Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2104097
T. Cremer
ABSTRACT From the display of oversized crosses at the United States Capitol riots, to a new rhetoric centred on defence of the ‘Judaeo-Christian West’ in Europe: right-wing populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic are intensifying their use of Christian symbols and language. Many observers have interpreted such rhetoric as symptomatic of a conservative religious resurgence against secular liberalism and multiculturalism. However, several indicators suggest a more complicated relationship between the populist Right, religion, and secularisation. For instance, in the United States Donald Trump was perceived to be the least religious Republican party candidate in recent history, while in Europe church attendance remains a strong predictor for not voting for right-wing populist parties. Deploying a demand- and supply-side framework to understand the socio-demographic roots behind the rise of right-wing populist movements and the motives behind their references to Christianity, this contribution posits that right-wing populists primarily employ Christianity as a cultural identity marker to mobilise voters around a new post-religious identity cleavage. However, they often remain distanced from Christian doctrine, beliefs, and institutions, and instead seek to combine cultural references to Christianity with secular policies, suggesting a secularisation of Christian symbols rather than a resurgence of religion in western politics.
{"title":"Defenders of the Faith? How shifting social cleavages and the rise of identity politics are reshaping right-wing populists’ attitudes towards religion in the West","authors":"T. Cremer","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2104097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2104097","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT From the display of oversized crosses at the United States Capitol riots, to a new rhetoric centred on defence of the ‘Judaeo-Christian West’ in Europe: right-wing populist movements on both sides of the Atlantic are intensifying their use of Christian symbols and language. Many observers have interpreted such rhetoric as symptomatic of a conservative religious resurgence against secular liberalism and multiculturalism. However, several indicators suggest a more complicated relationship between the populist Right, religion, and secularisation. For instance, in the United States Donald Trump was perceived to be the least religious Republican party candidate in recent history, while in Europe church attendance remains a strong predictor for not voting for right-wing populist parties. Deploying a demand- and supply-side framework to understand the socio-demographic roots behind the rise of right-wing populist movements and the motives behind their references to Christianity, this contribution posits that right-wing populists primarily employ Christianity as a cultural identity marker to mobilise voters around a new post-religious identity cleavage. However, they often remain distanced from Christian doctrine, beliefs, and institutions, and instead seek to combine cultural references to Christianity with secular policies, suggesting a secularisation of Christian symbols rather than a resurgence of religion in western politics.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"12 1","pages":"532 - 552"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87589320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2148922
F. Petito
{"title":"Handbook on religion and international relations","authors":"F. Petito","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2148922","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2148922","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"20 1","pages":"585 - 586"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81919926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2123691
T. Müller
ABSTRACT In the currently resurging contestation about religion and nationalism in the public sphere, secularism has become one of the most intensively contested political concepts. Even staunch advocates concede that across Euroamerica, secularism has in many ways failed to deliver on its promise to guarantee state neutrality and free exercise of religion. However, scholarship critically investigating the effects of secularism is often unclear about what discrimination, harm, or violence it seeks to uncover, creating misunderstandings among secularism’s advocates and critics alike. This contribution suggests that there are three major analytical angles that should be distinguished: the liberal egalitarian critique, the decolonial critique, and the genealogical critique. To demonstrate the benefits and limitations of each perspective, the contribution draws on the case study of Christian national identity politics in Bavaria targeting Islam. It makes the case for the conscious combination of these three perspectives in the analysis of the ‘religion-culture-citizenship’ nexus.
{"title":"Conscripts of secularism: nationalism, Islam and violence","authors":"T. Müller","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2123691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2123691","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the currently resurging contestation about religion and nationalism in the public sphere, secularism has become one of the most intensively contested political concepts. Even staunch advocates concede that across Euroamerica, secularism has in many ways failed to deliver on its promise to guarantee state neutrality and free exercise of religion. However, scholarship critically investigating the effects of secularism is often unclear about what discrimination, harm, or violence it seeks to uncover, creating misunderstandings among secularism’s advocates and critics alike. This contribution suggests that there are three major analytical angles that should be distinguished: the liberal egalitarian critique, the decolonial critique, and the genealogical critique. To demonstrate the benefits and limitations of each perspective, the contribution draws on the case study of Christian national identity politics in Bavaria targeting Islam. It makes the case for the conscious combination of these three perspectives in the analysis of the ‘religion-culture-citizenship’ nexus.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"7 1","pages":"513 - 531"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85366852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2154516
Jennifer Leith
ABSTRACT This contribution addresses pressing questions about English national identity and belonging through exploring Anglican polity and its relationship with place. I argue that the Church of England’s ‘territorial embeddedness’ has resources to offer to the present turmoil over what it means to belong to a national civic community. However, identifying these resources involves reckoning with the ways that the Church – in its relationship with territory – has itself historically displayed possessive and hierarchical tendencies. Through reckoning with this history I retrieve a theological account of the place of the church as undefended territory, in which there is genuine attachment to particular places that is (or should be) non-competitive. This non-competitive account of belonging is explored in terms of, first, federated modes of polity and, second, forms of collective responsibility for all the people of a land and all of that land’s history. In grappling with Anglicanism’s mottled identity, therefore, fruitful resources emerge for understanding belonging and responsibility within a place-tethered community – resources which can help to offer an alternative to narrow forms of nationalism and attendant civic alienation. In this way, there is scope for the Church of England to distinctively contribute to the cultivation of a truly common national life.
{"title":"The place of civic belonging: the dangers and possibilities of Anglican territorial embeddedness","authors":"Jennifer Leith","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2154516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2154516","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This contribution addresses pressing questions about English national identity and belonging through exploring Anglican polity and its relationship with place. I argue that the Church of England’s ‘territorial embeddedness’ has resources to offer to the present turmoil over what it means to belong to a national civic community. However, identifying these resources involves reckoning with the ways that the Church – in its relationship with territory – has itself historically displayed possessive and hierarchical tendencies. Through reckoning with this history I retrieve a theological account of the place of the church as undefended territory, in which there is genuine attachment to particular places that is (or should be) non-competitive. This non-competitive account of belonging is explored in terms of, first, federated modes of polity and, second, forms of collective responsibility for all the people of a land and all of that land’s history. In grappling with Anglicanism’s mottled identity, therefore, fruitful resources emerge for understanding belonging and responsibility within a place-tethered community – resources which can help to offer an alternative to narrow forms of nationalism and attendant civic alienation. In this way, there is scope for the Church of England to distinctively contribute to the cultivation of a truly common national life.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"1 1","pages":"569 - 584"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84780437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2154087
Viktória Kóczián
ABSTRACT This contribution discusses how concerns over ethnic identity and solidarity shape attitudes towards migration within the Reformed Church in Hungary. Hungary faced an influx of refugees on two occasions in the 1980s and again in 2015, which the Reformed Church responded to very differently. At the end of the 1980s, the drastic deterioration of circumstances in Romania and the forced assimilation of ethnic minorities led to a wave of migration into Hungary. In response, the Reformed Church played a pioneering role in offering relief to refugees. The Church also became involved in the broader political issue of immigration by actively contributing to public debates. During the refugee crisis of 2015, the Church remained divided over the level of support it should offer to people who arrived primarily from the Middle East. Although practical assistance was offered to those in need by the Church’s aid organisation, theologians and church leaders expressed fears about dangers that these refugees might pose to Hungary and to Europe’s perceived Christian identity. This contribution argues that ethnic identity played both a constructive and restrictive role, and that the Church’s distinct responses may be understood as deriving from its ethno-religious self-identification.
{"title":"‘This nest is for all kinds of birds’? National identity questions in the refugee reception of the Reformed Church in Hungary","authors":"Viktória Kóczián","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2154087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2154087","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This contribution discusses how concerns over ethnic identity and solidarity shape attitudes towards migration within the Reformed Church in Hungary. Hungary faced an influx of refugees on two occasions in the 1980s and again in 2015, which the Reformed Church responded to very differently. At the end of the 1980s, the drastic deterioration of circumstances in Romania and the forced assimilation of ethnic minorities led to a wave of migration into Hungary. In response, the Reformed Church played a pioneering role in offering relief to refugees. The Church also became involved in the broader political issue of immigration by actively contributing to public debates. During the refugee crisis of 2015, the Church remained divided over the level of support it should offer to people who arrived primarily from the Middle East. Although practical assistance was offered to those in need by the Church’s aid organisation, theologians and church leaders expressed fears about dangers that these refugees might pose to Hungary and to Europe’s perceived Christian identity. This contribution argues that ethnic identity played both a constructive and restrictive role, and that the Church’s distinct responses may be understood as deriving from its ethno-religious self-identification.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"19 1","pages":"553 - 568"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87514464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2144662
Mariëtta Van der Tol, P. Gorski
ABSTRACT Contemporary conflicts about secularity in ‘the West’ tend to focus on public space. Although collective Christian heritage means that public space is rarely exclusively neutral, conflicts continue to arise over the relationship between secularity and religious symbolism, and especially over those symbols which derive from religious minorities. This contribution critically considers the designation of space as either sacred or secular in political imaginaries, approaching processes of secularisation as part of a fragmentation of the sacred and of sacred space. We introduce the concept of trans-liminal space: spaces which can contain multiple and potentially conflicting ascriptions of meaning. Conceptualising public space as trans-liminal allows for contemporaneous and competing ascriptions of the secular, the sacred, the secular-sacred, the sacred-secular, without being exclusively grounded in either. Trans-liminality does not preclude public space to be predominantly secular, but it does problematise the phenomenon of normative exclusions of religious symbols from public spaces.
{"title":"Secularisation as the fragmentation of the sacred and of sacred space","authors":"Mariëtta Van der Tol, P. Gorski","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2144662","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2144662","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Contemporary conflicts about secularity in ‘the West’ tend to focus on public space. Although collective Christian heritage means that public space is rarely exclusively neutral, conflicts continue to arise over the relationship between secularity and religious symbolism, and especially over those symbols which derive from religious minorities. This contribution critically considers the designation of space as either sacred or secular in political imaginaries, approaching processes of secularisation as part of a fragmentation of the sacred and of sacred space. We introduce the concept of trans-liminal space: spaces which can contain multiple and potentially conflicting ascriptions of meaning. Conceptualising public space as trans-liminal allows for contemporaneous and competing ascriptions of the secular, the sacred, the secular-sacred, the sacred-secular, without being exclusively grounded in either. Trans-liminality does not preclude public space to be predominantly secular, but it does problematise the phenomenon of normative exclusions of religious symbols from public spaces.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"14 1","pages":"495 - 512"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74312407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-08DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2132079
Thomas Sealy, T. Modood
ABSTRACT Debates and controversies over the governance of religious diversity are important features of the social and political landscape in all five regions covered in this collection. All have historical as well as contemporary forms of these debates that have had a significant impact on not just the structures and forms of governance but also on the very identity of each state as it has grappled, and continues to grapple, with religious diversity and the issues it raises. This final contribution presents an inter-regional comparative analysis and findings of different modes of state-religion connections between our different regions, following on from the discussions in the individual contributions of the collection focused on intra-regional analyses. Moreover, central to state-religion relations is the idea of political secularism and so we offer a definition of political secularism from which we can compare countries and regions. We assess the idea of political secularism against our typology of modes of governance of religious diversity and explore convergences and divergences between our regions along three conceptual lines: the idea of secularism, the idea of freedom of religion, and the relationship between national identity and religion.
{"title":"Diversities and dynamics in the governance of religion: inter-regional comparative themes","authors":"Thomas Sealy, T. Modood","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2132079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2132079","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Debates and controversies over the governance of religious diversity are important features of the social and political landscape in all five regions covered in this collection. All have historical as well as contemporary forms of these debates that have had a significant impact on not just the structures and forms of governance but also on the very identity of each state as it has grappled, and continues to grapple, with religious diversity and the issues it raises. This final contribution presents an inter-regional comparative analysis and findings of different modes of state-religion connections between our different regions, following on from the discussions in the individual contributions of the collection focused on intra-regional analyses. Moreover, central to state-religion relations is the idea of political secularism and so we offer a definition of political secularism from which we can compare countries and regions. We assess the idea of political secularism against our typology of modes of governance of religious diversity and explore convergences and divergences between our regions along three conceptual lines: the idea of secularism, the idea of freedom of religion, and the relationship between national identity and religion.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"131 1","pages":"469 - 485"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81727340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-08DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2119825
Thomas Sealy, T. Modood
ABSTRACT Newly established religious minorities in Western European countries and Australia have sparked fresh questions about the public place of religion. The current situation in the region reflects a certain agonism over the place of public religion and its relation to liberal secular order. This has especially been the case for the region’s Muslims in a context marked by fears of radicalisation and extremism. This contribution considers these responses in relation to Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK; and Australia. The contribution explores the norm of freedom of religion that forms the region’s core similarity but also the ground on which divergences in norms of state-religion connections can be found. It identifies key norms that operate in the region in order to draw out similarities as well as important differences between the countries. Exploring how the governance of religious diversity comes to reflect diversity-enhancing or diversity-limiting features, it assesses the ways and extent to which the region can be characterised under ‘moderate secularism’.
{"title":"Western Europe and Australia: negotiating freedoms of religion","authors":"Thomas Sealy, T. Modood","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2119825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2119825","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Newly established religious minorities in Western European countries and Australia have sparked fresh questions about the public place of religion. The current situation in the region reflects a certain agonism over the place of public religion and its relation to liberal secular order. This has especially been the case for the region’s Muslims in a context marked by fears of radicalisation and extremism. This contribution considers these responses in relation to Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK; and Australia. The contribution explores the norm of freedom of religion that forms the region’s core similarity but also the ground on which divergences in norms of state-religion connections can be found. It identifies key norms that operate in the region in order to draw out similarities as well as important differences between the countries. Exploring how the governance of religious diversity comes to reflect diversity-enhancing or diversity-limiting features, it assesses the ways and extent to which the region can be characterised under ‘moderate secularism’.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"9 1","pages":"378 - 395"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79237769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-08DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2022.2129242
Tina Magazzini, A. Triandafyllidou, Liliya Yakova
ABSTRACT This contribution studies comparatively three Southern European countries (Italy, Spain, and Greece) and three Southeastern European countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria). Looking beyond historical path-dependencies, we investigate recent developments in terms of state-religion relations. Starting with a thick description of the historical legacies and post-1989 developments, we focus on issues of the last decade, such as the rise of populism and nationalism, the path to EU accession for Bosnia and Albania, the economic and Eurozone crisis of the 2010s, and the refugee emergency of 2015. Our aim is to assess how these have shaped state-religion relations and to categorise the six countries within the typology proposed in the introductory contribution to this collection. Our findings suggest that moderate secularism and liberal neutralism prevail in all six countries. There are, however, important variations in terms of the relevance of majoritarian nationalism in some of them, as the state defines the prevailing religion and has strong historical and institutional ties with that religion. The contribution elaborates on these specificities and concludes with some questions on the importance of the notion of dominant vs qualifying norms and on the role of current challenges in shaping further state-religion relations.
{"title":"State-religion relations in Southern and Southeastern Europe: moderate secularism with majoritarian undertones","authors":"Tina Magazzini, A. Triandafyllidou, Liliya Yakova","doi":"10.1080/09637494.2022.2129242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2022.2129242","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This contribution studies comparatively three Southern European countries (Italy, Spain, and Greece) and three Southeastern European countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria). Looking beyond historical path-dependencies, we investigate recent developments in terms of state-religion relations. Starting with a thick description of the historical legacies and post-1989 developments, we focus on issues of the last decade, such as the rise of populism and nationalism, the path to EU accession for Bosnia and Albania, the economic and Eurozone crisis of the 2010s, and the refugee emergency of 2015. Our aim is to assess how these have shaped state-religion relations and to categorise the six countries within the typology proposed in the introductory contribution to this collection. Our findings suggest that moderate secularism and liberal neutralism prevail in all six countries. There are, however, important variations in terms of the relevance of majoritarian nationalism in some of them, as the state defines the prevailing religion and has strong historical and institutional ties with that religion. The contribution elaborates on these specificities and concludes with some questions on the importance of the notion of dominant vs qualifying norms and on the role of current challenges in shaping further state-religion relations.","PeriodicalId":45069,"journal":{"name":"Religion State & Society","volume":"22 1","pages":"396 - 414"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82779952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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