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A variety of domestic characteristics of states affect their propensities to armed conflict, including power, regime type, wealth, and economic strength (in addition to the dyadic characteristics of power differential, alliances, proximity, and the peace-learning process). Compared to these, religion is an understudied characteristic. Religions instill norms and ethics for the use of force just as secular ideologies often do. These war ethics influence the propensities to armed conflict of the states whose people and leadership adhere to those religions. Whether religious war ethics raise or lower those propensities depends on how permissive or restrictive they are. I show the empirical effect of those religious war ethics, working through states' populations, on states' probabilities to initiate armed conflicts against other states. The Christian war ethic is more restrictive and Christian populations are negatively correlated with states' propensities to resort to force. The Islamic war ethic is more permissive and Muslim populations are positively correlated. The effect of religion is often strong and statistically significant, even after introducing conventional controls

This paper examines the intersection of religion and politics and its consequences on religious minorities in Indonesia. This paper is based on a case study of the current position of the Ahmadiyya minority group in the Indonesian Islamic majority. The tension arises from a specific circumstance: This large Muslim country uses democracy as a political system, but the involvement of religious politics is evident. This situation directly endangers the presence of the Ahmadiyya group.

The prospects of establishing religious progressive social reform movements are contemplated. Several dangerous developments in political-religious relations are highlighted: the emergence of theocratic groups & governments in various Western & Middle Eastern countries; state repression of particular religious groups in various East & South Asian nations; the integration of evangelicalism & fundamentalism within the US; & the increase of conflict amongst different Islamic groups. Nevertheless, some positive trends within these regions are noted including the manifestation of Christian communities throughout certain areas of the People's Republic of China & the growth of Catholicism within developing societies. The thought of Antonio Gramsci & Ernst Bloch is subsequently reviewed to ascertain a progressive strategy for comprehending the politics-religion nexus within different socio-political contexts. Examples of religious-social movement coalitions in the US, eg, the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, are cited to illustrate the possibility of creating a religious progressive approach to realizing social reform. J. W. Parker

This paper discusses how, in contemporary China, politico-religious narratives that reiterate the country's Confucian tradition serve to create a sense of belonging and sharedness in a community, and provide a way to interpret this community and the contemporary Chinese nation as having a divine mission. As these Chinese foundational myths combine elements of Confucianism with patriotism and nationalism, they can be interpreted as a constitutive element of a "civil religion with Chinese characteristics", and as providing arguments for a "religious" legitimation of the CCP as organization that has to lead the nation on this mission.

International audience ; The invisible politics of religion in southern European territories: preliminary considerations With this issue of Religion, State & Society, we inaugurate a planned series of special sections focusing on the analysis of the political involvement of religious associations and organisations at the local level. Without pre-empting the more substantial conclusion that we plan for the last of the special sections, in this short introduction we aim to state brieflythe main issues that will be covered by the selected articles.

AbstractCivil religion, or the connection of the nation‐state, its history, destiny, and people, to understandings of transcendence or divinity, is in crisis both as a theoretical concept and as a politico‐cultural phenomenon. The crisis has been brought about by the weakened capacity of the nation‐state to generate collective identity and a version of 'charismatic' authority. We argue that this has resulted in a shift from the widely accepted conceptualization of civil religion as a unifying force in societies to a more exclusionary force that Williams (2103) calls "tribal civil religion" That, in its own way, undermines the nation‐state. In this paper, we examine the history and various understandings of the concept of civil religion, develop an argument that the assault on the nation‐state has meant the rise of increasingly exclusive and exclusionist expressions of civil religion, and present possible suggestions for sites where 'unitive' civil religion may still be found.

With increased competition from the Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church finds itself precariously placed in Latin America in recent years. In light of the steady decline in the number of Catholics and Catholic priests in the region, many have predicted the Church's gradual irrelevance in politics. But as this study argues, that is not exactly the case. Although the growth in Protestant populations continues unabated in Latin America, the Catholic Church has increased its involvement in educational and social welfare activities. This seems to be a long-terms strategy, and is particularly true in countries where it faces the most intense competition from other religions.