21 December 2011
'New approach' to religion and politics
Is religion irrelevant and irrational, as many Westerners assume, a purely historical artefact that secularism, the separation of church and state, has successfully removed from politics?
Dr Erin Wilson.
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A new book argues that religion plays a much more complex role than we realise.
The book, After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics was written by Dr Erin Wilson, a Research Fellow in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University.
The book says that in Western society we assume religion has been removed from politics and public life.
Dr Wilson argues that this assumption prevents us from seeing the subtle and implicit ways that religion influences our political values and institutions.
Scholars were increasingly questioning secular assumptions about the separation of religion and politics, she said.
But they had not considered how we might go beyond these assumptions and rethink the relationship between religion and politics in the contemporary, post-secular world.
Dr Wilson said there was a pressing need to develop new ways of thinking about the ever-present phenomenon of religion in global politics.
The book challenges secular assumptions about the nature of religion as mainly institutional, individual and irrational and develops a framework for understanding religion in a broader, more comprehensive way.
Combining theology with international relations, the book shows how religious themes, stories, images and language continue to influence Western politics.
Religious, mainly Judeo-Christian, influences are so embedded in Western political institutions and values that we see them as "normal" and "natural".
These influences affect how Western scholars and policymakers understand and respond to global political events.
The book highlights this influence through analysing political language and policy-making in the US, the most prominent Western state in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Dr Wilson says the presence of religious assumptions in Western politics has important implications for how we make sense of contemporary global politics, not just in the US, but in Australia and around the world.
The 232-page book, published by Palgrave Macmillan ($89), is available in hardback.
