Religion and Political Power By Gustavo Benavides and M.W. Daly (eds). NY: State University of New York Press, 1989, 240 pp.

Abstract

The upheaval in contemporary world politics reveals a renewed interest
in religion; similarly, the current anarchy in rehgious thought and institutions
often demonstrates a not-so-subtle interest in politics. Hence, for political
scientists, among others, new studies of religion and politics are always
welcome. Except for two essays in this volume, all were presented in 1986
at a seminar on “Religion and Nationalism: held under the auspices of the
National Endowment for the Humanities at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. The two essays mentioned, those of Alexandre Benningsen and
Stephen Feuchtwang (who did not attend the seminar) were commissioned
separately.
The editors of this collection are Gustavo Benavides, a lecturer in the
Department of Religious Studies at Villanova University; and M. W. Daly,
an assistant professor in the Department of History at Memphis State
University.
The broad-ranging seminar explored the role played by religion in the
emergence of the political life of modem states. From India and Sri Lanka
to the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the resurgence of religious fundamentaism
in the United States and its persistence in Israel, the participants discussed
the many forms that the tension between religion and the modem state assumes.
However, the thematic thread running through most of the discussions proved
to be something more general than the state itself, although it is the state
in which it is now manifested. That theme is the exercise of political power;
more precisely, the exercise of political power in a context that mobilizes
religious representations.
This volume, then, examines the interaction between two of the most
charged topics in the modem world: religion and politics. It shows the
inextricable connection between religious attitudes and responsibilities and
political activities.
Following an introductory chapter which explores the religious
articuiations of politid power, the authors examine the role played by religion
in the current political situation in several countries. Approaching these cases
as anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, the authors
make visible the dialectical relationship between religion and the pursuit of
political power. On the one hand, they demonstrate the political significance ...