Research Perspectives in Political Science of Religion Cover Image

Perspektywy badawcze w politologii religii
Research Perspectives in Political Science of Religion

Author(s): Maciej Potz
Subject(s): Political Sciences, Politics and religion, Sociology of Politics, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: political science of religion; transactional approach; Social Movements Theory;

Summary/Abstract: The article presents political science of religion as an explanatory framework of the political role of religion, grounded in political science. It proceeds from the critique of the prevailing legal and theological approaches as being normatively overloaded and failing to grasp the actual impact of religion on power relations, to formulating metatheoretical/methodological postulates of the political science of religion as an empirical subdiscipline of social science. It then proposes a multilevel approach to the study of the political role of religion. It consists of three distinct – but integrated – theoretical perspectives: the economic or transactional approach, grounded in rational choice theory and economic theories of religion; the social movements theory (SMT) approach, looking at the internal assets, organization and dynamics of religious actors; and the cultural/humanistic approach, exploring evolutionary, psychological and sociological determinants behind individual propensity to religion-inspired political mobilization.

  • Issue Year: 52/2019
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 277-291
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish