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ABSTRACT: I challenge the "presupposition strain" in political theology—the thesis that politics needs religion, that politics presupposes religion, and that we cannot make sense of politics without an appeal to transcendent theological concepts. I do this by critically examining Simon Critchley's claim that politics is not practicable with religion. Critchley shares a common framework with Carl Schmitt; it is this framework of political theology that needs to be exposed, questioned, and criticized.

"Religion and World Politics provides a short, accessible, and practical introduction to how we can understand the place of religion in world politics in a more comprehensive, contextually relevant way. Is religion central or irrelevant, positive or negative in world politics today? So much political commentary and analysis focuses on these issues. But these are the wrong questions to be asking. Designed for practitioners, policymakers, and newcomers to the topic of religion and global politics, this book emphasises that religion is not something clear, identifiable, and definable, but is fluid and shifting. Consequently, we need analytical frameworks that help us to make sense of this ever-changing phenomenon. The author presents a critical, intersectional framework for analysing religion and applies this to case studies of three core areas of IR analysis: (1) conflict, violence, and security; (2) development and humanitarianism; and (3) human rights, law, and public life. These cases highlight how assumptions about what religion is and does affect policymakers, theorists, and activists. The book demonstrates the damage that has been done through policies and programmes based on unquestioned assumptions and the possibilities and insights to be gained by incorporating the critical study of religion into research, policymaking, and practice. This book will be of great interest to students of global politics, IR, religion, and security studies, as well as diplomats, civil servants, policymakers, journalists, and civil society practitioners. It will also benefit IR scholars interested in developing their research to include religion, as well as scholars of religion from disciplines outside IR interested in a deeper understanding of religion and world politics"--

Introduction : religion, politics and ideology / Jeffrey Haynes -- Liberal religion / Emanuel de Kadt -- Secularism / Linde R. Draaisma and Erin K. Wilson -- Atheism and religion / Stuart McAnulla -- Nationalism, religion, ideology / Atalia Omer -- Religion and gender / Leila Hadj Abdou -- Life after communism : contemporary orthodoxy, politics and society in Eastern Europe / Greg Simons -- The radical right in Europe : cultural shifts and religious nativism / Michael Minkenberg -- Caught in mid-stream : Islamism in the transition from politics of piety to formal politics / Roel Meijer -- Religion between ethics and ideology / Joseph A. Camilleri -- Religion and the ideology of populism / Timothy Peace -- Anarchism and religion / Erik Ringmar -- Religion and the alt-right / George Hawley -- Revisiting the conceptual history of Salafism : theological foundations, ideological iterations, and political manifestations / Naveed S. Sheikh -- Buddhist nationalism / Saul Tobias -- Christianism / Ben Ryan -- Evangelicals and ideology : transnational or local? : examining the case of Latin American Evangelicals / Ruth Melkonian-Hoover and Dennis R. Hoover -- Italy / Luca Ozzano -- A world awakening : American Evangelicalism and late-war order / Robert J. Joustra -- Russia : Orthodox Christianity / Marko Veković -- Religious fundamentalism, liberal nationalism, and sectarian solidarity among Lebanese / Mansoor Moaddel, Jean Kors and Johan Gärde -- Politics, identity and religion in Turkey : from Atatürk to the AKP / Jeffrey Haynes -- Iran : construction of a Shia political ideology in the modern age / Alireza Raisi -- Religion and ideology in Sri Lanka : Buddhism / Peter Friedlander -- Hinduism, Hindutva, and ideology / Abdul Shaban -- Israelization of Judaism / David Ohana.

AbstractStates of the United States differ significantly in terms of politically salient religious culture. But prior to the 2008 presidential election several studies inspired by rational political theory that found that during war time voting districts with high rates of military fatalities were more likely to vote against incumbent candidates and for anti-war candidates failed to control for variation in religious culture. In the present study, multivariate analyses that controlled for local differences in religious culture found that Iraq War military fatalities had an overall positive effect on the difference in the percent of the vote received in the 50 states and the District of Columbia by the anti-war Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 election and the pre-war Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in the 2000 election. Tests for interaction, however, also found that the magnitude and ultimately the direction of this effect were conditioned by religious culture. In states with very high percentages of evangelical Protestants, the military fatality rate actually appeared to have a negative effect.

A new Buddhist group Soka Gakkai started its movement in 1930. After World War II it grew rapidly to claim more than eight million families as its members in Japan in 2005. Soka Gakkai International (SGI), which Soka Gakkai organized as its international network in 1975, now extends to over 190 countries and areas worldwide, claiming twelve million members globally, according to their own calculations. Soka Gakkai started a domestic political movement in the early 1960s, establishing Komeito in 1964 that would mostly keep the third position between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Social Democratic Party throughout the Cold War era. When the political scene in Japan saw a restructuring process in the 1990s, Komeito joined in the coalition government with the LDP in 1999. The general election in 2009, however, turned out to be a failure both to the LDP and Komeito, while the Democratic Party of Japan won the election to lead the new government, almost for the first time since the establishment of LDP in 1955. This paper tries to situate Soka Gakkai and Komeito in the context of Japanese politics and society and attempts an evaluation of the current situation after the 2009 election.

"Post-Conflict Processes and Religion: An Overview" published on by Oxford University Press.

"To many mainstream-media saturated Americans, the terms 'progressive' and 'religious' may not seem to go hand-in-hand. As religion is usually tied to conservatism, an important way in which religion and politics intersect is being overlooked. [This book] focuses on this significant intersection, revealing that progressive religious activists are a driving force in American public life, involved in almost every political issue or area of public concern. This volume brings together [contributors] who dissect and analyze the inner worlds and public strategies of progressive religious activists from the local to the transnational level. It provides insight into documented trends, reviews overlooked case studies, and assesses the varied ways in which progressive religion forces us to deconstruct common political binaries such as right/left and progress/tradition ... [This] book engages and rethinks long accepted theories of religion, of social movements, and of the role of faith in democratic politics and civic life."--