Abstract
The consideration of religious variables in comparative politics entered the scholarly discussion relatively late, but several important works over the past few years have considered the possibilities and obstacles religion presents to a democratic society. Among other concerns, this scholarship asks how the work of religious interest associations might promote greater social capital, civic engagement, empowerment, and participation among the poor and other socially marginalized groups. This literature builds on both the social capital and democratic deepening approaches and is consistent with the concepts of muted vibrancy and strategic silence. This introduction presents the case-studies in the volume, asking whether the concepts of muted vibrancy and strategic silence help to provide a robust theoretical understanding of the role of faith-based organizations in contemporary European society.
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Notes
- 1.
These works include Scott R. Appleby The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); Anders Backstrom and Grace Davie with Ninna Edgardh and Per Petterson, eds., Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe, vol. 1 (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010); Anders Backstrom, Grace Davie, Ninna Edgardh, and Per Petterson, eds., Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe, vol. 2 (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011); Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Boston: Anchor, 1990); Ingo Bode, “A New Agenda for European Charity: Catholic Welfare and Organizational Change in France and Germany,” International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 14, no. 2 (2003): 205–225; Jose Casanova, “Civil Society and Religion: Retrospective Reflections on Catholicism and Prospective Reflections on Islam Social Research,” Civil Society Revisited 68, no. 4 (2001): 1041–1080; Ipek Gocmen, “The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Social Welfare Systems: A Comparison of France, Germany, Sweden, and the UK,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 42, no. 3 (2013): 495–516; Jeffrey Haynes and Anja Henning, Religious Actors in the Public Square: Means, Objectives and Effects (New York: Routledge, 2011); Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Ted Jelen, “Political Christianity: A Contextual Analysis,” American Journal of Political Science 36, no. 3 (1992): 692–714; Ted Jelen and Clyde Wilcox, Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, the Few, and the Many (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Katherine Meyer, Daniel Tope, and Anne M. Price, “Religion and Support for Democracy: A Cross-national Examination,” Sociological Spectrum 28 (2008): 625–653; Tim Müller, “Religiosity and Attitudes towards the Involvement of Religious Leaders in Politics: A Multilevel Analysis of 55 Societies,” World Values Research 2, no. 1 (2009): 1–29; Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004); and H.R. Unruh and R.J. Sider, Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-based Ministry (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
- 2.
René Rémond, Religion et société en Europe: La sécularisation aux XIXe et XXe siècles (1789–2000) (Paris: Seuil, 2001); René Rémond, Religion and Society in Modern Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999); René Rémond, Le Christianisme en accusation (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2000); René Rémond, Le nouvel anti-Christianisme: Entretiens avec Marc Leboucher (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2005); Paul Valadier, L’Eglise en procés: Catholicisme et société modern (Paris: Flammarion, 1999); Paul Valadier, Agir en politique: Decision morale et pluralisme politique (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1980); Paul Valadier Anarchie des valeurs (Paris: Albin Michel, 1997); Paul Valadier, Un Christianisme d’avenir: Pour une nouvelle alliance entre raison et foi (Paris: Seuil, 1999); Steven Englund, “The Muted Vibrancy of French Catholicism” and “L’Eglise de France: The Church in a Post-Religious Age,” Commonweal: A Review of Religion, Politics and Culture (May 18, 2001), 12–16.
- 3.
Paul Valadier, L’Eglise en procès: Catholicisme et société moderne (Paris: Flammarion, 1999).
- 4.
Gonzalo Villagrán, S.J., “Public Theology in a Foreign Land: A Proposal for Bringing Theology in Public into the Spanish Context” (PhD diss., Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, 2012).
- 5.
Englund, Commonweal, May 18, 2001: 12.
- 6.
Carolyn Warner, Confessions of an Interest Group (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002), 18.
- 7.
Robert D. Putnam, “The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life,” in The American Prospect 13 (Spring 1993), http://epn.org/prospect/13/13putn.html.
- 8.
Philippe Schmitter, “Organized Interests and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe,” in The Politics of Democratic Consolidation: Southern Europe in Comparative Perspective, ed. Richard Gunther, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, and Hans-Jürgen Puhle, 284–314, 285 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press). See also Philippe Schmitter, “The Irony of Modern Democracy and the Viability of Efforts to Re-form its Practice,” in Associations and Democracy, ed. E. O. Wright, 167–183 (London and New York: Verso, 1995).
- 9.
Alfred C. Stepan , Arguing Comparative Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 216.
- 10.
Robert M. Fishman, “Democratic Practice after the Revolution: The Case of Portugal and Beyond,” Politics & Society 39, no. 2 (2001): 233–267, 259n6.
- 11.
Archon Fung, “Associations and Democracy: Between Theories, Hopes, and Realities,” Annual Review of Sociology 29 (2003): 515–539, especially 518–529. See also Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, eds., Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance (London: Verso, 2003).
- 12.
Paul Hirst, Associative Democracy: New Forms of Economic and Social Governance (Cambridge, UK: Wiley, 1994), 21.
- 13.
Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom and Gizem Arikan, “Religion and Support for Democracy: A Cross-National Test of the Mediating Mechanisms,” British Journal of Political Science 43, no. 2 (2013): 375–397, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000427.
- 14.
José Casanova, “Civil Society and Religion: Retrospective Reflections on Catholicism and Prospective Reflections on Islam Social Research,” Civil Society Revisited 68, no. 4 (Winter 2001): 1041–1080, 1049. See also José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 229.
- 15.
See İpek Göçmen, “The Role of Faith-Based Organizations in Social Welfare Systems: A comparison of France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 42, no. 3 (2013): 495–516; Kimberly J. Morgan, “Forging the Frontiers Between State, Church, and Family: Religious Cleavages and the Origins of Early Childhood Education and Care Policies in France, Sweden, and Germany, Politics & Society 30, no. 1 (2002): 113–148.
- 16.
See Louella Moore, “Legitimation Issues in the State-Nonprofit Relationship,” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 30, no. 4 (2001) 707–719.
- 17.
Moore , “Legitimation Issues,” 711.
- 18.
Göçmen, “The Role of Faith-Based Organizations,” 509. Other notable faith-based welfare organizations in France include Federation Entraide Protestante and Secours Islamique de France.
- 19.
Willem Adema, Pauline Fron, and Maxime Ladaique, “Is the European Welfare State Really More Expensive?: Indicators on Social Spending, 1980–2012,” OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 124 (2011), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241764379_Is_the_European_Welfare_State_Really_More_Expensive_Indicators_on_Social_Spending_1980-2012_and_a_Manual_to_the_OECD_Social_Expenditure_Database_SOCX.
- 20.
S. Bracke, Journal of Empirical Theology 25 (2012): 247–248; A. Bäckström and G. Davie, with N. Edgardh and P. Pettersson, Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe: Configuring the Connections (vol. 1) (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2010).
- 21.
A. Bäckström and G. Davie, “A Preliminary Conclusion: Gathering the Threads and Moving On,” Chapter 11, in Welfare and Religion in 21st Century Europe: Configuring the Connections (vol. 1), ed. A. Bäckström and G. Davie, with N. Edgardh & P. Pettersson (Farnham, UK: Ashgate), 183–199; quote is from page 190.
- 22.
See Frantz-Xavier Kaufmann, Variations of the Welfare State: Great Britain, Sweden, France and Germany Between Capitalism and Socialism (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2013); Ingo Bode, “A New Agenda for European Charity: Catholic Welfare and Organizational Change in France and Germany,” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 14, no. 2 (June 2003) 205–225.
- 23.
Jeffrey Haynes and Anja Henning, Religious Actors in the Public Square: Means, Objectives and Effects (New York: Routledge, 2011), 3–5.
- 24.
Pew Research Center, “Size, Projected Growth of Major Religious Groups in Europe, 2010–2050,” March 27, 2015, http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/europe/attachment/147/.
- 25.
Pew Research Center, “Largest Religious Group, by Country,” June 19, 2015, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/22/what-is-each-countrys-second-largest-religious-group/ft_15-06-12religiousgroups_alargest640px-2/.
- 26.
Ted Jelen and Clyde Wilcox, Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, the Few and the Many (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
- 27.
Gøsta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990).
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Manuel, P.C., Glatzer, M. (2019). “Use Words Only If Necessary”: The Strategic Silence of Organized Religion in Contemporary Europe. In: Manuel, P., Glatzer, M. (eds) Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77297-4_1
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