Religion and Culture: Post-Christianity, Culture, Democracy, and Great Power Relations

Dear Colleagues,

The broader-Western world is experiencing a religious transformation where fewer individuals identify as Christian and a growing population sees itself as secular or nonreligious.  A person’s existential religious perspective—as having faith in God or as a nonbeliever—manifests itself in their philosophical orientation and understanding of the human person.  T.S. Eliot argues that no culture ever emerged historically except within a religion and in that culture is “the incarnation (so to speak) of the religion of a people.”  Western culture has always depended on religion; both European and American political institutions were born in a particular cultural context. However, as more and more individuals renounce traditional religions, the very core of society changes. As the dominant culture is transformed, democratic governments will have to adapt.  The general population’s expectations for democratic institutions are philosophically dependent on the national culture and religious changes impact the public’s expectations regarding government’s role and functionality.  The Western move away from traditional religions ultimately changes the public philosophy and affects political institutions in ways that are not commonly recognized.

While there is broad support for democratic institutions across the Western world, few scholars recognize the impact the host culture has on public expectations toward government.  American and European democracy emerged when the dominant ethos internalized Christian values.  Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America shows how the United States government gained support and legitimacy through the popular national religious creed.  The public faith was monotheistic but lacked theological depth to encompass as many people as possible into the dominant culture and political system.  The national government benefited as this creed helped to assimilate immigrants and establish social unity.  The United States public faith lasted for centuries and worked to build harmony and legitimize the federal government.  As traditional Christian churches lose members, the popular religious culture also slowly disappears and the unity previously built on a shared national religious belief no longer functions. As a result, society is more divided.

This special issue aims to examine how changes in religious beliefs affect domestic politics and culture and explores how this transformation extends to international relations.  As the Western world moves away from Christianity, this will be manifest culturally and change popular expectations and norms regarding the relationship between individuals, groups, and the state.  Domestically, governments become less responsive to popular demands for reform and more elite-managed and controlled.  The governmental orientation requires it to engage in social persuasion so that the population internalizes the desired mentality.  The resultant cultural change manifests itself in the arts, popular education, entertainment, medicine, the law, and literature.  It is present anthropologically as instrumental reason (cost-benefit analysis) is applied to the person replacing its intrinsic value.  Secondly, it relies on primitive moralism as a means to gain social consensus.  Public ethics is formed through shaming, but is not based on any logic other than mandating what is popular.  These ideas contradict each other and illustrate the problem identified by Heisenberg, Pauli, and Dirac over the consequences regarding the split between ‘faith and reason’ in the West.  The physicists observed that democracy presupposes a cultural reality that is no longer present.  It is important to examine religious change to see how it is present locally, regionally, and globally.

Domestically, religion is important in forming a national identity.  As faith changes, so do national approaches to sexuality, education, healthcare, and the arts.  These issues are normally approached through political, social, or economic lenses, but need to be understood first as a religious issue.  Internationally, the dominant culture provides important context as to a state’s place in the international political system.  Western foreign policies become more erratic because when leadership changes occur and the opposition party comes to power, the existing foreign commitments are subject to revision.  Rival political parties competing within the same country have widely opposing perspectives regarding the war in Europe and the Middle East.  As national leaders are replaced and the opposition party gains control, a state’s commitment to its allies is likely to alter, even if their partner is at war.  While European and American societies are divided, Western foreign policy is likely to be erratic and be dominated by instrumental, short-term logic that undermines its long-term security and interests.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• Religious change and liberal democracy
• Religion and sexuality, education, entertainment, healthcare, or the arts
• Post-Christianity and democracy
• Religious change and great power relations
• Secularism and Democracy
• Religion and Philosophic Anthropology
• Post-Christianity and Scientism
• Religion and Demography
• Religion, Post-Modernity, and Meaning

This special issue hopes to stimulate new research focusing on the relationship between religious change and democratic institutions.  As the Western world becomes post-Christian, it is important to understand the social, cultural, and political consequences and this project hopes to address this topic.

Prof. Dr. G. Doug Davis
Guest Editor

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• post-christianity
• democracy
• culture
• great-power relations