Citation

Friedland R. Socio. Theor. 2002; 20(3): 381-425.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, American Sociological Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/0735-2751.00169

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

God is once again afoot in the public sphere. Politics has become a religious obligation. For a new breed of religious nationalist the nation-state is a vehicle of the divine. This essay seeks to accomplish four things. The first is to argue for an institutional approach to religious nationalism in order both to interpret and explain it. Second, I argue that religion and nationalism partake of a common symbolic order and that religious nationalism is therefore not an oxymoron. Third, the essay seeks to explain why religion has become such a potent political force in our time. And fourth--the task that will take up the bulk of the text--it seeks a principle of intelligibility in the semiotic order of religious nationalism that can comprehend its preoccupation with both women's erotic bodies and monies out of national control.

Language: en