Pious Citizens: Reforming Zoroastrianism in India and Iran (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780815632641)

In Pious Citizens, Ringer tells the story of a major intellectual revolution in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India and Iran, one that radically transformed the role of religion in society. At this time, key theological debates revolved around Zoroastrianism's capacity to generate "progress" and "civilization." Armed with both the destructive and creative capacities of historicism, reformers reevaluated their own religious tradition, molding Zoroastrian belief and practice according to contemporary ideas of rational religion and its potential to create pious citizens. Ringer demonstrates how rational and enlightened religion, characterized by social responsibility and the interiorization of piety, was understood as essential for the development of modern individuals, citizens, new public space, national identity, and secularism. She argues persuasively that reformers believed not only that social reform must be accompanied by religious reform but that it was in fact a product of religious reform.

Pious Citizens offers new insights into the theological premises behind the promotion of secularism, the privatization of religion, and the development of new national identities. Ringer's work also explores growing connections between the Iranian and Indian Zoroastrian communities and the revival of the ancient Persian past.

Author: Monica M. Ringer
ISBN-10: 0815632649
ISBN-13: 9780815632641
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/13/2011
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.30w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2012
Reference and Research Bk News 04/01/2012 pg. 10