The course is designed to study a range of key themes of modern politics that articulate the relationship between the political and religious spheres. To this end, the course will critically explore the various theoretical models of the institutional and of the political status of religion, as well as the diverse perspectives on the role of the hegemonic religious ideologies on the social function. Last but not least, the course focuses on the political theology of the major religious groups and their link to the current state of affairs in the domestic and international political arena.
Particularly, the course’s themes are the following:
– The diverse political theologies of the Church: Orthodoxy, Roman-Catholicism, Protestantism.
– Islam and the political.
– Religion and liberal democracy: theory, church and state relations.
– The Marxist critique of religion.
– Religion and Nationalism.
– Fundamentalism.
– The Secularization thesis.
– Religion in international politics.
– Religion and Electoral Politics.

The students by the end of the semester will have:
1. Acquired a basic knowledge of the central political, ideological, historical, sociological and cultural perspectives of the thematic under examination.
2. Understood the theoretical axes on the question of State-Church relations in Greece and the EU.
3. Been acquainted with the basic results of qualitative and quantitative research on the place and role of religion in the modern world.
4. Practiced in the analysis and interpretation of the political governance on questions of the religious agenda.

Course Bibliography (Eudoxus)
Hervieu-Léger D. και Willaime J. P., Κοινωνικές θεωρίες και θρησκεία (Αθήνα: Κριτική, 2005).
Heynes J. (επ.), Θρησκεία και Πολιτική: Μια Σύγχρονη Επιτομή (Αθήνα: Πεδίο, 2018).
Additional bibliography for study
Berger P., Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory οf Religion, Νέα Υόρκη, Doubleday, 1967.
Eisenstadt S. N., Fundamentalism, Sectarianism and Revolution: The Jacobin Dimension of Modernity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Λίποβατς Θ., ∆εµερτζής Ν. και Γεωργιάδου Β. (επιµ.) Θρησκείες και πολιτική στη νεωτερικότητα, Αθήνα, Κριτική, 2002.
Kai Arzheimer and Elisabeth Carter, ‘Christian Religiosity and Voting for West European Radical Right Parties,’ West European Politics 32/5 (2009): 985-1011.
David Broughton and Hans-Martien ten Napel (eds.), Religion and Mass Electoral Behaviour in Europe (London: Routledge, 2000).
Wouter van Der Brug, Sara B. Hobolt, and Claes H. De Vreese, ‘Religion and Party Choice in Europe,’ West European Politics 32/6 (2009): 1266-1283.
Yilmaz Esmer and Thorleif Pettersson, ‘The Effects of Religion and Religiosity on Voting Behavior,’ in Russel Dalton and Hans- Dieter Klingemann (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Behaviour (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007): 481-503.
Nadia Marzouki, Duncan McDonnell, and Olivier Roy (eds), Saving the People: How Populists Hijack Religion (London: Hurst, 2016).
Kathleen A. Montgomery and Ryan Winter, ‘Explaining the Religion Gap in Support for Radical Right Parties in Europe,’ Politics and Religion 8 (2015): 379-403.
Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Konstantinos Papastathis, ‘Religious Discourse and Radical Right Politics in Contemporary Greece, 2010–2014,’ Politics Religion and Ideology 16/2–3 (2015): 218–247.
Victor Roudometof and Vasilis Makrides (eds.), Orthodox Christianity in 21st Century Greece: Tthe Role of Religion in Politics, Ethnicity and Culture (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010).
Trine Stauning Willert and Lina Molokotos-Liederman (eds), Innovation in the Orthodox Christian Tradition?: The Question of Change in Greek Orthodox Thought and Practice (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012).