Sites and Politics of Religious Diversity in Southern Europe ─ The Best of All Gods

Edited by Blanes (U. of Bergen, Norway) and Mapril (anthropology, New U. of Lisbon, Portugal), this collection is presented as an effort to ethnographically sample experiences of religious pluralism and diversity in different "sites" of southern Europe, including spatial settings such as mosques and churches, spaces and itineraries of religious mobilities, and political arenas of religious contention. Seventeen papers are included, exploring such specific topics as rethinking place and belonging among Angolan Christians in Lisbon, the metamorphoses of neopaganism in traditionally Catholic countries in Southern Europe, pluralizing religiosity in the everyday practice of Greek Orthodoxy, religious belonging and new ways of being Italian in the self-perception of second-generation immigrants in Italy, religious rites and Afro-Brazilian associations in Portugal, mosque controversies and the religious life of Pakistani immigrants in Greece, the multiplicity of religious expressions among Albanian Muslim women in Macedonia, Pentecostalism and ethnic minorities in Barcelona, and religious education as a cultural battlefield in Greece. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ruy Blanes, Ph.D. (2007) is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bergen and associated researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, Lisbon. He has conducted research on the anthropology of Christianity in Portugal, Spain and Angola. He is the author of A Prophetic Trajectory (Berghahn, 2013).Jose Mapril, Ph.D. (2009) is an invited lecturer, department of Anthropology, New University of Lisbon and an associate researcher at CRIA-UNL. He is specialized in migration studies and Islam, with research in Bangladesh and in Lisbon. He is the author of Islao e Transnacionalismo (2012, Imprensa de Ciencias Sociais).Contributors include: Anna Fedele, Barbara Bertolani, Clara Saraiva, Cristina Sanchez-Carretero, Ester Gallo, Eugenia Roussou, Fabio Peroco, Inam Leghari, Jose Mapril, Katerine Seraidari, Maria Del Mar Griera, Manuela Canton Delgado, Nora Repo, Ramon Sarro, Ruy Blanes, Sandra Santos, Silvia Sai, Trine-Staunig Willert, Virtudes Tellez Delgado.