Religious Politics and Secular States: Egypt, India, and the United States

Religious Politics and Secular States: Egypt, India, and the United States

by Scott W. Hibbard
Religious Politics and Secular States: Egypt, India, and the United States

Religious Politics and Secular States: Egypt, India, and the United States

by Scott W. Hibbard

eBook

$26.49  $35.00 Save 24% Current price is $26.49, Original price is $35. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

2011 Winner of the Charles H. Levine Memorial Book Prize of the International Political Science Association

This comparative analysis probes why conservative renderings of religious tradition in the United States, India, and Egypt remain so influential in the politics of these three ostensibly secular societies.

The United States, Egypt, and India were quintessential models of secular modernity in the 1950s and 1960s. By the 1980s and 1990s, conservative Islamists challenged the Egyptian government, India witnessed a surge in Hindu nationalism, and the Christian right in the United States rose to dominate the Republican Party and large swaths of the public discourse. Using a nuanced theoretical framework that emphasizes the interaction of religion and politics, Scott W. Hibbard argues that three interrelated issues led to this state of affairs.

First, as an essential part of the construction of collective identities, religion serves as a basis for social solidarity and political mobilization. Second, in providing a moral framework, religion's traditional elements make it relevant to modern political life. Third, and most significant, in manipulating religion for political gain, political elites undermined the secular consensus of the modern state that had been in place since the end of World War II. Together, these factors sparked a new era of right-wing religious populism in the three nations.

Although much has been written about the resurgence of religious politics, scholars have paid less attention to the role of state actors in promoting new visions of religion and society. Religious Politics and Secular States fills this gap by situating this trend within long-standing debates over the proper role of religion in public life.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801899201
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 10/15/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 328
File size: 3 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Scott W. Hibbard is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at DePaul University. He is the coauthor of Islamic Activism and U.S. Foreign Policy.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Rethinking the Secular State
1. Reinterpreting Modern Religious Politics
2. The Rise and Decline of Egyptian Secularism
3. The Islamization of Egyptian Politics
4. The Rise and Decline of Indian Secularism
5. Embedding Communalism in Indian Politics
6. The Rise and Decline of American Secularism
7. Religious Nationalism in the Reagan-Bush Era
Conclusion: Religious Politics Reconsidered
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

David Little

The study of religious nationalism has gathered considerable momentum in the last twenty years. But no one has shown so comprehensively as Scott Hibbard the impact of the political manipulation of religion on shaping national ideals. His examination of the contemporaneous policies of the Indian, Egyptian, and American governments is as revealing as it is original.

David Little, Harvard Divinity School

From the Publisher

An important contribution to the literature on religion and politics. Hibbard's argument is ambitious, the macro-comparison of Egypt, India, and the United States is novel and interesting, and he has clearly done a wealth of research.
—Steven A. Cook, author of Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey

The study of religious nationalism has gathered considerable momentum in the last twenty years. But no one has shown so comprehensively as Scott Hibbard the impact of the political manipulation of religion on shaping national ideals. His examination of the contemporaneous policies of the Indian, Egyptian, and American governments is as revealing as it is original.
—David Little, Harvard Divinity School

Steven A. Cook

An important contribution to the literature on religion and politics. Hibbard's argument is ambitious, the macro-comparison of Egypt, India, and the United States is novel and interesting, and he has clearly done a wealth of research.

Steven A. Cook, author of Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews