Politics and Religions

Description

The course is designed to study a range of key themes of modern politics that articulate the relationship between the political and religious spheres. To this end, the course will critically explore the various theoretical models of the institutional and of the political status of religion, as well as the diverse perspectives on the role of the hegemonic religious ideologies on the social function. Last but not least, the course focuses on the political theology of the major religious groups and their link to the current state of affairs in the domestic and international political arena. Particularly, the course’s themes are the following: - The diverse political theologies of the Church: Orthodoxy, Roman-Catholicism, Protestantism. - Islam and the political. - Religion and liberal democracy: theory, church and state relations. - The Marxist critique of religion. - Religion and Nationalism. - Fundamentalism. - The Secularization thesis. - Religion in international politics. - Religion and Electoral Politics.