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Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern Myth
Author(s): Timothy Fitzgerald (Author)
- Publisher: Continuum
- Publication Date: 27 Oct. 2011
- Language: English
- Print length: 296 pages
- ISBN-10: 1441142908
- ISBN-13: 9781441142900
Book Description
Scholars 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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Fitzgerald makes an outstanding contribution to the scholarly study of the role and place of religion and the religious in international relations, and of their interactions with politics and the political. ― All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
About the Author
Timothy Fitzgerald is Reader in Religion at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the author of The Ideology of Religious Studies (2000).
