This is the second of two volumes, issued together. The author is the Simon and Ethel Bun Distinguished Professor of Church‐State Relations at Baylor University. Professor Wood clearly intends this volume and its companion, together the fruit of a lifetime's work in this area, to be seen as a set. One takes a more thematic approach. Entitled Church and State in Historical Perspective: An Annotated Bibliography, it surveys the ancient World and the Biblical World before moving on to consider religion and the state in Christianity and other religions, religious freedom, tolerance, religion and the secular state and religion in international affairs and interfaith relations. The other, the book under review here, is an annotated listing of books on church‐state relations in modern times in individual countries, preceded by a short overall introduction. All continents and a great many nations are covered.
It has to be said that his publishers have done Professor Wood something of a disservice. Only his introduction makes it clear that this is essentially a two‐volume work. The sole evidence the publishers provide for the existence of the other volume is a reference at the bottom of the list of titles in religious studies opposite the title page. In looking through this volume and not finding certain authors whom I might have expected to be there, I have asked myself if they appear in the other volume.
How does Professor Wood define “church and state”? In spite of the use of the specifically Christian word “church” he covers all major world religions. In some ways “religion and state” would more accurately define the concept as it appears here. Professor Wood's interest is considerably broader than the interaction of religion and state authority or even the political thought of different religions. His introduction begins with the statement that “throughout the World religion has served… as the primary basis of cultural and national identity” and he is concerned to explore the issues raised in this statement. He has prepared his bibliography as “a resource for the study of major contemporary patterns of church‐state relations throughout the World, with particular attention given to the symbiosis of religion and the state and the role played by religion in the quest for national identity and in international affairs”. His major concern is with the way in which religion has emerged as a major political force since 1979, whereas in the 30 or so years before that it had appeared to be in decline. Yet the scope of the bibliography is not limited to this period. As will be seen, the inclusive definition allows a variety of topics to be covered and Professor Wood interprets “modern” as historians do, starting from the sixteenth century.
There are 2,256 entries, the latest from 2003 and early 2004. The concept of the bibliography appears to have started from Professor Wood's own reading and many years' punctilious note‐making on it. The entries vary in length from a sentence (often beautifully crafted) to a short paragraph. Some of them have the character of short book notices, possibly arising from the author's period as the founding editor of Journal of Church and State. Frequently he not only summarises the works but also sets them in a wider context. Where he has cited works apparently irrelevant to his theme he makes it clear why he has done so. On occasion he makes a personal comment like “an insightful and valuable study” or “objective, concise and non‐judgmental”. Sometimes these comments are more acerbic or at least double‐edged, such as “a revealing document” or “a very political and partisan study”. Some of the entries have clearly been written a long time ago and could have done with updating. For example, we are told that a book published in 1962 “will undoubtedly force a revision in the standard interpretation that ”. After 43 years it will either have done so or not. It might also have been worth noting the slant of some particular imprints. Any works issued by Progress Publishers, Moscow can be guaranteed to have taken a less than impartial viewpoint.
As might be expected the section on the USA is by far the largest with over 950 entries. To take a few of the themes covered they include: the churches in colonial Massachusetts; the life of Roger Williams; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the American War of Independence; the anti‐slavery movement and the American Civil War; the 1928 presidential campaign of Al Smith; the civil rights movement; the Cold War. Among current and long‐running issues are creationism, controversies around prayers in schools and abortion. There are useful entries on the New Religious Right and on such diverse groups as Catholics, Mennonites and Baptists. There is much of value here for all students of American life. In view of its size, this section would have benefited by subdivision, possibly by topic or historical period.
Other themes emerge in profusion elsewhere. Islam is well covered not only in the Middle Eastern, Asian and African sections but also in those devoted to America and Europe. The position of Jews is another important theme, not only in the American and European sections but also in more unexpected places like Cuba. The response of Christian churches to Nazism, not only in Germany but elsewhere in Europe, also receives generous attention. Liberation theology is another important area in its main stronghold of Latin America and in less obvious places like the Philippines. The Indian section covers the emergence of Hindu nationalism in detail.
There are some surprising omissions. The church‐state issues raised by the position of the Scandinavian Lutheran churches receive very little attention. Apart from the generous coverage of the interaction of churches in Russia and Eastern Europe with Communism there is not much about Orthodoxy as a Christian tradition. The Greek section is very short and Cyprus is, as far as I can see, left out completely, thus missing out on literature devoted to the one‐man church‐state phenomenon of Archbishop Makarios. There are a few entries on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism but, inexcusably, they are subsumed into the section on China and could easily be missed.
There are sections on the UK as a whole, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Perhaps inevitably, there is some overlap between the coverage of the UK and England All historical periods are covered with generous treatment of the Reformation and the controversies of the seventeenth century. Attention is paid to the experience of minorities, less well‐known ones such as Zoroastrians, as well as Catholics, Jews and Muslims. There is good coverage of the part played by religion in the situation in Northern Ireland. The sections on Scotland and Wales are disappointing. The Disruption in the Church of Scotland in 1843, surely one of the great clashes with church‐state implications in British church history, receives very little attention, as do the battles in Wales on issues like tithes or schools. The section on Ireland is also rather disappointing. It includes a number of historical texts but very little of the large literature generated by the relationship of the Catholic Church with the modern Irish state. I was sorry not to find a key text like J.H. Whyte's Church and State in Modern Ireland.
There are good title and author indexes but the subject index is inadequate. A good subject index would not have been so badly missed if more effort had been made to subdivide the sections in the bibliography. I looked for entries on Greek or Russian Orthodox churches in the USA. I could not find any. This is not to say that they may not be somewhere in over 900 entries, but I had no easy way of finding them. I have also found a number of entries in completely the wrong sections. The standard of proofreading is poor with many misplaced commas and outright mistakes. The mind boggles at what is meant in the entry on Church and State in Scotland 1660‐1681 by “control of sushi policy”. As stated previously, the publisher has not served Professor Wood well.
These things are unfortunate in a work that is a valuable addition to academic collections in religion, history, area studies, politics and sociology.
