Dear Colleagues,

Recent research on political Catholicism in Europe has sought to theorize the ways in which Catholic politics, including Catholic political parties, political ideals, and political entrepreneurs, have survived in and navigated a post-secular political environment. Many of these studies have articulated the complex ways in which Catholicism has adjusted and transformed in late modernity, as both an institution and a living tradition, in ways which have opened up unexpected avenues for its continuing influence on political practices and ideas, rather than disappearing from the political landscape altogether, as much previous research on religion and modernization had expected. Among other things, this new line of research has re-evaluated the original and persistent influence of Catholicism on the European Union, contemporary European politics, and European Human Rights discourses. At the same time, new political and religious dynamics have emerged over the last five years in Europe that have further challenged this developing understanding of contemporary Catholicism’s relationship to politics in Europe, through, for example, the papal election of Pope Francis, the immigration “crisis”, and, especially, the rise of populism and new European nationalists, like Victor Orban, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and Matteo Salvini, who have publicly claimed the mantle of Christian Democracy and Catholic nationalism while simultaneously refashioning those cloaks for new ends. These trends raise difficult new research questions about the relationship of Catholicism, in its broad sense, to the very idea of Europe and its future institutional and spiritual form. Finally, all of these dynamics are intertwined with the continuing transformation of European religiosity, in an often contradictory fashion, and the long-term shift in religious influence from Europe to the global south.

This present volume seeks to take stock of these trends and to theorize the contemporary dynamics of Catholicism and European Politics from a multidisciplinary perspective. The volume therefore invites contributions from the fields of political science, sociology, anthropology, theology, religious studies, and history. It welcomes proposals from both comparative and national perspectives which articulate and problematize the emerging dimensions of political Catholicism in its current post-secular and populist European landscape. As such, the volume encourages the submission of a broad range of article proposals, from multiple perspectives, which address the relationship of Catholicism to contemporary European political dynamics. These may include the following themes: new forms of European nationalism; national and European responses to the immigration crisis; the changing religiosity of European youth; the emergence of new ecological movements and ideas; the shifting role of Catholic movements on contemporary political parties; Catholicism and trans-Atlantic relations; Catholicism and the European Union; Catholic contributions to European debates on religious freedom; interreligious dialogue and human rights discourses; new Catholic perspectives on feminism and gender studies; and European discourses on secularism and post-modernity.

Prof. Michael Daniel Driessen
Guest Editor

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• Political Catholicism
• European Studies
• Post-Secularism
• Catholic Political Theology
• Religion and Democracy
• Catholic Political Parties
• New Religious Movements
• Catholic Modernity