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

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 January 2026 | Viewed by 4498

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Patricia J. Sohn

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Guest Editor
Nepal Center for Contemporary Studies, Kathmandu University, Kathmandu, Dhulikhel 45210, Nepal
Interests: culture and politics (comparative); religion and politics (comparative)

Special Issue Information

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 Religious Constituencies
  • Politicians and Religion
  • Political or Ideological Movements
  • Politicians and Religious 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.

Keywords

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

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 267 KB  
Article
Origins and Consequences of Extremist Religious Zionist Settlements on the West Bank
by Manus I. Midlarsky
Religions 2025, 16(9), 1214; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091214 - 22 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1526
Abstract
A necessary condition for the success of the 7 October 2023 Hamas deadly incursion into Israel was the absence of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from that region. The IDF was involved in helping the settlers in their conflicts with Palestinians on the [...] Read more.
A necessary condition for the success of the 7 October 2023 Hamas deadly incursion into Israel was the absence of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from that region. The IDF was involved in helping the settlers in their conflicts with Palestinians on the West Bank, many miles from the Gaza border. Absent the settlers, it is likely that either the Hamas attack might not have occurred or would have been blunted at the outset, yielding a much more measured Israeli response. Hence it is imperative that we understand the origins of the settler movement. It is to be found in Biblical injunctions that were to be amplified considerably by the outcomes of the extraordinarily successful Six-Day war of 1967 and its sequel the Yom Kippur war of 1973. In the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, that is, of the entire Hebrew Bible, God commands Abraham to leave his current domicile and travel to Canaan where a great nation would be formed. Effectively, this is the religious foundation of the connection between the people of Israel and the land of Israel, then called Canaan. The contrast between the outcomes of 1967 and 1973 was striking. Instead of a lopsided victory in the earlier war, the human losses in 1973 were surprising, even terrifying. This intense ephemeral gain combined with a world view defense engendered by mortality salience established the basis for later religious Zionist extremism. The vastly increased number of casualties in 1973 set the stage for the victory of Likud, much more amenable to West Bank settlements than the ousted Labor government had been. Religious Zionists leaped at this opportunity, justifying this activity by referring to God’s commandment to settle the entire land of Israel in the West Bank territories using their Biblical Hebrew names: Yehuda (Judea) and Shomron (Samaria), whatever the cost in violent Palestinian land dispossession. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Politics: Ritual, Performativity, and (Political) Theatre in Comparative-Historical and International Perspective)
17 pages, 267 KB  
Article
Albinism in Tanzania: A Ritual Politics of Silence, Fear, and Subservience
by Francis Semwaza
Religions 2025, 16(7), 846; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16070846 - 26 Jun 2025
Viewed by 1180
Abstract
Violence against people with albinism (PWAs) in Tanzania continues nearly two decades after mass media reported the first incidents in the mid-2000s. The violence is linked to organ trafficking for use in “magical rituals” that allegedly help politicians and businesspeople to succeed in [...] Read more.
Violence against people with albinism (PWAs) in Tanzania continues nearly two decades after mass media reported the first incidents in the mid-2000s. The violence is linked to organ trafficking for use in “magical rituals” that allegedly help politicians and businesspeople to succeed in their endeavors. Over time, as societal awareness grows, the attacks become increasingly clandestine and complex. PWAs themselves, the public, and gray literature frequently relate the violence to the increased political and economic activity and participation following Tanzania’s adoption of political and economic liberalization. However, scholarly research is either silent or mentions the occult practices only in passing. This paper, therefore, explores Tanzania’s institutional arrangements both driving the violence and crippling the efforts at promoting the rights and welfare of PWAs in the wake of increasing political and economic participation in the country. It discusses the ways in which violence against PWAs has evolved alongside political and economic dynamics from the time such incidents came to public attention until the present. I argue that the current approach, whereby advocacy about the rights of PWAs relies on appeasing the state, appears to perpetuate the very beliefs and practices driving the violence. The exploration makes use of first-hand experience through my participation in numerous formal and informal interactions with PWAs, internal and external meetings within the Tanzania Albinism Society (TAS), interviews, and gray literature on the subject. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Politics: Ritual, Performativity, and (Political) Theatre in Comparative-Historical and International Perspective)
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