Issues in the Study of Religion, Politics and Nationalism

Course content

The aim of this course is to study in depth the interaction between politics, religion and nationalism. The course has therefore a theoretical, historical and comparative perspective. Beginning with some introduction to the sociology of religion, the course will introduce students to theories of secularization as well as nationalism. It will then proceed with theories of desecularization. Some case-studies on nationalism and religion will also be introduced in order to gain a comparative perspective on the role of religion and the nature of nationalism in selected countries. The last section of the course will deal with the role of religion in foreign policy.