Vanguards, Sacralisation of Politics, and Totalitarianism

Category-based Epistemology and Political Religion

Bibliographic Data

ID13039725
AuthorsPhillip W Gray (0000-0002-7220-4251, Texas A&M University at Qatar, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume15
Issue4
Pages521-540
Publication date2014-09-19
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics Religion & Ideology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2156-7697 • E-ISSN: 2156-7689
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21567689.2014.957686
OpenAlexW2164341387
LanguageEN
Citations received3

This article overviews the current debate on ‘political religion’ as it relates to totalitarian regimes. Beginning by contrasting Emilio Gentile's ‘sacralisation of politics' thesis with Richard Shorten's critiques of ‘political religion’ as a concept, this article discusses the specific role of vanguard party organisation in the ‘sacralising’ of political systems. Founded upon ‘category-based epistemology’ – where a special, ‘universal’ part of mass society has unique access to truth – and maintained by vanguard organisations populated by professional revolutionaries, totalitarian movements/regimes create practices and self-conceptualisation analogous to religion. This article also addresses the (dis)similarities between religion and political religion, providing some boundaries in which the ‘political religion’ concept is useful

Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vanguard · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Education and Schools

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