In this collection of essays, editor John Wolffe introduces a new breadth to his many studies of religion and its role in society, particularly the relationship between faith and national identity. Reaching beyond historical Catholic/Protestant conflicts, this volume explores how these Christian experiences compare to contemporary Christian/Muslim relations, and considers whether analysis of the past can provide lessons for dealing with current religious friction. The continuing influence of religion in social and political life calls into question the nature and impact of secularisation, suggesting that a more complex process is at work than that reflected in popular and political discourse.
The book is divided into three sections, moving out from the mainstream religious divisions of Irish society to contextualise them from a European perspective and finally to explore the similarities and continuities between their sectarian expression and the Islamophobia which has come to dominate today’s headlines.
The opening chapters focus on how attitudes to religion relate to formulations of national identity. Nicola Morris and David Tombs’s historical approach traces the shift from the Protestant churches’ apparently ‘robust’ (though actually incomplete) support for the Ulster Covenant in 1912 to their more ambivalent response a century later, when what authority remained was focused on managing the outbreaks of sectarianism carried out in their name. Jennifer Todd’s comparison of religious identity in the two political jurisdictions of Ireland demonstrates ‘profound differences’ in how the interrelationship between national, state and religious identity are continued, negotiated and adapted. Although institutional religious allegiance may be in decline, these studies confirm that local social and political dynamics, underpinned by historical narratives, encourage ‘individuals to use religious concepts and repertoires to inform other interests and to understand other divisions’ (pp 55–6). In chapter three Gladys Ganiel suggests a key reconcilatory role for Christian activists unconstrained by the limited power of bureaucratic religious institution. While the work carried out by Corrymeela and the Irish School of Ecumenics is encouraging, I find it difficult to see how such moral authority could be effectively disseminated. Francis Stewart’s example of the spontaneous, unofficial approach to peacebuilding provided by Punk Rock is refreshing and interesting, though again difficult to envisage on a wider cross-generational, as opposed to cross-cultural, scale.
Building on the analyses of Irish religio-political interactions provided by the first two chapters, the second section examines ‘how cleavages of nationalism and religion reinforced each other’ (p. 99) in different parts of Europe. Brian Walker sets the scene with a critique of academia’s ‘restrictive intellectual assumptions about the role of religion in politics’ (p. 94), a view reflected in Stewart Brown’s examination of the religious sanction given to communal violence in Scotland. Shane Nagle’s study of the central role of religion in the construction of national history in post-Reformation Germany again demonstrates its potency as a ‘mechanism for “othering”’, whether within or outside the boundaries of the nation (p. 142). Joseph Ruane compares the experiences of Protestant minorities in the Gard Department of France and County Cork in Ireland to further explore the role of ethnicity and colonialism in determining attitudes and experience. While demonstrating the persistent influence of religion on political choices, this section also highlights the complex and sensitive approach necessary in disentangling the interacting social and cultural factors embroiled in national narratives.
The final chapters, complementing the structure of earlier sections, applies these comparative, historical and sociological methodologies to the impact of Islam. Humanayun Ansari’s discussion of the failures of cultural assimilation, past and present, sets the scene, arguing the need for a ‘continued process of mutual engagement’ between religious groupings to counter the hostility and oversimplification of post-9/11 rhetoric. While Philip Lewis continues this theme, pointing to how ‘issues of industrialization, poverty and racism became conflated with fears of Islam, Muslims and the so-called “War on Terror”’ (p. 193), his analyses of recent bridge-building projects provide tentative but potentially positive glimpses of ways forward. The ‘culturally destabilizing’ effect of secularization in Britain and the Netherlands is the focus for David Herbert, and with Katy Scrogin providing a comparative analysis of historic anti-Catholicism and contemporary Islamophobia in America, it is clear that, despite commonalities and continuities, for those engaging in such comparative research there is ‘no substitute for good, local, contextualized knowledge’ (p. 205).
The volume is introduced and concluded by Professor Wolffe, the opening chapter providing an over-arching historical and theoretical context – a rationale for the study that certainly makes a timely contribution to the debates generated by recent events and the responses to them. The conclusion largely focuses on the search for more positive relations between those of different faiths, with academics themselves given a central role. For example, Wolffe urges historians ‘to balance fascination with conflict to give greater attention to conflict resolution and peace building’ (p. 249), a task which, while no doubt worthy, would require a significant shift in academic mindsets. He argues that, as the chapters in this volume demonstrate, historians and sociologists alike could work towards a more contextualized understanding of religious history, greater religious literacy, mutual engagement between those of different faiths and a more sophisticated approach to diverse migrant compositions. Moreover, as he suggests, to render such work more accessible to wider constituencies would be an important step forward. By exploring the rich cultural heritages of a range of nation states, this attractive and accessible volume confirms the role of religion, past and present, as significant but complex, with shifting narratives and a wide range of socio-political contexts ensuring that their disentanglement will continue to occupy the minds of those seeking a more harmonious future.
