Religious actors are becoming part of the EU bureaucratic system, and their mobilisation in Brussels and Strasbourg in the last decade has increased dramatically. This book explores the mechanism and impact of religious representation by examining relations between religious practitioners and politicians in the European Union from the Second World War until today.

This book seeks to answer the following questions: How do (trans)national religious groups enter into contact with European institutions? What are the rationale and the mechanisms of religious representation in the...

This book aims to understand the European political debate about contentious issues, framed in terms of religious values by religious and/or secular actors in 21st century. It specifically focuses on the Italian case, which, due to its peculiar history and contemporary political landscape, is a paradigmatic case for the study of the relationships between religion and politics.

In recent years, a number of controversies related to religious issues have characterised the European public debate at both the EU and the national level. The 'affaire du foulard' in France, the...

This volume approaches the UN as a laboratory of religio-political value politics. Over the last two decades religion has acquired increasing influence in international politics, and religious violence and terrorism has attracted much scholarly attention. But there is another parallel development which has gone largely unnoticed, namely the increasing political impact of peaceful religious actors.

With several religious actors in one place and interacting under the same conditions, the UN is as a multi-religious society writ small. The contributors to this book analyse the most...

This book seeks to account for and analyse the political aspects of the 'new atheism'. It is best known as a literary and media phenomenon which has resulted in the widespread discussion of the anti-religious arguments of authors such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Yet the new atheism has strongly political dimensions and this book offers an analysis of the politics of new atheism that is informed by insights from political science and political theory.

The book aims to:

• Understand new atheism in political terms,...

In the Caucasus region, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and their powerful neighbours Russia, Turkey, Iran and the EU negotiate their future policies and spheres of influence. This volume explores the role of religion in the South Caucasus to describe and explain how transnational religious relationships intermingle with transnational political relationships. The concept of 'soft power' is the heuristic starting point of this important investigation to define the importance of religion in the region.

Drawing on a three-year project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation,...

The Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) ended a twenty year political battle over same sex marriage in the USA. The ruling in favor of a constitutional right for gays and lesbians to marry reflected growing social acceptance and political rights for gays and lesbians. At the same time, America remains a deeply religious country and many religious organizations have long opposed marriage equality. How do religious organizations interpret, process, and respond to shifting attitudes and public policy toward the LGBT community?

This book examines how religious...