Nancy J. Davis

Nancy J. Davis' CLAIMING SOCIETY FOR GOD, co-authored with Robert V. Robinson, shows how religiously orthodox, "fundamentalist," movements of Christians, Jews and Muslims worldwide have converged on a common strategy. Rather than terrorism, as much post-9/11 thinking suggests, the strategy-in-common is a patient, under-the-radar transformation of civil society. CLAIMING SOCIETY FOR GOD tells the stories of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Shas in Israel, Comunione e Liberazione in Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States. The book shows how these movements build massive grassroots networks of religiously-based social service agencies, hospitals, schools and businesses--networks already being called states within states--to bring their own brand of faith to the center of society and state. A facebook page for the book, with updates on these movements, study questions, and news about other religiously orthodox movements, is at www.facebook.com/ClaimingSocietyforGod.

Nancy Davis is the Lester Martin Jones Professor of Sociology at DePauw University, where she served as chair of the department. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and has published extensively on the comparative and historical study of the role of religion in politics throughout the world, winning recognition from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the American Sociological Association's sections on the sociology of religion and collective behavior and social movements.