Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T09:41:08.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2005

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

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
Copyright
© 2005 American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Brian C. 2004. Secular Europe, religious America. Public Interest 155:14358.Google Scholar
Cooper, Robert. 2001. The next empire. Prospect 67: 2226.Google Scholar
Dogan, Mattei. 2002. Accelerated decline of religious belief in Europe. Comparative Sociology 1 (2): 12749.Google Scholar
Gullestad, Marianne. 2002. Invisible fences: Egalitarianism, nationalism, and racism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8 (1): 4563.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert. 2002. Power and weakness. Policy Review 113. http://www.policyreview.org/JUN02/kagan.html.Google Scholar
Klausen, Jytte. 2005. The challenge of Islam: Politics and religion in western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ladwig, Rudolf. N.d. EU constitution Articles I-51—status of churches must not hinder the defence of human rights! http://www.ibka.org/en/articles/ag03/euconst.html.
Lambert, Yves. 2004. A turning point in religious evolution in Europe. Journal of Contemporary Religion 19 (1): 2945.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Johan P. Olsen. 1998. The institutional dynamics of international political orders. International Organization 52 (4): 94369.Google Scholar
Rokkan, Stein. 1968. The structuring of mass politics in the smaller European democracies: A developmental typology. Comparative Studies in Society and History 10 (2): 173210.Google Scholar
Seidentop, Larry. 2001. Democracy in Europe. New York: Columbia University Press.
Stinson, Hanne. N.d. Still fighting to keep religion out of the EU Constitution! http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/contentPrintArticle.asp?article=1398.