When God Means War, When God Means Peace: Explaining the Wild Variation in Religious Politics
Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame
Berkley Center Conference Room
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Confounding theorists of secularization, religion’s political influence has increased in every region of the globe over the past generation. But this influence varies wildly in form. Religion has destroyed both dictatorships and New York skyscrapers and has created truth commissions and peace agreements as well as civil wars. What explains the diverse political pursuits of religious leaders and communities? Daniel Philpott proposes an explanation rooted in their relationship with the state and their theologically rooted beliefs about politics. His argument contains important implications for American foreign policy and international cooperation.
Daniel Philpott is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations (Princeton 2001) and a range of articles on religion and international affairs, sovereignty, religious freedom and foreign policy, and the ethics of self-determination. He is currently working on a book called Just and Unjust Peace: A Political Ethic of Reconciliation that proposes a set of ethics for countries dealing with past injustices. He also sought to promote faith-based reconciliation in Kashmir since 2000 as a Senior Associate at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy.