02/07/2026 15:00
- 19:30
HALL: Pola A208
Contact:
Polinder S.
Chair:
Nitschke U.
Following the religious turn in International Relations (IR), several people and organisations have argued for more religious literacy or even cross-cultural religious literacy. But it might be necessary to go a step further. Our current world of international politics is full of religious expressions, incidents, and religion is often instrumentalized and weaponized. On the other hand, on average, four in every five people across the globe hold to some sort of belief system and the religious turn came about because people realised religion matters.
Religious literacy helps us understand our religious world, by tapping into the religious drives and motivations of people and political systems. Yet approaching religion as one more sociological factor or as a personal preference often ignores the deeper transcendent assumptions being claimed. How to understand why President Putin of Russia sees himself as a katechon if one doesn't know what this means? What to do when religion is used as political leverage; when religious rhetoric enters conversations and negotiations? When is religion not really being religion?
Apart from the knowledge that helps us understand the world, we need ways of discerning how to navigate it. Perhaps we need to move towards "theological literacy", to help uncover deeper assumptions and reintroduce the transcendent into IR. In this panel we explore this concept in more detail and welcome practical examples and cases.
