Religion as a Weapon: Invoking Religion in Secularized Societies
Petr Kratochvíl has written a chapter for "A Quarter Century of the 'Clash of Civilizations'" edited by Jeffrey Haynes.
Europe is becoming more and more secular, yet religious rhetoric can still mobilise the public and whip up strong resentments of anything foreign. Our senior researcher Petr Kratochvíl analyses this paradox in his contribution to “A Quarter Century of the ‘Clash of Civilisations’”. Although we do not see a rise in religious affiliation in Central and Eastern Europe, an emphasis on an idealised Christian heritage brings votes to populist parties. What social trends can we discern from the alliance between right-wing populists and religious conservatives? The publication engages critically with Huntington’s notion of “Clash of civilisations” and its modern religious re-fashioning. Although secularism had once been widely embraced as the next stage of civilisation, today, the romanticised “Christian West” once again stands against the “barbaric East” in the words of a growing divisive ideology.
The book is available at link below.
