The sacred in twentieth-century politics : essays in honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne / edited by Roger Griffin, Robert Mallett and John Tortorice.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Payne, Stanley G.

Mallett, Robert, 1961-

Griffin, Roger.

Tortorice, John S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and politics--History--20th century--Congresses.

Religion and politics.

History.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Festschriften.

Physical Description:

x, 291 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

September 11th 2001 brought the entire question of religion's place in modern political ideology into sharp focus. Yet in effect this dysfunctional symbiosis had already been a feature of the international landscape for many decades. Scholars such as Eric Voegelin and Raymond Aron, to name but two, delineated and assessed the way in which regime types such as Stalin's Soviet Union, Mussolini's fascist Italy and Hitler's Nazi Germany assumed quasi-religious forms, substituting an omnipotent divine being with a corporeal and illuminated leader, as early as the 1920s and 1930s. But it is only recently that academic attention has returned with a vengeance to examine the manner in which revolutionary movements frequently adopt a religious form, or even hijack existing mainstream faiths in order to pursue a frequently brutal and violent political agenda based on sweeping social and individual transformation along the lines of official dogma and doctrine.

This volume, dedicated to the great scholar of fascism and the Iberian world, Professor Stanley G. Payne, aims to emulate his spirit of enquiry by offering a new series of theoretical and case study analyses of the 'sacred' dimension of politics in the modern era. An international team of highly respected scholars examines the political religion and politicised religion concepts on a truly global basis, bringing together considerable knowledge and experience in one volume. Both the 'totalitarian' regimes of the mid-twentieth century and other political forms such as Castroism, Hindutva, Missiology and American Apocalypticism are all discussed in provocative and detailed essays. Together they offer readers the first ever comprehensive judgement on the continuing importance of the sacred within the political in the modern era.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Evolutions and Convolutions of Political Religion / Roger Griffin 1

Part I Conceptualizing Political Religion

2 On the Heuistic Value of the Concept of Political Religion and Its Application / Stanley G. Payne 21

3 The Missiological Roots of the Concept of 'Political Religion' / Werner Ustorf 36

4 Is Castroism a Political Religion? / Eusebio Mujal-Leon, Eric Langenbacher 51

Part II The Sacralization of Politics

5 Fascism as the Expression of a Spiritual Revolution in Italy / Robert Mallett 89

6 What Insights Do We Gain from Interpreting National Socialism as a Political Religion? / Klaus Vondung 107

7 Marxism-Leninism as a Secular Religion / Anatoly M. Khazanov 119

8 Maoism in the Cultural Revolution: A Political Religion? / Rana Mitter 143

Part III The Politicization of Religion

9 An Islamist Turkish Party's Journey to Democracy and Modernity / Kemal H. Karpat 169

10 Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective / Robert E. Frykenberg 178

11 The United States: Messianism, Apocalypticism, and Political Religion / Chip Berlet 221.

Notes:

Proceedings of a conference held in May 2004 at the University of Wisconsin--Madison.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-279) and index.

ISBN:

9780230537743

023053774X

OCLC:

181600995