Nancy Jean Davis

Nancy Davis is the Lester Martin Jones Professor of Sociology at DePauw University, where she served as chair of the department. She received her B.A., M.A., and 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.

Davis' CLAIMING SOCIETY FOR GOD, co-authored with Robert V. Robinson, won a gold medal in the religion category of the 2013 Independent Book Publisher Awards and the 2013 Scholarly Achievement Award of the North Central Sociological Association. The book shows how religiously orthodox, "fundamentalist," movements of Christians, Jews and Muslims worldwide have converged on a common strategy to install their religion at the center of society. Rather than terrorism, as much post-9/11 thinking suggests, the strategy-in-common is a patient, under-the-radar takeover 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 are building 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 popular and political fronts.

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