Has the Study of Global Politics Found Religion?

Abstract

The past generation has witnessed a resurgence of religion in global politics, but political science has been slow to catch up with it. The reason lies in the secularism embedded in the field's major theories, one that reflects actual secularism in world politics, beginning with the events surrounding the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and growing steadily through the middle twentieth century. Today, a small but growing number of political scientists have begun to explore religion, doing so in ways that depart from secular assumptions and embrace religion's distinctiveness to greater and lesser degrees.

Keywords: secularism, secularization, political theology, differentiation