Religion and Politics in International Relations: The Modern Myth [Paperback]

Scholars in International Relations concerned with religion and its relations to world politics are rhetorically constructing a powerful modern myth. A component of this myth is that religion is inherently violent and irrational unless controlled by the secular state, which is inherently rational and only reluctantly violent. Timothy Fitzgerald discusses how, in this modern myth, religion appears as a force of nature which either assists or threatens the sacred secular order of things, and how religion is portrayed as a kind of universal essence which takes many forms, its recent most dangerous manifestation being Islamic terrorism . This book illustrates that the essential distinction between irrational religion and rational secular politics appears as an unquestioned preconception on the basis of which policy is conducted, countries invaded and wars fought. Arguing that this rhetorical construction of religion provides the foundation for faith in the rationality of modern liberal capitalism, Fitzgerald demonstrates how a historically contingent discourse has been transformed into a powerful set of global assumptions.Critical analysis of the modern myth of 'religion' and its distinction from 'secular politics' as it appears in recent International Relations literature.Timothy Fitzgerald is Reader in Religion at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the author ofThe Ideology of Religious Studies(2000).Fitzgerald makes an outstanding contribution to the scholarly study of the role and place of religion and the religious in international relations, and of their interactions with politics and the political. All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace

1. Preface \ 2. Summary of the contents of the chapters \ 3. Why Focus on International Relations \ 4. Contextualizing the problem in the author's research background \ 5. Summary of the Argument \ 6. Christopher Hitchens and How Religion Poisons Everything \ 7. Eli Berman, Religious Terrorism lS+