Материал: The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion by John Hinnells

456â Religions in the modern world

been an element of Serbian nationalism; Roman Catholicism has historically been linked with Croatian and Slovenian identities, and Islam in Bosnia and Kosovo. After the collapse of Communism in 1990, these antagonistic forces surfaced again and the country fell apart amidst intense conflict and programmes of ethnic cleansing. The worst experiences were in Bosnia-Herzegovina, now effectively partitioned between the three communities under United Nations and NATO auspices. Kosovo too remains a source of inter-communal nationalist tensions. Although with a Muslim majority, it contains a Serb minority together with holy orthodox sites strongly associated with Serb nationalism. This led the Yugoslav (Serb) government to try to evict the Muslim population by force in order to maintain its grip on the province. The genocidal carnage that resulted was stopped only through NATO military action and presence as peacekeepers on the ground after which it then proclaimed itself a still-disputed independent country in 2008.

It is clear that, while secularizing tendencies are discernible within contemporary politics, especially in the West, religion remains a significant element within modern politics, locally, nationally and internationally. Contrary to the expectations of those who thought religion would fade from political life, this has not happened in the modern era. Religion continues as a source of authority and guidance for political action around the globe, while political leaders, for their part, have to devise strategies that take those religious claims into account. The result is to perpetuate the relationship between religion and politics in ever-changing and complex patterns in the present and, no doubt, in the future.

At the international level, this can, perhaps, be seen most dramatically in the recent rise of the fundamentalist Islamic group, al Qaeda, led by a Saudi exile, Osama bin Laden. Their orchestrated attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC signalled a new era in international affairs, dubbed by President George W. Bush ‘the War on Terrorism’. The response of the United States, in initiating armed intervention in Afghanistan, the base of operations for al Qaeda, in late 2001, followed by the war to depose the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2003, brought religiously motivated violence to new heights of concern within the international community.

As later detailed analysis clearly shows, however (The 9/11 Commission Report 2004: 47–70), the historical roots and religious dimensions of this act of immense violence are substantial. For bin Laden and al Qaeda, the struggle is not just against the infidels of the West but, perhaps more importantly, it is also to promote ‘the cause of Islamic revolution within the Islamic world itself, in the Arab lands especially and in Saudi Arabia above all’ (Doran 2001). Regimes like that of Saudi Arabia, in allying themselves with the United States, have in their view betrayed Islam itself. Al Qaeda is itself part of a broader fundamentalist religious movement called Salafiyya, whose adherents, Salafis, encompassing Saudi Wahhabis, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood, among others, share a common desire to see the restoration of a stricter and more literalist form of Islamic law throughout the Muslim world

– for some of the more extreme by jihad (holy war) and martyrdom, if necessary. In doing so, they draw on a tradition of criticism of corrupt rulers that extends back centuries. It is that corruption that, again in their view, led to Islam’s decline leaving it vulnerable to infidel regimes from the West ‘eager to steal their land, wealth, and even their souls’ (The 9/11 Commission Report 2004: 50).

It is perhaps doubtful that, in engaging in the war in Iraq, the leaders of the United States and allied Western powers were fully cognizant of the religious ramifications of their actions. On the contrary, it seemed that President Bush, for one, was eager to downplay this element in favour of justifications cast almost entirely in military and political terms. But,

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fully recognized or not, the world of the twenty-first century is now embroiled in an openended international conflict that has deep connections to the religious sphere. As such it is but the latest manifestation of the abiding association of religion and politics in the affairs of human society.

Politics and the study of religion

Religion has an individual and interior character to it – it is about personal spiritual practices, personal beliefs about the numinous, and personal values about how to lead one’s life in a religiously appropriate way. All this is a part, an essential part, of the study of religion. But religion also has a communal or exterior character, embodied in religious institutions, sacred texts and symbols, religious leaders and activists. This too is part of the study of religion, and it is a part that is particularly illuminated by the study of the relationship between politics and religion. On the one hand, we can study how religion has impacted the wider society and, in particular, its political processes. For, as this chapter has argued, historically, religion has generally had an immense and sustained impact on a community’s identity, values and understandings. To put it another way, religion has carried a relatively high degree of cultural power. To study how that power has spilled into, and helped shape, the political realm, is therefore to illuminate some of the broader consequences of religion’s claims. By the same token, religion’s social and cultural saliency has, again historically, drawn the attention of the political realm. For the exercise of power, even if primarily social and cultural, is the business of politics. Hence, the study of the way that realm has reacted to such power also adds to our understanding of religion.

When looked at in the round, as both the effect of religion on politics and that of politics on religion, the result has been, in particular contexts, a relationship so close as to make very difficult the drawing of distinctions between the two. The historical experience of such a monistic and sacralized political realm is, of course, to affirm the importance of the political for the study of religion. When the two realms can be empirically distinguished, a far more common historical phenomenon, especially in modern times, the resulting relationship has often been both complex and dynamic. For religious leaders and institutions have often sought to exercise significant political influence as a way of furthering their religious mission while political leaders have at times tried to rely on religious institutions and leaders to buttress and legitimize their political authority. At times, the result has been a relatively harmonious and symbiotic relationship but, in other contexts, it has led to a degree of tension and conflict, particularly where rival religious traditions exist side-by-side within a given community. Here, politics may be used to accentuate and extend that conflict as much as to resolve or repress it. Again, how all this operates forms part of the study of religion. In the modern world, at least in some Western contexts, religion clearly has lost some of its cultural power leading to the relationship becoming rather tenuous and atrophied. At the same time, the complex dynamics whereby this process has occurred is yet a further part of the dynamics and complexities of religion’s place in human society and is, too, an essential part of the whole story. But, while this disengagement has occurred, it is also clear that in many other parts of the world, and not least at the international level, the relationship today remains a vital one. As such, the study of that relationship continues to contribute much to the understanding of religion as an abiding feature of the human condition.

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Suggested reading

Ayoob, M. The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2008).

Examines political Islam in its varied manifestations and the implications for Muslim politics and wider global relations.

Bruce, S. Politics and Religion (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003).

A textbook for the field that examines religion’s political role in historical empires, in forming national identity, in party politics, in political protest, and as an instrument of political control.

Hanson, E.O. Religion and Politics in the International System Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Examines the increasing role of religion in influencing global politics, focusing on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Maoist Marxism.

Jelen, T.G. and C. Wilcox, Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, the Few and the Many

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

Detailed case studies of politics and religion in specific countries and regions, illustrating linkages between the two spheres of varying closeness, and in contexts with either one dominant religion or competing traditions.

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Journal of Church and State (Waco, TX: J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies).

A well-established scholarly journal with broad coverage, including brief notes on current Church– State affairs by country and listings of recent doctoral dissertations in the field.

Norris, P. and R. Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

A major comparative study of religion and political culture, within the context of secularization and economic modernization, using the World Values Survey and European Values Survey.

Political Theology (London: Equinox Publishing).

An interdisciplinary journal that examines religious and political issues by drawing mainly on the disciplines of theology, religious studies, politics, philosophy and ethics. As such, it aims to reflect the diversity of religious and theological engagements with public and political life through contributions from scholars, practitioners and clergy.

Politics and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

A recent scholarly journal devoted to the field, published by the Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Wald, K.D. and A. Calhoun-Brown, Religion and Politics in the United States (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007).

An accessible and up-to-date study of one major country where religion has had a major political influence throughout its history.

Wuthnow, R. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion (Washington, DC., Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998).

A major reference work that includes articles on broad themes, as well as specific religions, individuals, geographical regions, institutions, and events.