This book assesses the rapid transformation of the political agency of religious groups within
transnational civil society under the conditions of globalization that have weakened the
sovereign nation-state. It offers a comprehensive synthesis of the parallel resurgences of
Jasper's axial thesis from the distinct lines of research initiated by Eisenstadt Habermas
Taylor Bellah and others. It explores the concept of cosmoipolitanism from the combined
perspectives of sociology of religion critical theory secularization theory and evolutionary
cultural anthropology. At the theoretical level cosmoipolitanism prescribes how local
national transnational global and virtual spaces ought publically to engage in
transcivilizational discourse without presuming secular assumptions tied to cosmopolitanism. As
a transnational extension of the moral-ethical universality of the great Axial Age traditions
cosmoipolitanism provides an ideal description of empirical data. Employing the insights of
critical theory this book offers a micro-level analysis of the pragmatics of discourse of each
of the major axial traditions producing a genealogy in iterated stages of the dialectics of
secularization as a multi-faceted narrative of the role of religion in alternative modernities.
While circumscribing the particular historical limits of each tradition the book extends their
internal claims to species universality in light of the potential for boundless communication
Jaspers saw as initiated with the Axial Age. In Jon Bowman's novel and important work he
rethinks the challenges of global justice. Bowman is not just concerned with global justice in
the modern world but with a genealogy that begins with a better understanding of the Axial age
one that is also the unique signature of cosmoi-political institutions. Arguing with depth and
precision Bowman challenges Kantian and Rawlsian universalism. His argument provides a new
interpretation of cosmopolitan justice ashe explores the deeper roots of cosmopolitan justice.
James BohmanSaint Louis University Jon Bowman's Cosmoipolitan Justice is an important
innovative and timely work. Construing globality in terms of pervasive conditions of worldwide
interdependence Bowman advances a decidedly pluralistic account of cosmopolitanism one
uniquely shaped by recent theories of multiple modernities. His analysis is sustained by a
highly informed appropriation of such diverse thinkers as Theodor Adorno Abudullah An-Naim
Talad Asad Schmuel Eisenstadt Jürgen Habermas Karl Jaspers John Rawls Amartya Sen and
Charles Taylor. One special feature is the book's synthesis of research on global governance
with that on post-secularity and the place of religion in the public sphere. On this basis
Bowman presents a distinctive account of the world's axial religions one underwriting a
multi-polar intercultural global public realm able to address social political andeconomic
issues confronting the global community today. This book should be of great interest to
students and scholars in philosophy political theory international relations sociology and
religious studies. Professor Andrew BuchwalterDepartment of PhilosophyUniversity of North
Florida
