New Titles Tuesday, February 13

Here is a selection of the 15 new books added to the collection in the past week. Click on a title for more information. TWU

ECONOMICS

The Oxford handbook of Christianity and economics /edited by Paul Oslington.  This book, edited by a leader in the new interdisciplinary field of economics and religion and with contributions by experts on different aspects of therelationship between economics and Christianity, maps the current state of scholarship and points to new directions for the field. It covers the history of the relationship between economics and Christianity, economic thinking in the main Christian traditions, and the role of religion in economic development, as well as new work on the economics of religious behavior and religious markets and topics of debate between economists and theologians.It is essential reading for economists concerned with the foundations of their discipline, historians, moral philosophers, theologians seeking to engage with economics, and public policy researchers and practitioners.

HISTORY

The power of prophecy: Prince Dipanagara and the end of an old order in Java, 1785-1855 /Peter Carey. National hero, Javanese mystic, pious Muslim and leader of the ‘holy war’ against the Dutch between 1825 and 1830, the Yogyakarta prince, Dipanagara (1785-1855, otherwise known as Diponegoro), is pre-eminent in the pantheon of modern Indonesian historical figures. The Power of Prophecy is a major study which sets Dipanagara’s life history against the context of the turbulent events of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when the full force of European imperialism hit Indonesia propelling the twin forces of Islam and Javanese national identity into a fatal confrontation with the Dutch. The book presents a detailed analysis of Dipanagara’s pre-war visions and aspirations as a Javanese Ratu Adil (‘Just King’) based on extensive reading of his autobiography, the Babad Dipanagara as well as a number of other Javanese sources. Dutch and British records, in particularly the Residency Archives of Yogyakarta and Surakarta currently kept in the Indonesian National Archives, provide the backbone of this scholarly work. The book will be read with profit by all those interested in the rise of Western colonial rule in Indonesia, the fate of indigenous cultures in an age of imperialism and the role of Javanese Islam in modern Indonesian history. Peter Carey is one of Britain’s foremost historians of Southeast Asia.

LINGUISTICS

A grammar of the Bedouin dialects of central and southern Sinai /by Rudolf E. de Jong.  de Jong completes his description of the Bedouin dialects of the Sinai Desert of Egypt by adding the present volume. Quoting from his own extensive material and using a total of 95 criteria for comparison, De Jong applies the method of ‘multi-dimensional scaling’ and his own ‘step-method’ to arrive at a subdivision into eight (of which seven are ‘Bedouin’) typological groups in Sinai. An appendix with 68 maps and dialectrometrical plots completes the picture.

LITERATURE

From oral to written: a celebration of Indigenous literature in Canada, 1980-2010 /Tomson Highway. Highway’s From Oral to Written is a catalogue of amazing books that sparked the embers of a dormant voice. From Oral to Written is the story of the Native literary tradition, written – in multiple Aboriginal languages, in French, and in English – by a brave, committed, hard-working, and inspired community of exceptional individuals – from the Haida Nation to the Mi’kmaq of Cape Breton. A leading Aboriginal author, Highway surveys the first wave of Native writers published in Canada, highlighting the most gifted authors and the best stories they have told, offering non-Native readers access to reconciliation and understanding, and at the same time engendering among Native readers pride in a stellar body of work.

PHILOSOPHY

The Cambridge companion to Wittgenstein /edited by Hans Sluga, David G. Stern. In this volume, leading experts chart the development of his work and clarify the connections between its different stages. The essays, which are both expository and original, address central themes in Wittgenstein’s writing on a wide range of topics, particularly his thinking about the mind, language, logic, and mathematics. The contributors illuminate the character of the whole body of work by focusing on key topics. This revised edition includes a new introduction, five new essays – on Tractarian ethics, Wittgenstein’s development, aspects, the mind, and time and history – and a fully updated comprehensive bibliography.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Origen’s Hexapla and fragments: papers presented at the Rich Seminar on the Hexapla, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, [July] 25th-3rd August 1994 /edited by Alison Salvesen.

Explorations in the anthropology of religion:  essays in honour of Jan van Baal /edited by W. E. A. van Beek and J. H. Scherer. In order to arrange the papers around a theme that has never ceased to fascinate van Baal, we have asked the contributors to concentrate on a religious subject. The topics of the three sections by no means represent an exhaustive inventory of all fields van Baal has successfully explored.

Ibn Taymiyya’s theodicy of perpetual optimism /by Jon Hoover. This comprehensive study of Muslim jurist Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 1328) theodicy of perpetual optimism exposits and analyses his writings on God’s justice and wise purpose, divine determination and human agency, the problem of evil, and juristic method in theological doctrine.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Marmaduke Pickthall: Islam and the modern world /edited by Geoffrey Nash. This new volume of essays marks eighty years since the death of Marmaduke Pickthall. His various roles as translator of the Qur’an, traveller to the Near East, political journalist writing on behalf of Muslim Turkey, and creator of the Muslim novel are discussed. Marmaduke Pickthall: Islam and the Modern World makes an important contribution to the field of Muslims in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

White like me: reflections on race from a privileged son /Tim Wise. With a new preface and updated chapters, White Like Me is part memoir, part polemical essay collection. It is a personal examination of the way in which racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and elsewhere. Using stories from his own life, Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those who are ‘white like him.’ He discusses how racial privilege can harm whites in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. He explores the ways in which whites can challenge their unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so. Using anecdotes instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and yet scholarly, analytical and yet accessible.

Your heart is the size of your fist: a doctor reflects on ten years at a refugee clinic /Martina Scholtens, MD. Your Heart is the Size of Your Fist draws readers into the complicated, poignant, and often-overlooked daily happenings of a busy urban medical clinic for refugees. By turns humorous, distressing, and moving, these stories offer insight into the people seeking a new life in Canada while navigating poverty, language barriers, and Canadian neighbours who aren’t always friendly. This collection is filled with hope and humour, and is a deeply moving portrait of how one doctor attempts to provide quality care and advocacy for patients while remaining culturally sensitive, even as she wrestles with guilt, awareness of her own privilege, and vicarious trauma. Scholtens’ writing explores the transformative moments in which a clinical doctor-patient relationship becomes a profound human-human connection.