After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics

by E. Wilson

Overview

Having destabilized dominant assumptions about the nature of religion, there is now a need to develop new ways of thinking about this ever-present phenomenon in global politics. This book outlines a new approach to understanding religion and its relationship with politics in the West and globally for International Relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349331536
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Edition description:	1st ed. 2012
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

ERIN K. WILSON is the director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. She recently completed four years as Research Fellow in the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University, Australia. She received her PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. Dr Wilson's research focuses on religion and its intersection with various dimensions of political theory and practice, in particular global justice, migration, humanitarianism and globalization.

Table of Contents

Introduction Subordinating Religion: The Logic of Secularism in International Relations Theory Essentializing Religion: Institutional, Individual and Irrational After Secularism: Relational Dialogism as an Alternative Articulating Religion: Religion, Discourse and Identity in US Politics Revealing Religion: An Alternative Account of Religion and Politics Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Perhaps the signature achievement of After Secularism is that these theoretical insights are operationalised via a reading of US domestic politics and foreign policy to show the full constitutive effect of religion at play in the formation of the American

polity. This is no small achievement, and the clarity and insight offered in a brilliant chapter on religion and US politics (pp. 147-79) is a must-read for scholars, policy-makers and students alike. Of equal importance, Wilson's model is clearly transferable and promises high impact in IR by aiding and equipping researchers to understand the constitutive agencies of religion in multiple political contexts."

- Australian Journal of Political Science

"The case made in this volume - that secularism limits perceptions of the relationship of religion with politics and the nature of religion itself - is an important one [and] the procedure of sketching an alternate approach to analyzing religion's role in world affairs is carried out in a judicious way.'

- Journal of Church and State

From the Publisher