Political Religion Beyond Totalitarianism The Sacralization of Politics in the Age of Democracy

It has long been established that an important element in the success of fascist and communist regimes was their ability to turn their political ideology into a type of religion. The eleven innovative essays in this volume explore the notion that all forms of modern mass politics, including liberal democracies, need such a form of sacralization of politics to function. In modern democracies different political players compete for the support of the people. Sacralization of political forms and ideas, this volume suggests, is necessary to mobilize the hearts and minds of the masses because they expect and desire politics to be more than mere administration. Sacralization, therefore, lies at the heart of modern politics. This volume offers a challenging new view on the relationship between modern politics and religion, paying special attention to the role of ordinary people in the process of sacralization.

JOOST AUGUSTEIJN lectures at Leiden University. He has previously held posts at Trinity College, Dublin and Queens University Belfast. He is author of From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare. The experience of ordinary Volunteers in the Irish War of Independence 1916-1921 (Dublin 1996), and Patrick Pearse. The Making of a Revolutionary (Houndmills 2010) as well as editor of several volumes.

 



PATRICK DASSEN lectures at Leiden University, he specializes in German history, 1870-1945. He has previously held posts at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Groningen and the Germany Institute Amsterdam. He is the author of a monograph on Max Weber (De onttovering van de wereld. Max Weber en het probleem van de moderniteit in Duitsland, 1890-1920 (1999)) and (co-)editor of several volumes, such as The Many Faces of Evolution in Europe, c. 1860-1914 (2005).


MAARTJE JANSE is a post doctoral researcher at the Institute of History of Leiden University. She specializes in 19th century European and American political culture. Her publications include De Afschaffers. Publieke opinie, organisatie en politiek in Nederland, 1840-1880. Her current research focuses on the impact early 19th-century mass organizations against, for instance, slavery and temperance had on politics.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Politics and Religion; P.Dassen, J.Augusteijn & M.Janse
PART I: DEFINITION
Religion and Politics: In Search of Resemblances; H.Paul
The Religious Side of Democracy. Early Socialism, 21st-century Populism and the Sacralization of Politics; H.te Velde
PART II: RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY:
A Dangerous Type of Politics? Politics and Religion in Early Mass Organizations: The Anglo-American World, c. 1830; M.Janse
De-sanctifying Affairs of State: The Politics of Religion in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852); E.van de Bilt,
PART III: SOCIALISM
Visual Essay: Religious Aspects of Socialist Imagery, c.1890-2000; J.Groothuizen & D.Bos
A Grassroots Sacred Socialist History. Dutch Social Democrats (1894-1920); A.van Veldhuizen
PART IV: NATIONALISM
Nationalism as a Political Religion: The Sacralization of the Irish Nation; J.Augusteijn

The German Nation as a Secular Religion in the First World War? About the Problem of Unity in Modern German History; P.Dassen
History or Civil Religion? The Uses of Lincoln's 'Last, Best Hope of Earth'; A.Fairclough
PART V: RELIGION AND REVOLUTION
Revolutionary Mystique: Religious Undertones in the Russian Revolution of 1917; H.Kern
The Belief in Disbelief: Anticlericalism and the Sacralization of Politics in Spain (1900-39); E.Storm
Concluding Remarks; J.Augusteijn, P.Dassen & M.Janse