Political science of religion

Political Science of Religion, Politicology of Religion or Politology of Religion, can be defined as one of the youngest disciplines in the political sciences that deals with a study of influence that religion has on politics and vice versa with a focus on the relationship between the subjects (actors) in politics in the narrow sense: government, political parties, pressure groups, and religious communities. It was established in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Its basic research areas are:

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

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.;

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;

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 . Also, but this time globally, it was in Belgrade, Serbia, that the first biannual "Politics and Religion" Journal,, 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

(source:wikipedia)