Publics in global politics are highly dynamic, considering the multitude of actors involved and the issues addressed. When examining Christian churches and the Ukraine War, it emerges that religions not only react to global politics but also contribute to identifying issues and measures of how to tackle them. The interplay of religious publics, therefore, appears particularly dynamic, warranting a distinct conceptualization. This article thus aims to introduce the concept of religious public(s) in global politics by building upon literature on how publics emerge and which manifestations they can assume. First, four manifestations of publics are examined by conducting a case study on Christianity and the Ukraine War. Employing the case study as a plausibility probe, the findings are re-examined in a second step to develop a typology of religious publics. The article concludes by identifying other areas in which studying religious publics and global politics would prove rewarding.

Religion features in early English School work, disappears and then reappears in more recent literature. Arguably, it has not yet found a solid place in this theoretical framework, even though the English School is known to provide angles on the evolution of international society other approaches lack. Religion can unite and divide, it can lead to a strengthening or a weakening of identity and legitimacy. Religion endures and it can exist independently of states, it can constitute them and it can provide new forms of states and societies. Employing previous English School ideas from early as well as contemporary English School scholars as points of departure, religion is introduced as a ‘prime institution’. Based on the English School’s understanding of primary institutions as constituting international society, this concept of a ‘prime institution’ provides an additional layer to international society. Such a prime institution helps grasp the multifacetedness of religion in the context of international society; identify patterns of the (in-)significance of religion for primary institutions; and examine the difference between religious and religion-averse states within the international society. This prime institution is illustrated with a so-called ‘quilt model’, which depicts the multiple layers of international society.

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