Political science of religion

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Political Science of Religion or Politicology of Religion ,or Politology of religion,,or Politics and religion, or Religion and politics is one of the youngest subfields of Political Science. It was established in the last decades of the twentieth century.

[edit] RESEARCH AREAS

Its basic research areas are:

1. All aspects of religious teachings and practices that have direct political contents and messages, such as religious understanding of government, power, political authority, state, political organizing, war, peace, etc;

2. All aspects of religious behavior and practice that don’t have direct political contents and messages but do have direct political consequences, such as building of religious edifices, pilgrimages, etc.;

3. Attitudes and positions of political subjects in the narrow sense towards religion and religious communities, such as that of political parties and pressure groups towards religion and religious communities;

4. Everything within apparently completely secular public behavior with no religious motives that causes religious consequences, such as an economic monopoly achieved by a religious group within a multi-confessional society – it cannot but cause political consequences.

These fields of research are in constant development. Political Science of Religion is studied at almost all universities and political science departments in the US. American Political Science Association has a section “Religion and Politics”.

In Europe there is a growth of this discipline and in the Balkans and Eastern Europe it was founded for the first time in 1993 at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade, Serbia.http://www.fpn.bg.ac.yu/eng/pages/p_id1/o_p.html Also, but this time globally, it was in Belgrade, Serbia, that the first biannual "Politics and Religion" Journal,http://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com, (politikologijareligije@yahoo.com) was founded in 2007 and its first issue appeared in February ’07. It is published by the Center for Study of Religion and Religious Tolerance. Its spiritus movens and Editor in Chief is Dr. Miroljub Jevtic, professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia

REFERENCES

Miroljub Jevtic,Religion as Political Science Research Subject,in Religion and Politics,ed. South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Faculty of Law and History, Blagoevgrad , Bulgaria,2005,pp.45-46;

Miroljub Jevtic,Religija i politika-Uvod u Politikologiju religije(Religion and Politics-Introduction into Political Science of Religion) ed. Institut for Political Studies and Department of Political Science, Belgrad,2002,pp.15;

Miroljub Jevtic,Political Science and Religion,in Politics and Religion,book 1,Beograd,2007,pp.63-64;