--- title: Religion & Politics description: This subject explores how religious beliefs, institutions, and identities influence political systems, public policy, and global conflicts. Learners will analyze the historical and contemporary interactions between church and state across different societies. category: humanities subcategory: religious-studies difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/religion-and-politics --- # Religion & Politics This subject explores how religious beliefs, institutions, and identities influence political systems, public policy, and global conflicts. Learners will analyze the historical and contemporary interactions between church and state across different societies. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 1 Courses • 5 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Political Theology Network Essays, symposia and podcast episodes from scholars working at the intersection of theology and political theory, including the ongoing Politics of Scripture series. Useful for tracking current academic debate on religion's public role. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://politicaltheology.com/ **Tags:** political-theology, religion-and-politics, theology, academic-commentary ### 2. PRRI - Public Religion Research Institute Nonpartisan survey research organization publishing polling on American religious affiliation, values and public policy, including the American Values Atlas. Gives readers current quantitative evidence on how religious groups divide politically. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.prri.org/ **Tags:** survey-research, american-religion, public-opinion, polling-data ### 3. pewresearch.org/religion Pew Research Center’s Religion section provides nonpartisan, data-driven research on religion's role in society. It features surveys, datasets, reports, and analyses on beliefs, demographics, religious trends, and how faith intersects with politics and public life. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://pewresearch.org/religion **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies ### 4. berkleycenter.georgetown.edu Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs investigates how religion intersects with politics and global public life. The site features research projects, events, fellowships, and multimedia resources—articles, policy briefs, interviews, and videos—onReligion’s role in current affairs. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies ### 5. Office of International Religious Freedom U.S. State Department office page hosting the annual International Religious Freedom Report, with country-by-country assessments of legal protections, government restrictions and societal abuses. Readers can compare how states worldwide regulate, protect or persecute religious communities. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://state.gov/religiousfreedom **Tags:** religious-freedom, human-rights, church-and-state, foreign-policy, religious-persecution ## Podcasts ### 1. Straight White American Jesus **Author:** Bradley Onishi + Daniel Miller An in-depth examination of the culture and politics of Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism by two ex-evangelical ministers-turned-religion professors. If you have ever wondered what social and historical forces led white evangelicals to usher Donald Trump into the White House this is the show for you. As former insiders and critical scholars of religion, Dan Miller and Bradley Onishi have a unique perspective on the Religious Right. Guests have included Chrissy Stroop, R. Marie Griffith, Janelle Wong, Randall Balmer, Katherine Stewart, and many others. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** Straightwhiteamericanjesus.com **Tags:** christian-nationalism, evangelicalism, american-religion, religion-and-politics ### 2. Theology in the Raw **Author:** Preston Sprinkle Interview podcast hosted by biblical scholar Preston Sprinkle, featuring guests from varied viewpoints on contested moral and cultural questions such as sexuality, gender, race, politics and violence. Listeners hear how Christian thinkers reason from scripture and theology toward positions on contemporary ethical debates. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://art19.com/shows/theology-in-the-raw **Tags:** christian-ethics, biblical-studies, sexuality-and-gender, cultural-issues, interviews ## Books ### 1. The Clash of Civilizations **Author:** Samuel P. Huntington Huntington's 1996 argument that post-Cold War conflict would fall along cultural and religious fault lines rather than ideological ones. Readers gain a much-debated framework, and a target for criticism, in religion-and-politics analysis. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/074323149X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies ### 2. God Is Back **Author:** John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge Two Economist journalists argue that modernization has not produced secularization, surveying the growth of religion in America, China and the Muslim world. Readers get a reported counterweight to standard secularization theory. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0713999020?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies ### 3. Taking America Back for God **Author:** Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry Sociologists Whitehead and Perry use national survey data to measure Christian nationalism as a distinct ideology, sorting Americans into four orientations. Readers learn how the construct is operationalized and what it predicts politically. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0190057882?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, religious-studies ## Courses ### 1. Religion, Conflict and Peace **Author:** Diane L. Moore HarvardX course led by Diane L. Moore on how religious beliefs, institutions and actors can fuel violence and also support peacebuilding, taught through regional case studies. Learners gain a religious-literacy framework for analysing religion's role in conflicts without treating traditions as fixed or uniform. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.edx.org/learn/religion/harvard-university-religion-conflict-and-peace **Tags:** religion-and-conflict, peacebuilding, religious-literacy, religion-and-politics, case-studies --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/religion-and-politics