Book Review: Religion and Politics
| Author | A. Alexander Stummvoll |
| Published date | 01 May 2010 |
| Date | 01 May 2010 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/03058298100380032101 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Millennium: Journal of International Studies 38 (3)
858
around the articulation of concepts of gender violence and international
security can ever effect the radical reforms of which it speaks’ (p. 163).
The final chapter convincingly argues against defending these ‘sovereign
boundaries’ (p. 174), as ‘there is nothing inherent in the concepts of (inter-
national) security and (gender) violence that necessitated their being
made meaningful in the way they were’ (p. 14). Shepherd advocates their
radical reconceptualisation – a task in which the academic community is
also implicated.
Overall, Shepherd’s book is an inspiring and innovative piece that
challenges feminist and other IR scholars to rethink the ways in which
they conceptualise violence in relation to gender. Joachim tells a differ-
ent yet equally necessary and detailed story about gender and violence.
If Joachim’s analysis tells us about the complications of framing gender
violence on the agenda, then Shepherd’s provides a critical account of
the challenges posed by those framings. These books are excellent read-
ing for students and scholars interested in gender, violence and the UN.
The value of Joachim’s book extends also to social movement and NGO
literature, and Shepherd’s is a significant contribution both theoretically
and practically to literature on violence and IR.
JEMIMA REPO
Jemima Repo is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political and
Economic Studies, University of Helsinki.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
Massimo Franco, Parallel Empires: The Vatican and the United States – Two
Centuries of Alliance and Conflict (New York: Doubleday, 2009, 223 pp.,
$26.00 hbk).
Ian Linden, Global Catholicism: Diversity and Change since Vatican II
(London: Hurst & Company, 2009, 337 pp., £45.00 hbk, £14.99 pbk).
Two recent books by experts of the Vatican and the Catholic Church shed
light on why, how and to what effect one of the most prominent religious
actors engages with international relations.
Parallel Empires provides a fascinating history into the turbulent his-
tory of relations between the United States and the Holy See, from ini-
tial contacts in the late 18th century up to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit
to America. The book starts by stressing the historical significance of
the presence of three US presidents – George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush – at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. Their
journey ‘represented a reversal in historic attitudes toward the papacy
that would have been unthinkable for the Founding Fathers’ (p. 3). For
centuries Catholicism was dismissed as a foreign, reactionary religion,
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