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About this book
This book explores what the European Union (EU) does to religion and what religion does to the EU. Europe is secularising, and meanwhile struggling with a renewed salience of religion as a political and cultural resource instrumentalised for various purposes. The EU as a whole, and especially the European Parliament as the representative body reflecting the diversity and conflicts of national societies, face this challenge in their everyday functioning.
This book presents the second wave of an unprecedented survey studying what members of the European Parliament (MEPs) believe, and what they do with these beliefs. Research questions include: Are European elites more secularised than EU citizens and national politicians? What is the impact of religion on the political socialisation of MEPs and, conversely, what is the influence of MEPs on religion? How do religion, coalition- and decision-making interact at the European level? What happens in the triangular relationship between nation, Europe, and religion?
Contributions from leading researchers in the field shed light on the shifting effects of religion on attitudes towards European integration, on voting and party dynamics, and on interactions between major transformations such as secularisation, Europeanisation and politicization. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European integration, the European Parliament, politics and religion, comparative politics and political sociology.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Religion, State and Society.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Citation Information
- Notes on Contributors
- An introduction to ‘Religion in the European Parliament: between nation and Europe’
- 1 Confessional culture, religiosity, and traditionalism: tracing the influence of religion on public attitudes towards European integration
- 2 The right and religion in European Union politics: from ‘confessionalism’ to ‘conservatism’
- 3 Overview of RelEP2 (2019–2024) findings. Is there a politicisation of and through religion in the European Parliament?
- 4 United by history, divided by God? Religion among Dutch and Belgian members of the European Parliament
- 5 A republic uncomfortable with what comes from above (God or Europe): political representation and laïcité in Europeanising France
- 6 Vertical inroads of religion into European parliamentary politics: how socialisation and national party affiliation shape German MEPs’ consideration of religion
- 7 God, [political] family… and Europe? The selective resilience of religion in shaping the work of Italian members of the European Parliament
- 8 Religion in the narratives of Polish members of the European Parliament : politicising European integration?
- 9 Portuguese MEPs and religion as a case of ‘dual identity’: Christians at heart, secular at work
- 10 The end of the ‘Iberian exception’: religion and the new Spanish far right in the European Parliament
- Index