03/07/2026 15:00
- 17:10
HALL: Pola - A106
Contact:
Giorgi A.
Chair:
Fokas E.,
Giorgi A.
The panel introduces the recently published Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe, through the voices of its contributors and editors.
The handbook brings together and bridges different perspectives and disciplines in examination of intersections between politics and religion, including contributions from political science, religious studies, anthropology, legal studies - to name a few. A central aim is to ask what, exactly, is distinctively European about the entanglements between religion and politics under scrutiny.
The handbook is structured in three sections. The first section, Theoretical Underpinnings and Methodological Perspectives, aims at offering an overview of the main analytical frameworks that are adopted in contemporary analyses of religion and politics in Europe. Altogether, they suggest decentering and deconstructing the dominant narratives, while also questioning theoretical traditions; advocate for nuanced analyses over binary understandings, emphasizing hybridity, ambivalence, and contextual complexity; and explore the factors and the processes contributing to shape religiosity and the place of religions in contemporary societies. Section 2 is devoted to Actors, Policies, and Institutions. The chapters included in this section focus on religious and political actors in the European space and their interconnections, paying attention to religions beyond the institutional settings; on legal and political institutions and their impact on the intersections of politics and religion in Europe, paying attention to how religions contribute to shaping political and public institutions and how legal and political institutions contribute to shaping religions and religiosity; and, finally, on policies regulating religions or shaping the contexts in which religion and politics intersect. Section 3 is designed to introduce emerging themes and approaches by focusing on contemporary debates, ranging from religion and AI to the pandemic.
