The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism

Product Description


This interdisciplinary book straddles the fields of history, politics, religion and sociology, and medieval and modern history. Its importance lies in its contribution to arguments about the meaning and origin of nationalism, ethnicity and nationhood, and in challenging the widely-accepted "modernist" theories of Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson and others. Its argument incorporates careful analysis of English, Irish, South Slav and African examples, and suggests finally an important contract between Christianity and Islam.


Review


"Hastings writes with great clarity and a welcome freedom from current linguistic fashions in historical scholarship....He has added substantially to the growing body of evidence that the vernacular implantation of Christianity has generally been subversive, rather than supportive, of claims to imperial hegemony." Church History


Book Description


This interdisciplinary book straddles the fields of history, politics, religion and sociology, and medieval and modern history. Its importance lies in its contribution to arguments about the meaning and origin of nationalism, ethnicity and nationhood, and in challenging the widely-accepted 'modernist' theories of Eric Hobsbawm, Benedict Anderson and others. Its argument incorporates careful analysis of English, Irish, South Slav and African examples, and suggests finally an important contract between Christianity and Islam.


About the Author


(1929-2001) Former professor emeritus of theology at theUniversity of Leeds in England. A theologian and churchhistorian, he wrote several books including A History ofChristianity in Africa, A History of EnglishChristianity, and The Church in Africa andedited A World History of Christianity and TheOxford Companion to Christian Thought. In recognitionof his scholarly achievements he was proposed for electionto a Fellowship of the British Academy, but died before theformal elections were held.