Abstract
The articulation between religion, politics and the law in contemporary European societies is a complex matter. In this article, we argue that classical secularization approaches fail to capture the ambivalent form of Catholicism in Europe, and we advance an alternative approach that reconsiders two elements: temporality and social space. Firstly, we propose to adopt an “eventful temporality”, which enables the consideration of the impact of unexpected social and political events in altering the direction as well as shaping the public presence and form of religion. Secondly, we stress the need to focus on understanding the specificity of the different fields in which religion is mobilized, and the configuration and dynamics of each of these fields to explain the current weight of Christian majority churches in European societies. Drawing on empirical data from Spain, we examined the role and influence of Catholicism in three fields of public life: that of public services, that of morality politics and finally, that of the politics of belonging. In doing so, we identified their different temporalities (a long-term inertia in the first case, more abrupt changes in relation to the other two) as well as their specific dynamics in terms of actor constellations, issues at stake and symbolic repertoires.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
We identified three main fields in which the Catholic Church is currently operating in Spain, and in which religion, politics and the law are inextricably linked to one another
The current entanglements of Catholicism, politics and the law in contemporary Spain are full of tensions and frictions, which challenge linear and single-cause interpretations of the evolution and role of religion in contemporary Western societies
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The empirical evidence depicts an ambivalent, volatile and even contradictory scenario for religion, which classical theorizations of religious change failed to capture In her analysis of the role of the Catholic Church in France, Céline Béraud (2017) describes the situation as paradoxical: while quantitative indicators of religiosity are gradually declining, the Catholic Church has regained a strong public profile in recent years and has displayed a significant capacity to mobilize resources and people in supporting religious/moral causes. The article draws on empirical data, gathered within the Religions 2021, 12, 293 framework of two research projects , with the aim of making a theoretical contribution to rethinking the religion–politics–law nexus and the relationship between traditional indicators of religiosity and the public form and role of majority churches These projects consist of qualitative studies based on interviews with religious, political and administrative actors concerned with religious matters as well as ethnographic research in particular institutional contexts and the analysis of media and parliamentary debates. We analyze the entanglements of Catholicism, politics and the law in the domains of welfare and public institutions, morality politics and the politics of belonging
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