Religion and World Community: Retrospective and Prospective Analysis of Principles and Applications for the 21st Century

Europeans now live in a world that according to the theory of secularisation is not supposed to exist: globalisation spreads “modernity” all over the world but religion prevails in world politics. The Arab Spring was the last reminder that even democratisation does not mean secularisation. Nevertheless, the secularist reflex is to understand religion as a threat to world order and to cosmopolitan progress. Thus, religion has come back into the (Western) study of politics and international relations mainly as an issue of international security. The purpose of this section is to move beyond this perspective and investigate the ways that religion can be a resource for visions of the emerging international community. It investigates how religion has been a source of international orders in past historic state-systems and in contemporary world politics to help provide the resources to move beyond a variety of myths of confrontation, such as between ‘Islam’ and ‘the West’ or between ‘secular fundamentalists’ and ‘religious fundamentalists.’ The purpose is not only to overcome the ways that religions have been ‘hidden’ from (international) history’ (almost like the role of gays, women, workers, peasants, blacks, and a variety of other non-white or non-Western peoples in social and political struggles around the world). It seeks to show that a more holistic narrative of the secular and religious concepts in past and present provides resources for world community in a global, post-secular, post-modern, multi-cultural international society. The section brings together scholars who research the concept of religion and world religion, postsecular cosmopolitanism, religion in IR theory, religious communities and their global impact, the sacralisation and securitisation of religion and secular concepts (state, nation), the role of religion in orientalism and occidentalism, dialogue of civilizations, religious freedom and foreign affairs, and faith based initiatives in development policy and transformation processes.