Religion as a Weapon: Invoking Religion in Secularized Societies

This article explores how religion is invoked as a political weapon in Europe's highly secularized societies. It claims that the new European populism has succeeded in rhetorically reconciling Christianity and a peculiar form of secularism as markers of a "civilized" identity, while m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe review of faith & international affairs Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 78 - 88
Main Author Kratochvíl, Petr
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Arlington Taylor & Francis Ltd 02.01.2019
Subjects
Civil society
Cleavage
Ethnic identity
Islam
Orientalism
Populism
Religion & politics
Secularism
Europe
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Summary:This article explores how religion is invoked as a political weapon in Europe's highly secularized societies. It claims that the new European populism has succeeded in rhetorically reconciling Christianity and a peculiar form of secularism as markers of a "civilized" identity, while merging Islam and specific "Oriental" ethnic features as the key signs of barbarism. As a result, the new cleavage does not run along the classic dichotomy of religious vs. secular, but resurrects the colonial division between the civilized and the barbaric, both of which contain religious and non-religious elements.
ISSN:1557-0274
1931-7743
DOI:10.1080/15570274.2019.1570760