Religion and Politics: Ritual, Performativity, and (Political) Theatre in Comparative-Historical and International Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

The focus of this Special Issue is religion and politics, emphasizing religion, ritual, performativity, and politics, in which political theatre may play some role. This thematic concentration is intended to offer a focused means to deconstruct, parse, and/or analyze religion and politics in micro-level, local, provincial/state, national, regional, and inter-regional contexts. The religions addressed may include major world religions in context; animist or spirit religions; shamanism; new religions of Europe, and the like. Papers may focus on any geographical region, research method(s), theme, or historical period, including the late-modern and contemporary periods. Case studies grounded in a locale, or locales, are preferred. The goal of this Special Issue is to develop a broad scope of research across regions, disciplinary approaches, and methods in order to comprehend the roles of religion, ritual, and performativity in politics and/or the roles of politics, ritual, and performativity in religion. Articles should be based on primary research and may not be proselytizing, per se, in nature. Each manuscript need not be comparative and/or historical in itself; as a body of work, we intend for this collection to be broadly comparative across regions. The idea for this Special Issue was influenced by the works of scholars including Durkheim, Derrida, Bourdieu, Eliade, Kertzer, Turner, Geertz, Goffman, Scott, Mitchell, and others, suggesting a phenomenology of religion and politics as lived and experienced by individuals or communities. Many approaches are welcomed.

Possible related themes and methods of interest may include (and are not limited to):

• Art (in various forms, including film)
• Coexistence
• Corruption
• Ethnography
• Identities (including social, cultural, religious, ideological, and national or other political identities)
• Interviews
• Freedom of Religion and Conscience
• Majority and/or Minority Communities
• Micro-level Studies or Perspectives
• Nationalism
• Politicians and Constituencies
• Political or Ideological Movements
• Politicians and Rhetoric
• Process Tracing
• Religious Movements
• Syncretism
• Social Mobilization
• Theologians and/or Religious Leaders and Politics

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors first submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this information to the Guest Editor or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Patricia J. Sohn
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religion
• ritual
• political
• theatre
• performativity
• politics