Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy. By David M. Elcott, C. Colt Anderson, Tobias Cremer, and Volker Haarmann

Abstract

Around the world, religion is helping to advance nationalistic ends, ginning up right-wing populism in anti-democratic, xenophobic ways. An overview of this transnational phenomenon that indicates religious modes of resistance to it would thus be a welcome addition to the bookshelf. Unfortunately, the slender volume under review here—which limits itself to Judeo-Christian responses and to the United States and Europe (plus Israel)—is too uneven to meet the need. It begins solidly enough with a chapter on the role of religion in the construction of contemporary nationalist ideologies, focusing on assaults on liberal democracy with particular reference to religious pluralism and the separation of church and state. The underlying argument is that religious nationalists go for named religious identity rather than actual beliefs and practices. This is made clear in the case of Germany, where the religiously observant turn out to be more resistant to religious nationalism than the nonobservant. But regrettably for a chapter whose title (“How to Understand the Populism of Europe”) promises considerable geographic sweep, Germany is the only country on the continent to receive attention.