
'The content of the book is excellent with all the authors delivering interesting and informative discourses in their specific areas ... a very valuable addition to the lamentably small amount of work in this increasingly important area of study.'
- Journal of Contemporary Religion.

'...this is a very useful book that contains some timely contributions to the emerging debates about religion, law, and human rights...this volume is welcomed as a very relevant contribution to the field.'
- Culture and Religion

'... of interest to scholars of comparative law and judicial politics, including those searching for case studies of the interaction of law and pluralism or the role of the international human rights movement in the legal politics within individual nation-states.'
- The Law and Politics Book Review

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Indigenous Diasporas and Dislocations.

Co-edited with Charles Thompson;

published by Ashgate, 2005.

Synopsis:
Indigenous religions are now present not only in their places of origin but globally. They are significant parts of the pluralism and diversity of the contemporary world, especially when their performance enriches and/or challenges host populations. Indigenous Diasporas and Dislocations engages with examples of communities with different experiences, expectations and evaluations of diaspora life. It contributes significantly to debates about indigenous cultures and religions, and to understandings of identity and alterity in late or post-modernity. This book promises to enrich understanding of indigeneity, and of the globalized world in which indigenous people play diverse roles.

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Ritual and Religious Belief: a Reader.

published by Equinox (London) and Routledge (New York), 2005.

In the series: Critical Categories in the Study of Religion

Synopsis:
Rituals are among the most obvious and common religious activities, but their relationship with other aspects of religion, especially ‘belief’, has been a problem both for religious people and for scholars. In many religions leaders have worried that people are ‘just going through the motions’, doing without understanding. People are often accused of ‘vain repetition’ as if it were possible to perform significant religious acts without repeating oneself. Even the word ‘performance’ is difficult, because it might imply pretence rather than sincerity. Yet it is not at all clear that religious actions, rituals, are meant to be understood. They may even appear contrary to rational and thoughtful statements of what a religion teaches.

This Reader brings together material that illustrates the problem of ritual as a type of religious behaviour, in relation to belief and thought, and as ‘vain repetition.’ The material presented here seeks an understanding of ritual as performances that may have a logic different to ‘belief’ or as actions that are not meant to be understood. The contributors discuss recent questions about the fluid performance of all identities and the inherent permeability of critical categories such as ritual. An introduction to the various debates is also provided.

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Religion, Culture and Society.

Ashgate. A focused cluster of high profile titles exploring the critical issues of contemporary society and culture, and relationships to and within living religions.

Co-editors: Peter Edge, Reader in Law, Oxford Brookes University, and Lois Lorentzen, University of San Francisco

Series commenced in 1999.

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Member of editorial panel of Australian Religious Studies Review

published by Equinox.

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‘Death and Remembrance in Modern Paganism’, in Ritual and Remembrance: Responses to Death in Human Societies (ed.: Davies, J.; Sheffield Academic Press, 1994) 103-22.

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‘The Suffering of Witches and Children: Uses of the Witchcraft Passages in the Bible’, in Words Remembered, Texts Renewed: Festschrift for Prof. John F.A. Sawyer, (eds: Davies, J., Harvey, G., Watson, W.G.E.; Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 113-134.

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‘Synagogues of the Hebrews: “Good Jews” in the Diaspora’ in Jewish Local Patriotism and Self-Identification in the Graeco-Roman Period (eds: Siân Jones and Sarah Pearce; JSPss 31; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998): 132-47.

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'Huldah’s Scroll: a pagan Reading’ in Lisa Isherwood (ed.), Patriarchs, Prophets and Other Villains, London: Equinox, 2006.

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