Why Politics Can't be Freed From Religion is an original, erudite, and timely new book from Ivan Strenski. Itinterrogates the central ideas and contexts behind religion, politics, and power, proposing an alternative way in which we should think about these issues in the twenty-first century. A timely and highly original contribution to debates about religion, politics and power and how historic and social influences have prejudiced our understanding of these concepts Proposes a new theoretical framework to think about what these ideas and institutions mean in today&'s society Applies this new perspective to a variety of real-world issues, including insights into suicide bombers in the Middle East Includes radical critiques of the religious and political perspectives of thinkers such as Talal Asad and Michel Foucault Dislodges our conventional thinking about politics and religion, and in doing so, helps make sense of the complexities of our twenty-first century world

Why Politics Can't be Freed From Religion is an originalerudite, and timely new book from Ivan Strenski. Itinterrogates thecentral ideas and contexts behind religion, politics, and powerproposing an alternative way in which we should think about theseissues in the twenty-first century.* A timely and highly original contribution to debates aboutreligion, politics and power - and how historic and socialinfluences have prejudiced our understanding of these concepts* Proposes a new theoretical framework to think about what theseideas and institutions mean in today&'s society* Applies this new perspective to a variety of real-world issuesincluding insights into suicide bombers in the Middle East* Includes radical critiques of the religious and politicalperspectives of thinkers such as Talal Asad and MichelFoucault* Dislodges our conventional thinking about politics andreligion, and in doing so, helps make sense of the complexities ofour twenty-first century world

Acknowledgments xi1 When God Plays Politics: Radical Interrogations ofReligion, Power, and Politics 12 Interrogating 'Religion' 81. Religion Trouble 82. 'Seeing' Religion: Six Common Clichés 113. Gagging at the Feast of Two Unexamined Assumptions: ReligionAll Good or All Bad 144. The Religion-Is-No-Good Cliché 215. The Second Set of Two Clichés: Religion Is Belief andBelief in God 246. 'Religion's' Private Parts 337. Powerless in Paradise 358. Two Ways to Eliminate 'Religion' 369. Is Religion Our Phlogiston? An Historical Test Case 3910. Talal Asad's 'Religion' Trouble 4211. The Trick of Defining 'Religion' 4612. Owning 'Religion' 5013. How Durkheim Took 'Ownership' of'Religion' 5514. Religion and Its Despisers 593 Interrogating 'Power' 621. Confronting the Paradox of 'Power' 622. How 'Power' Plays Havoc with Thinking about"Institutional Violence" 663. Whom Should We Blame? 'History' on Trial 704. History's Helper: We Should Also Blame Foucault 815. Problematizing Power in South Africa 846. Foucault versus Foucault 887. Thinking about Power as Auctoritas and Hierarchy 908. What More Is to Be Done? Thinking about Power as Auctoritasand Social Force 974 Interrogating 'Politics' 1001. Defining 'Politics' 1002. Where There Is No Politics: Despotism and Totalitarianism1023. Autonomous Politics 1054. Where Our 'Politics' Makes No Sense 1075. Politics, the Construct 1096. Two Pernicious Views of 'Politics' 1127. History Lessons for Professor Morgenthau 1168. What Constitutionalism Owes the Council of Constance 1199. The Emergence of the Political . . . from the Religious12310. Machiavelli and Luther: Critical Contributions to theAutonomy of Politics 12511. Foucault's Fault II: 'Everything IsPolitical' 13012. The Hidden Fascism of Thinking that Everything Is Political13313. Public and Private: No Absolute Line of Demarcation 13514. Resisting the Panopticon 13615. Afterword: The Autonomy of 'Politics' and theNation-State 1405 Testing Interrogations of 'Religion,''Power,' and 'Politics': Human Bombers andthe Authority of Sacrifice in the Middle East 1421. Is 'Suicide' Bombing Religious? 1422. Making Too Much of Religion in 'Suicide' Bombing:'Islamofascism' 1443. Dying to Make Too Little of Religion in 'Suicide'Bombing: Robert A. Pape 1474. No Religion in 'Suicide' Bombing: Talal Asad1505. How Religion Helps Explain Human Bombing 1536. Human Bombing Is "Catastrophe," but also a"Triumph" of "Secular Immortality" 1557. Human Bombing = Jihad + Sacrifice 1608. Sacrifice or Suicide? 1649. But Do Any Muslims Really Think Human Bombers Are'Sacrifices'? 16810. Sacrifice Makes Authority 17511. How and Why Sacrifice Works: The Authority of Sacralization17612. How and Why Sacrifice Works: No Free Gifts 18013. Concluding Remarks 182References 187Index 196