The Conflict-proneness of Religious Identities and the Political-Theological Division of Europe

Abstract

Religions and religious identities cannot be held directly responsible for political conflicts, but they often show themselves capable of structuring and/or perpetuating already existing (geo-)political, socio-economic or cultural lines of conflict. Against the background of some relevant theoretical and historical studies, this contribution attempts to substantiate the specific “susceptibility to conflict” religions include, and to further illustrate it by using the example of the existing political-theological antagonisms in Europe, which are re-emerging in many places today. For this purpose, Carl Schmitt will be referred to as well as the approaches of René Girard, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Michael Walzer.