An introduction to religion and politics

Jonathan Fox

"An Introduction to Religion and Politics offers a comprehensive overview of the many theories of religion and politics, and provides students with an accessible but in-depth account of the most significant debates, issues and methodologies. Fox examines the ways in which religion influences politics, analyses the current key issues and provides a state of the art account of religion and politics, highlighting the diversity in state religion policies around the world. Topics covered include: Secularism and secularization ; Religious identity ; Religious worldviews, beliefs, doctrines and theologies ; Religious legitimacy ; Religious institutions and mobilization ; Rational and functional religion ; Religious fundamentalism ; Conflict, violence and terror. This work combines theoretical analysis with data on the religion policies of 177 governments, showing that while most of the...