Description: Cesari argues that both religious and national communities are defined by the three Bs: belief, behaviour and belonging. By focusing on the ways in which these three Bs intersect, overlap or clash, she identifies the patterns of the politicization of religion, and vice versa, in any given context. Her approach has four advantages: firstly, it combines an exploration of institutional and ideational changes across time, which are usually separated by disciplinary boundaries. Secondly, it illustrates the heuristic value of combining qualitative and quantitative methods by statistically testing the validity of the patterns identified in the qualitative historical phase of the research. Thirdly, it avoids reducing religion to beliefs by investigating the significance of the institution-ideas connections, and fourthly, it broadens the political approach beyond state-religion relations to take into account actions and ideas conveyed in other arenas such as education, welfare, and culture.
Brief description: Jocelyne Cesari Holds the Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham, UK, is Senior Fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center on Religion, Peace and World Affairs and the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School (2018-2021). Her other books include: What is Political Islam? (2018) (special mention of the religion and international section of the International Studies Association), and The Awakening of Muslim Democracy: Religion, Modernity, and the State (Cambridge, 2014).
Review Quotes: 'In We God's People, Joceleyne Cesari demonstrates the diffusion of the Western concept of the nation-state across the world brought with it the Western concept of religion which, in turn, profoundly influences religious politics across the world. This seemingly simple insight is profound and complex in its application and Cesari masterfully takes us through this process in multiple settings. It is an unprecedented tour de force based on interdisciplinary and historical original research that provides groundbreaking insights on the new theoretical and methodological approaches on religion, politics and secularism. Once again her insights cause me to see much of what I thought I knew about religion and politics, secularism in a new light.' Jonathan Fox, The Yehuda Avner Professor of Religion and Politics, Bar Ilan University