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The Re-Politicization of Religion in Europe: The Next Ten Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

Jytte Klausen
Jytte Klausen
Affiliation:
Brandeis University (klausen@brandeis.edu)
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Extract

In the coming decade religion will become an increasingly salient issue in European politics. This prediction runs counter to the conventional wisdom that Europeans are “post-Christian.” When comparing Europe to the United States, observers note that church pews are empty, that fewer people profess to believe in God, and that Europeans are moral relativists who shy away from principled positions against authoritarian countries. In the European view, modernization implies secularization, and by this standard Europeans are modern while Americans are, depending on who the observer is, either postmodern or irrational. Why then are we flooded with evidence of the “re-Christianization” of Europe?Jytte Klausen is associate professor of comparative politics at Brandeis University (klausen@brandeis.edu).

Type
SYMPOSIUM: TEN YEARS FROM NOW
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 554 - 557
Copyright
© 2005 American Political Science Association

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