Thinking about Religious Identity, Politics, and Public Policy

Abstract

Abstract A compelling debate has emerged in recent years about the role of religious faith and identity in political affairs. This debate is not about the extent or indeed the nature of religious faith that is or is not made to feel welcome in shaping political matters. That is a rather separate question and one that is touched upon, briefly, later in this chapter and the next. Instead, what is at issue is how far religious faith is underscored by one-dimensional collective identity. In the case of some faiths in the modern world, this tendency towards a single faith-based identity has been significant and almost overwhelming. Muslim groups in Western societies are a noticeable case in point. Among others, faith identities have played a smaller—and sometimes a negligible— role but this has been part of a larger interplay between a variety of identitybased political movements on one hand and the workings of political and social change on the other.