Religion and the Struggle for European Union

This is a rich volume, full of copious references to what is now a wide and complex body of literature(s) drawn from inter alia church history, comparative European history, political sociology, and political science. Its synoptic coverage provides a valuable way into these literatures, which are rarely sufficiently juxtaposed by the practitioners of any one of the disciplines or sub-disciplines that have spawned them – and, as so often, it is from the cross-over margins of the different disciplines that inter- or cross-disciplinary scholars, like the volume’s authors, have been able to develop a challenging perspective. In this particular case, the focus is on the inspiration and origins of European integration and the challenges that its political project has experienced over the last seventy-odd years. Published in 2015, the volume’s timeliness can hardly be faulted, although its authors were unable to take account of the 2016 populist surge and Europe’s Brexit crisis; these most recent occurrences have in large measure confirmed the book’s overall argument and suggest that a second edition is likely to be occasioned before long.

Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Brexit · Confessional · Discipline · Economic history · European union · Perspective (graphical) · Political science · Politics · Sectarianism · Social science · Sociology · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions