Modern Hebrew literature has been driven by a call to productivity from its inception. Zionist history was born out of a break with its traditional and religious past, a historical transformation that coincided with the birth and perseverance of the productive Jew. However, even well into twentieth and twenty-first-century Hebrew literature, these tensions remain active. They illuminate not only the ways in which capitalization and secularization are ongoing processes but also latent yet available possibilities of resistance to the demands of productivity. The chapter focuses on the figure of the Shabbat and other forms of inoperativity and nonwork inherent within it in the poetry of Zelda Schneurson. It offers a reading of Zelda’s poetry from a materialist and political-theological perspective to locate her poetry and her depictions of nonwork within the intertwined histories of Zionism, secularism, and capitalism.

The essay reviews the ebb and flow of Jewish conversions to Catholicism, as well as the ambiguous process of categorizing religious identity. It examines the types of accusations launched against conversos, as well as the motivations for such accusals and their gendered nature. The essays discusses the truthfulness of surviving Inquisition records. It compares trials from the Spanish Inquisition’s first decades to those of later years, with particular attention to the presence of Jewish converts from Portugal. These trials demonstrate the complicated, ongoing interactions among Jews, New Christians, and so-called “Old Christians” throughout the Spanish Empire and around the world. The end of the chapter notes the decline of trials for Judaizing in the eighteenth century.

Ch. 10 Climate Change requires Jewish theology to develop its resources for an Eco-Judaism. Shabbat is a celebration of creation of the world as Good. Martin Buber argues for a “prophetic” approach to climate change based on human responsibility and a theology of hope and redemption.

Liborius Olaf Lumma sheds light on the Church’s daily prayer, previously called the Divine Office in the West, now known as the Liturgy of the Hours. He sketches their emergence and historical development in different cultural realms, but not without sounding how intrinsically important the hours are for Christian worship as a whole.

It begins with preliminary matters: an opening section dealing with policy context and related guiding principles, then an outline of the governing legal framework, international and domestic legislation, courts and regulatory bodies, with some references to international reports. This leads into the first of two contemporary case law sections, which examines the state–religion relationship in relation to the most relevant fundamental human rights: the freedoms of religion, assembly/association and expression. The second and largest considers the church–state relationship as it intersects with equality rights in relation to: marriage, family life, divorce and death; healthcare; education; employment; service provision; and security.