Transnationality in Religious-Secular Conflicts

Dear Colleagues,

We herewith invite you to respond to our call for papers on the topic of “Transnationality in secular–religious conflicts” and to contribute a research article to our Special Issue in the open access journal Religions.

Focus and scope

The relationship between politics and religion is characterized by recurrent conflicts, often violent and irrepressible. On the one hand, these phenomena can be interpreted as the religionization of political conflicts that takes place under the sacred canopy of the same religion (from Buddhism to Islam, from Christianity to Hinduism) or between movements of different religious backgrounds (for instance, the reconfiguration of various nationalist movements because of religious identity). On the other hand, we can also observe a politicization of religious conflicts, whereby political actors or regimes take over the stakes and repertoires of religious and secular–religious contention. In both cases, however, the collective movements that are the protagonists of religious conflicts often transcend not only the obsolete West and non-West dichotomy, but also the perimeter of their respective national borders, configuring themselves as transnational actors (as in the case of Theravada Buddhism from Sri Lanka to Myanmar). In addition, they sometimes even transcend the boundaries of their own confessions and start to interact with politically likeminded partners from other religious denominations (for example, the convergence on the resistance to the theme of gender by the cross-denominational Christian Right that unites Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox).

The purpose of this Special Issue, therefore, is precisely the analysis of the processes of trans-nationalization and the cross-confessional mobilization of religious actors. We are eager to collect research that analyses dynamics such as claims-making of the ethnic and national superiority of a majority religion, attempts to directly or indirectly influence secular politics, or the contestation of secular states which, despite having programmatically separated the political sphere from the religious one, have adopted a model of positive secularism towards religions (as in the case of India imagined by Gandhi). Criticism focuses on non-confessional states in which the coexistence of different religions is considered an added value for the success of democratic coexistence.

With respect to the vast literature on religion in the post-secular era (Taylor) and on the impact of the globalization of religions (Robertson), this Special Issue aims to deepen the theme of the transnational dimension of religious and secular–religious conflicts in the contemporary world. We are particularly interested in case studies that provide evidence for the trans-nationalization of religious conflicts in different parts of the world and in analyses that probe into the timelines, mechanisms and aims of such transnational connections. We also invite articles that assess (or challenge) the novelty of the phenomenon from a historical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary perspective.

Prior to submitting a manuscript, please send the Guest Editors a proposed title and an abstract (400-600 words summarizing the topic). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors in accordance with the scope of the Special Issue. Both empirical case studies and theoretical analyses are welcomed.

Full manuscripts (6,000-7,000 words) will undergo double-blind review.

Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Pace
Prof. Dr. Kristina Stoeckl
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religious–secular conflicts
• politics
• transnationality
• ethno-religious movements
• cross-confessional relations
• mobilization
• norm entrepreneurship
• culture wars