Introduction to the special issue of Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions: Political Religions as a characteristic of the 20th century.*

Abstract

This introduction delivers a short overview of the main issues relating to Emilio Gentile’s approach to ‘Political Religions’. I will particularly focus on the following points: a) the relationship between secularisation, modernity and ‘resacralisation’ b) the main phases in the historical development of concepts relating to ‘political religions’ c) the use of ‘political religions’ as an analytical tool for totalitarian regimes d) the longing for ‘eternity’ as a feature of political religions. Besides this, the introduction offers a presentational overview of the contents of the volume, and of the scholarly objectives intended by individual contributors.