So much has been written about the relationship between
politics and faith in the USA
François
Foret’s Religion and
Politics in the European Union: The Secular Canopy is built on
groundbreaking research exploring the subtle and complex relationship between
these two phenomena amongst Europe ’s elites. Foret’s
detailed questionnaires and interviews with MEPs, (the “RelEP” survey) is the
largest and most comprehensive appraisal of the role of faith/unbelief in the
EP; and Foret maps his findings onto the history of the EU, its documents,
controversies, external relations, and breaks them down for analysis both by nation
and party-grouping.
Foret’s conclusions are detailed and highly nuanced, yet across
the areas he addresses (Historical development, Political culture, Elite
Recruitment, Elections, Access to the Public Square, Policy, and External
Relations), several common themes occur. Most prominent amongst these are that
in the context of ongoing secularization, religion persists as a second-order
factor, capable of influencing certain debates, but not defining and driving
agendas, framing issues or establishing political cleavages.[2]
The EP has no direct competence over religious affairs, which like religious
identities remain deeply embedded within nation-states, while religious matters
come to the fore in the EP only rarely, notably in ethical debates.[3]
Foret’s analysis of political socialization in the EP is especially striking
however. In his estimation, many MEPs, from Ulster Protestants to Polish
Catholics, function effectively within the EP and maintain their personal
faith. Perhaps surprisingly, MEPs were reportedly ‘as religious’ as average
Europeans, suggesting that faith is neither an obstacle to election nor a
pre-requisite for it.[4]
What MEPs are able to do with their beliefs is more interesting still, as there
is an inherent tension between their faith and their role as functionaries,
within an avowedly secular system and culture:
They can either accept the banalization and resorption of their
religion into mainstream culture, in the hope of preserving it as part of the
common stock of imaginary resources; or they can assume that religious actors
and believers are now a minority and claim respect as such, possibly by going
to court on occasion, at the risk of reducing their audience to those who share
the same beliefs.[5]
This means that while at an ideological level debates rage
about referencing the heritage of so-called “Christian Europe” in the EU
constitution; in practice it is secular liberalism which defines the rules by
which the game is played. Thus: even in directly religious issues such as
religious liberty, actors motivated by religious concerns find it “easier to
mobilise in defence of human rights using the language of expertise than to
proselytise using arguments rooted in values.” [6]
According to Foret, religion is therefore present across
European Politics, but exists below the surface, as religious specifics are
inimical to the transnational, cross-party, trans-denominational coalition
building, on which all achievement in the EP must inevitably depend. As such it
acts as a “resilient social constituency”, an “active mnesic trace and set of
values”[7],
because although Europe is secularising, major
religious actors such as The Vatican have gained noted expertise in access and
representation, which does not seem to be diminishing in line with the progress
of secularization. Politicians can therefore use religious identities to consolidate
support or opposition to political measures, to “scandalise” issues with the
media, and to communicate with specific constituencies. The language of faith
is no longer “an authoritative source”, and “European politics influences
religious civil society more than religious civil society influences European
politics”[8];
but religion remains a live issue with which Europe
must reckon.
It seems clear from Foret’s work that much of Europe would prefer religious issues to remain dormant,
welcoming the benefits of cultural-Christianity without having to openly
acknowledge their source. Religious identity issues uncomfortably press
themselves onto Europe’s agenda through issues such as Turkey’s proposed
membership, and the various Islamic cartoon crises culminating in the Charlie Hebdo killings however. Europe then faces a historically unique challenge as it
seeks to construct a multi-cultural polity without reference to God: its
“secular exceptionalism.”[9]
“What does it mean to be a European?” seems to be an unanswered question, one
which challenges the viability of progress towards integration.
Foret’s book is an important, and defining contribution to
an often-neglected field, which promises to be a benchmark study with which all
future research will have to reckon. It is meticulously constructed and its’
arguments detailed. If it suffers from any weaknesses they are two-fold. A minor
complaint is that sometimes the elegance and profundity of his analysis is
cloaked in a complexity of language which will make it inaccessible to all but
the most diligent scholars. A more substantial concern is that the foundational
study of the book, the RelEP, only managed detailed interactions with 161 MEPs
of the 751 in the EP, so all the statistics and conclusions they lead to must
be treated with caution, as the sample was self-selecting. Nevertheless, in
opening a new chapter in what must be an ongoing research project, it sets a
very high standard.
[1] François
Foret, Observatoire des Religions et de la La Laïcité. http://www.o-re-la.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1116%3Amapping-religion-at-the-european-parliament-some-findings&Itemid=85&lang=fr
[2] Foret,
François Religion and Politics in the European Union: The Secular Canopy (Cambridge
[3] Ibid., p185
[4] Ibid., p60
[5] Ibid., p11
[6] Ibid., pp198-201, 119, 123, 135
[7] Ibid., p280
[8] Ibid., p133, 201
[9] Ibid., p285
ISBN: 9781107082717
Hardback £60
Kindle Edition £57
This review first appeared in Solas Magazine, formerly published by www.solas-cpc.org. Reproduced with permission.
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