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Religion and nationalism: four approaches *
Author(s) -
BRUBAKER ROGERS
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2011.00486.x
Subject(s) - nationalism , character (mathematics) , ethnic group , sociology , phenomenon , power (physics) , religious studies , race (biology) , gender studies , epistemology , anthropology , law , philosophy , political science , politics , mathematics , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics
. Building on recent literature, this article discusses four ways of studying the relationship between religion and nationalism. The first is to treat religion and nationalism, along with ethnicity and race, as analogous phenomena. The second is to specify ways in which religion helps explain things about nationalism – its origin, its power or its distinctive character in particular cases. The third is to treat religion as part of nationalism, and to specify modes of interpenetration and intertwining. The fourth is to posit a distinctively religious form of nationalism. The article concludes by reconsidering the much‐criticised understanding of nationalism as a distinctively secular phenomenon.