Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern MythScholars in International Relations concerned with religion and its relations to world politics are rhetorically constructing a powerful modern myth. A component of this myth is that religion is inherently violent and irrational unless controlled by the secular state, which is inherently rational and only reluctantly violent. Timothy Fitzgerald discusses how, in this modern myth, "religion" appears as a force of nature which either assists or threatens the sacred secular order of things, and how religion is portrayed as a kind of universal essence which takes many forms, its recent most dangerous manifestation being "Islamic terrorism". This book illustrates that the essential distinction between irrational religion and rational secular politics appears as an unquestioned preconception on the basis of which policy is conducted, countries invaded and wars fought. Arguing that this rhetorical construction of religion provides the foundation for faith in the rationality of modern liberal capitalism, Fitzgerald demonstrates how a historically contingent discourse has been transformed into a powerful set of global assumptions. |
Contents
1 | |
18 | |
3 Why the Focus on Religion in InternationalRelations? | 28 |
4 Contextualizing the Problem in the AuthorsResearch Background | 39 |
5 Summary of the Argument | 78 |
6 How Religion Poisons Everything | 105 |
7 Radical Religious and Violent | 115 |
8 The Return from Exile | 157 |
9 Religion Resurging | 177 |
10 The Politics of Secularism | 206 |
11 Some Further Theoretical Implications | 233 |
269 | |
281 | |
Other editions - View all
Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern Myth Timothy Fitzgerald Limited preview - 2011 |
Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern Myth Timothy Fitzgerald Limited preview - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
academic Ambedkar analysis Anglophone argue argument assumption belief Berman Buddhism capitalist century chapter Christian Truth church-state civility claim classified as religious colonial communities concept Constitution construction context critical critique Dalai Lama Dalits deconstruct Dharma discipline discourses on religion discussion distinction between religious economics empirical essentially different Europhone example faith groups Hamas Hezbollah Hinduism historical Hitchens human Hurd Hurd’s idea ideological India International Relations invention of religion irrational Islam Japan Japanese kind knowledge laicism language legitimate markets Marxist Max Müller meaning mimetic desire modern invention moral Muslim mutual aid myth natural non-religious secular objects Ole Wĉver practices problem problematic Protestant referred reified religion and politics religion and religions religion–secular binary Religious Studies resurgence of religion rhetorical sacred secular nation seems sense separation Shinto social sciences society soteriology spiritual Talal Asad Taliban terrorism theology theory Thomas Thomas’s traditional transformed Treaty of Westphalia universal violence world religions