Timothy Fitzgerald

Religion and Politics in International Relations (eBook, ePUB)

The Modern Myth

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

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.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks UK
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Oktober 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781441121592
• Artikelnr.: 38304251

Autorenporträt

Timothy Fitzgerald was Reader in Religion at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the author of The Ideology of Religious Studies (2000) and Discourse on Civility and Barbarity: a Critical History of Religion and Related Categories (2007). He is the editor of Religion and the Secular: historical and colonial formations (2007 and 2014); and joint editor with Trevor Stack and Naomi Goldenberg of Religion as a Category of Governance and Sovereignty (2015).

Inhaltsangabe

1. Preface \ 2. Summary of the contents of the chapters \ 3. Why Focus on
International Relations \ 4. Contextualizing the problem in the author's
research background \ 5. Summary of the Argument \ 6. Christopher Hitchens
and How Religion Poisons Everything \ 7. Eli Berman, Religious Terrorism
and the Innocent Economist \ 8. International Relations and Religion's
Return from Exile \ 9. Scott M. Thomas, Religion Resurging and
International Relations \ 10. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd: the Politics of
Secularism in International Relations \ 11. Some further theoretical
implications \ Bibliography \ Index

---

1. Preface \ 2. Summary of the contents of the chapters \ 3. Why Focus on International Relations \ 4. Contextualizing the problem in the author's research background \ 5. Summary of the Argument \ 6. Christopher Hitchens and How Religion Poisons Everything \ 7. Eli Berman, Religious Terrorism and the Innocent Economist \ 8. International Relations and Religion's Return from Exile \ 9. Scott M. Thomas, Religion Resurging and International Relations \ 10. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd: the Politics of Secularism in International Relations \ 11. Some further theoretical implications \ Bibliography \ Index

Rezensionen

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