Politics as Religion

Politics as Religion
Author: Emilio Gentile
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400827213

Emilio Gentile, an internationally renowned authority on fascism and totalitarianism, argues that politics over the past two centuries has often taken on the features of religion, claiming as its own the prerogative of defining the fundamental purpose and meaning of human life. Secular political entities such as the nation, the state, race, class, and the party became the focus of myths, rituals, and commandments and gradually became objects of faith, loyalty, and reverence. Gentile examines this "sacralization of politics," as he defines it, both historically and theoretically, seeking to identify the different ways in which political regimes as diverse as fascism, communism, and liberal democracy have ultimately depended, like religions, on faith, myths, rites, and symbols. Gentile maintains that the sacralization of politics as a modern phenomenon is distinct from the politicization of religion that has arisen from militant religious fundamentalism. Sacralized politics may be democratic, in the form of a civil religion, or it may be totalitarian, in the form of a political religion. Using this conceptual distinction, and moving from America to Europe, and from Africa to Asia, Gentile presents a unique comparative history of civil and political religions from the American and French Revolutions, through nationalism and socialism, democracy and totalitarianism, fascism and communism, up to the present day. It is also a fascinating book for understanding the sacralization of politics after 9/11.

Religion and Politics in the United States

Religion and Politics in the United States
Author: Kenneth D. Wald
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1442225556

From marriage equality, to gun control, to immigration reform and the threat of war, religion plays a fascinating and crucial part in our nation's political process and in our culture at large. Now in its seventh edition, Religion and Politics in the United States includes analyses of the nation's most pressing political matters regarding religious freedom, and the ways in which that essential constitutional freedom situates itself within modern America. The book also explores the ways that religion has affected the orientation of partisan politics in the United States. Through a detailed review of the political attitudes and behaviors of major religious and minority faith traditions, the book establishes that religion continues to be a major part of the American cultural and political milieu while explaining that it must interact with many other factors to influence political outcomes in the United States.

Faith in Politics

Faith in Politics
Author: Bryan T. McGraw
Publisher:
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2014-05-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780511789441

Explores the relationship between religion and liberal democracy and the roles religion can play in modern democratic orders.

Religion in American Politics

Religion in American Politics
Author: Frank Lambert
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2010-02-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691146136

The acclaimed author of The Barbary Wars offers a critical analysis of the often uneasy relationship between religion and politics in the United States from the Founding Fathers to the twenty-first century.

20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America

20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America
Author: Ryan P. Burge
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2022-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506482015

The way most people think about religion and politics is only loosely linked to empirical reality, argues Ryan P. Burge. In 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America, Burge strives to be an impartial referee and to overcome these caustic misperceptions by using both rigorous data analysis and straightforward explanations.

Religion and State

Religion and State
Author: L. Carl. Brown
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2001-08-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231529376

If Westerners know a single Islamic term, it is likely to be jihad, the Arabic word for "holy war." The image of Islam as an inherently aggressive and xenophobic religion has long prevailed in the West and can at times appear to be substantiated by current events. L. Carl Brown challenges this conventional wisdom with a fascinating historical overview of the relationship between religious and political life in the Muslim world ranging from Islam's early centuries to the present day. Religion and State examines the commonplace notion—held by both radical Muslim ideologues and various Western observers alike—that in Islam there is no separation between religion and politics. By placing this assertion in a broad historical context, the book reveals both the continuities between premodern and modern Islamic political thought as well as the distinctive dimensions of modern Muslim experiences. Brown shows that both the modern-day fundamentalists and their critics have it wrong when they posit an eternally militant, unchanging Islam outside of history. "They are conflating theology and history. They are confusing the oughtand the is," he writes. As the historical record shows, mainstream Muslim political thought in premodern times tended toward political quietism. Brown maintains that we can better understand present-day politics among Muslims by accepting the reality of their historical diversity while at the same time seeking to identify what may be distinctive in Muslim thought and action. In order to illuminate the distinguishing characteristics of Islam in relation to politics, Brown compares this religion with its two Semitic sisters, Judaism and Christianity, drawing striking comparisons between Islam today and Christianity during the Reformation. With a wealth of evidence, he recreates a tradition of Islamic diversity every bit as rich as that of Judaism and Christianity.

Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion

Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion
Author: Anna L. Peterson
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791431825

Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion explores the ways that Salvadoran Catholics sought to make sense of political violence in their country in the 1970s and 1980s by constructing a theological ethics that could both explain repression in religious terms and propose specific responses to violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book highlights the ways that progressive Catholicism offered a justification and tools for political resistance in the face of extraordinary destruction. Using the case of Catholicism in El Salvador, the book explores the nature of religious responses to social crisis and the ways that ordinary believers construct and strive to live by ethical systems. By highlighting the importance of theological belief, of narrative, and of religious rationality in political mobilization, it touches questions of general interest to readers concerned with the social role of religion and ethics.

Religion, Politics, Society, and the State

Religion, Politics, Society, and the State
Author: Jonathan Fox
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-07
Genre: Religion and politics
ISBN: 9780199949236

This book focuses on the role of religion in politics in several distinctive ways. Most books on religion and politics tend to have a narrow focus - usually on a single country or region or, alternatively, on a limited aspect of religion's influence on politics such as secularism, conflict,terror, or state policy. This book, in contrast, takes a wider perspective. First, and perhaps most importantly, it recognizes and emphasizes that religion interacts with politics on multiple levels. These influences may be divided into the influence of the state and the influence of society onpolitics. Second, this volume covers multiple countries in major world regions. The chapters cover the United States, Israel, Turkey, North Africa, and Western Europe, and two chapters include information from the entire world.Although this book will be of interest to scholars, its wide coverage of different topics, relevant theories, and different world regions also makes it excellent as a textbook for a survey course on religion and politics. All of the contributors have published extensively in prominent refereedjournals on the topic of religion and politics, adding to the scholarly authoritativeness of the volume and its desirability as a textbook written by recognized experts.

Political Religion Beyond Totalitarianism

Political Religion Beyond Totalitarianism
Author: J. Augusteijn
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2013-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137291729

The success of fascist and communist regimes has long been explained by their ability to turn political ideology into a type of religion. These innovative essays explore the notion that all forms of modern mass-politics, including democracies, need a form of sacralization to function.

Political Religion and Religious Politics

Political Religion and Religious Politics
Author: David S. Gutterman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2015-10-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136339280

Profound demographic and cultural changes in American society over the last half century have unsettled conventional understandings of the relationship between religious and political identity. The "Protestant mainline" continues to shrink in numbers, as well as in cultural and political influence. The growing population of American Muslims seek both acceptance and a firmer footing within the nation’s cultural and political imagination. Debates over contraception, same-sex relationships, and "prosperity" preaching continue to roil the waters of American cultural politics. Perhaps most remarkably, the fastest-rising religious demographic in most public opinion surveys is "none," giving rise to a new demographic that Gutterman and Murphy name "Religious Independents." Even the evangelical movement, which powerfully re-entered American politics during the 1970s and 1980s and retains a strong foothold in the Republican Party, has undergone generational turnover and no longer represents a monolithic political bloc. Political Religion and Religious Politics:Navigating Identities in the United States explores the multifaceted implications of these developments by examining a series of contentious issues in contemporary American politics. Gutterman and Murphy take up the controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque," the political and legal battles over the contraception mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act and the ensuing Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision, the national response to the Great Recession and the rise in economic inequality, and battles over the public school curricula, seizing on these divisive challenges as opportunities to illuminate the changing role of religion in American public life. Placing the current moment into historical perspective, and reflecting on the possible future of religion, politics, and cultural conflict in the United States, Gutterman and Murphy explore the cultural and political dynamics of evolving notions of national and religious identity. They argue that questions of religion are questions of identity -- personal, social, and political identity -- and that they function in many of the same ways as race, sex, gender, and ethnicity in the construction of personal meaning, the fostering of solidarity with others, and the conflict they can occasion in the political arena.