Religion, History, and International Relations

Abstract

Religion, until recently, has been marked in the history of International Relations (IR) primarily by its absence. In this chapter, I show how this absence is part of a foundational European mythology that has begun to be challenged. Nevertheless, there is still considerable work to do in understanding the ontological and cosmological richness of religious commitments in international relations, both historically and today. To do this work, it is necessary to reassess the concept of modernity in the foundational mythology of religion’s absence in IR. Moreover, deepening our understanding of granularity and practice must also be integral to comprehending the role of religion in IR. In this contribution, I assess: 1) the foundational European mythology and the understanding of modernity that has developed from the European story, 2) how decolonization both replicated and challenged that story, 3) how the post-Cold War resurgence of religion in IR forces more attention to granularity (and practice), and 4) the utility of the neo-Weberian approach to religion and religious ethics (Lynch 2009), along with a deeper appreciation of the range of religious ontologies extant in the world, for providing a path forward for the discipline in its analysis and understanding of the power of religious practices and commitments.