Politics and Religion

by Steve Bruce

Islamic fundamentalists wreck the financial heart of New York; Hindus destroy a mosque at Ayodhya; Orthodox Jews battle Palestinians for possession of holy sites; in Egypt, Israel and India political leaders are murdered by religious zealots. In many parts of the world, religion combines with ethnic and national conflict to stimulate political militancy. The collapse of Communism and the failure of Western secular models of development have stimulated the revival of religiously inspired nationalisms. Even in stable affluent democracies, religion is a powerful influence on political preferences. It affects lifestyle concerns such as abortion, gender roles and gay rights. It influences economic attitudes. It shapes the alignments of political parties. Believers try to influence governments and, although most governments in principle tolerate religious diversity, many still attempt to regulate religious behaviour, particularly that of new religious movements.

Steve Bruce draws on material from all over the world and from all religious traditions to explore the complex links between religion and politics. He shows that, while social, economic and political circumstances shape the political choices and actions of believers, religion still matters. Although the major world faiths have at times been associated with every conceivable political agenda, there remain important differences between Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto and Muslim politics.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2003

About the author

Steve Bruce (born 1951), Professor of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen since 1991, elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005, he has written extensively on the nature of religion in the modern world and on the links between religion and politics.

Reviews

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Steve’s work for a while now. Universally shunned by many after the ’spiritual turn’ in the sociology of religion, I think none of this new orthodoxy has sufficiently responded to Bruce’s points about secularisation (which, btw, have evolved as well). His way of arguing his case is exemplary, and even if you can’t always support the results, you will learn from the way of getting there.

Politics and Religion, however, was a disappointment. Partly this was because I was expecting something different. Instead of a systematic conceptual outline, the book offers historical vignettes of the interaction between the two concepts. This is fine and makes for easy reading, and obviously I can’t blame the author for my expectations, but all in all it just didn’t seem like a book I would assing for my courses. The more egregious issue is the biased treatment of Islam. The main point of the book is that different religious traditions lead to different political outcomes. That religions provide different types and levels of legitimation is uncontroversial, but where the political outcomes of all traditions are historically considered, Islam is simply dismissed as an ’intolerant religion’. That religious tolerance, for example, is contingent on multiple historical variables is afforded to Christianity—Protestantism especially—hinduism, and other ’world religions’, but not to Islam. For a critical thinker with a skill in constructing an argument, this is surprising. Steve of course pre-empts this criticism, but it is not convincing in light of the imbalanced treatment. I don’t know whether it is the closeness of 9/11, his fondness for Sam Huntington, the need to get even with critics, and a general dislike for emancipatory social science that makes him blind to his own bias, but it is unfortunate.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a combination of historical and contemporary statistical analysis, Bruce argues persuasively that religion's place in UK politics is decreasing and analyses the problems faced by those who advocate more visibility for religion in public affairs. It is a good reminder that despite the increased presence of religion in the media, for example, visibility does not translate into attitudes.