On the heels of an extremely lively U.S. presidential election campaign, this book examines the unusually serene relationship between the chief global superpower and the world's most ancient and ...renowned institution. The "Catholicization" of the United States is a recent phenomenon: some believe it began during the Reagan administration; others feel it emerged under George W. Bush's presidency. What is certain is that the Catholic presence in the American political ruling class was particularly prominent in the Obama administration: over one-third of cabinet members, the Vice President, the White House Chief of Staff, the heads of Homeland Security and the CIA, the director and deputy director of the FBI, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military officers were all Roman Catholic. Challenging received wisdom that the American Catholic Church is in crisis and that the political religion in the United States is Evangelicalism, Manlio Graziano provides an engaging account of the tendency of Catholics to play an increasingly significant role in American politics, as well as the rising role of American prelates in the Roman Catholic Church.
Religions are reemerging in the social, political, and economic spheres previously occupied and dominated by secular institutions and ideologies. In the wake of crises exposing the limits of secular ...modernity, religions have again become significant players in domestic and international politics. At the same time, the Catholic Church has sought a "holy alliance" among the world's faiths to recentralize devout influence, an important, albeit little-noticed, evolution in international relations.Holy Wars and Holy Allianceexplores the nation-state's current crisis in order to better understand the religious resurgence's implications for geopolitics. Manlio Graziano looks at how the Catholic Church promotes dialogue and action linking world religions, and examines how it has used its material, financial, and institutional strength to gain power and increase its profile in present-day international politics. Challenging the idea that modernity is tied to progress and secularization, Graziano documents the "return" or the "revenge" of God in all facets of life. He shows that tolerance, pluralism, democracy, and science have not triumphed as once predicted. To fully grasp the destabilizing dynamics at work today, he argues, we must appreciate the nature of religious struggles and political holy wars now unfolding across the international stage.
Religions are creeping back into the social, political, and economic spheres previously occupied by secular institutions and ideologies. Disillusioned with industrial progress and cut off from ...opportunity and wealth, many are looking to Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity to restore a sense of purpose not found in daily life. Since the 1970s, the Catholic Church has sought a "holy alliance" among the world's religions to recentralize religious ideas and practice in modern society. Holy Wars or Holy Alliances explores the nation-state's current crisis to better understand its origins and future development. Focusing on the Catholic Church, Manlio Graziano looks at how Catholicism has coordinated world religions in joint actions. Through its material, financial, and institutional strength, the Church has gained power and increased its profile in international politics. Challenging the ideas that modernity is tied to progress and religion necessarily means decline, Graziano documents the "return" or the "revenge" of God in all facets of secular life. He shows that tolerance, pluralism, democracy, and science have not triumphed as claimed in modern times. To fully grasp the destabilizing dynamics at work in our world today, Graziano argues, we must appreciate the nature of the religious struggles and political holy wars now unfolding across the international stage.
CONCLUSION Graziano, Manlio
Holy Wars and Holy Alliance,
04/2017, Letnik:
28
Book Chapter
Over at least the past four decades, religion has regained a place in the public scene. All evidence would indicate that this trend will continue in international relations, as in other areas. In the ...months that this book was being written, religion was used as a pretext to explain, justify, or glorify political and military confrontations in Mali, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Iraq, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and even Ukraine. It has been a central feature of the “Arab Spring,” and it continues to play a dramatic role in those countries where revolutions have been abortive: Syria, Egypt,
This article examines French–Italian relations focusing in particular on economic exchanges and French perceptions of Italy as revealed in parliamentary debates and in the French press. The analysis ...suggests that in the eyes of the French, Italy is a two-faced Janus, rich in both defects and positive qualities. Except perhaps for the shrewdest observers, it is difficult for the French to come to terms with all the subtleties and complexities of the real Italy.
The article aims at studying the reasons for the new way of looking at the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by the Italian political world: the mutual recognition of Israel and the Vatican, the visit to ...Jerusalem by the leader of the formerly fascist party, Mr. Gianfranco Fini, and the beginnings of a movement of interest towards the Jewish State also within the political left. From a historical viewpoint, anti-Semitism in Italy found its origins in the Church's attitude toward the ‘deicide people’. Beginning with WWI, to this position was added the worry that the Holy Places might fall under Jewish control. From those times dates the Holy See's evermore manifest liking for the Arab populations of Palestine. Nowadays the line of conduct of the Church has as its basic objective the defense of Christian minorities in the Middle East, and for this reason it maintains dialogues with all actors in the region. The weight of the Church influenced also the attitude of the Italian State, even though from its inception the latter had to make adjustments because of other international requirements. This multiple subordination caused the different republican governments to always keep an official equidistant stance among the conflicting parties in the Near East. Behind this apparent neutrality, however, the feelings of benevolence for the Arab countries and the Palestinians have gradually intensified. Italian leaders have been trying to conduct a Mediterranean policy on the borders of the Western alliance, and their feelings have been oriented in consequence. During the 1970s, the governments went as far as to conclude a secret pact with Palestinian terrorists, to avoid terror acts on the Peninsula in exchange for some freedom of action. And in the mid-eighties the Craxi government did not hesitate to challenge the US in order to guarantee the continuity of that line of conduct. On that occasion Craxi, speaking in Parliament, compared Arafat to Mazzini. The end of the Yalta-established order has modified the traditional data of Italian foreign policy. However, the increased attention paid to Israel has also other causes: the changed attitude of the Church after the civil war and the Syrian occupation in Lebanon, events which both caused difficulties for the consistent Christian minorities; the hope that the Oslo process could reward the Italian ‘clear-sightedness’; last, but not least, the quarrelsome internal politics that make the Palestine conflict a mirror of the Roman conflicts. Lastly, the article connects the recent goodwill for Israel with the threats of Islamic terrorism in Italy. A political opinion trend would revisit the Middle Eastern conflict as the upturned perspective of a ‘clash of civilizations’ already existent nowadays. And a possible act of terrorism in Italy might give to this opinion a mass basis.
The next Middle Ages Graziano, Manlio
The Routledge Handbook to Religion and Political Parties,
2020
Book Chapter
The relationship between religion and political culture typically follows a chronological order: the latter necessarily comes after the former; but the intervention of political culture almost always ...influences and modifies religion, triggering an interaction mechanism that is characteristic of all natural processes. Thus religion and political culture enjoy a dialectical relationship, that is, that of reciprocal influence, insomuch that one sometimes assumes the appearance of the other and vice versa. The reaction of political culture to the social relevance of religion depends on both the strength of the relevance and the level of the political culture's self-confidence. The reaction of political culture to the social relevance of religion depends on the intensity of this relevance and on the self-confidence of political culture. All religions, at one time or another, have migrated, breaking the umbilical cord with their place of origin and their cultures.
