Religion as a Weapon: Invoking Religion in Secularized Societies
New article by professor Petr Kratochvíl in The Review of Faith & International Affairs. The author comes up with the controversial claim that the high levels of secularization can, under certain conditions, make religious arguments stronger, and not weaker as generally assumed. In three case studies, the article shows how religious conservatives forge alliances with secular xenophobic populists, in which culturally defined Christianity becomes the main vehicle for the building of communities of exclusion.
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Professor Petr Kratochvíl is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague who, among his other areas of interest, studies the role of religion in International Relations with a particular attention to the Catholic Church. He is currently on a long-term research stay at La Sapienza and the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome. His most recent book, The Catholic Church and the European Union: Political Theology of European Integration, won the Book of the Year Award by the REL Section of the International Studies Association (2016).