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 world's government support religion and many restrict it; true neutrality on the issue of religion is extremely rare. Religion is becoming an inescapable issue in politics.

This work will be essential reading for all students of religion and politics, and will also be of great interest to those studying related subjects such as comparative politics, international relations and war and conflict studies.

Reviews

For far too long, we have labored without a text that unifies social scientific treatments of religion and politics. Fox's An Introduction to Religion and Politics is a theoretical tour de force, providing a broad and deep survey of the major theories of religious presence in politics, tested with his Religion and the State dataset and carefully chosen case studies throughout. It is highly relevant and readable and will serve as a critical reference tool.

Paul A. Djupe, Denison University

'Jonathan Fox has pulled off a difficult double achievement in this book. First, he has persuasively presented arguments that covany ways that religion and politics can connect, and the outcomes when they do. Second, he has set out the information in a way that will be appreciated by university students (and others) who have an interest in the topic. In short, this is an excellent book and Fox will find that many people appreciate the clarity and rigour with which he has presented the evidence.'

Professor Jeffrey Haynes, Associate Dean and Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion, Conflict and Cooperation, Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations, London Metropolitan University

Jonathan Fox, one of the discipline's foremost experts in the study of religion and politics, has crafted an eloquent yet accessible guide to the comparative study of religion and politics. Fox provides a coherent framework that traces policies to their sources in identities, belief systems, concerns of legitimacy and institutions, complemented with contemporary illustrations, analyses of hot-button controv...