The will to religion: Obligatory religious citizenship

Abstract

This article takes up the problematic of the 'new normal' and its necessary twin, the 'will to religion'. The notion of the 'new normal' describes the shift to the persistent presence, indeed requirement, for religious assessment in all manner of public and institutional life. The idea of the will to religion reflects a broadly Foucauldian perspective on the care of the self and the requirement to confess-in this instance to confess one's belonging to a religious category. The article calls for a robust attention to the discursive construction of a normal in which we are all religious, and to which values are constituted as 'universal' or that we owe our moral and intellectual condition to religion. The article points to four consequences of this shift to a 'new normal' in which we are all religious, including the essentialization of religious identities, the overemphasis on religion, the infiltration of particular measures of religiosity, and the spread of religious freedom protectionism.

Conceptualizing lived religious citizenship: a case-study of Christian and Muslim women in Norway and the United Kingdom

“…Despite an increasing use of the term 'religious citizenship' by academics (e.g., Beaman 2013;Permoser and Rosenberger 2009;Ryder 2008;Levitt 2004;Yip 2003), there are few attempts at offering precise definitions of what it means. A recent instance is that of Beaman (2013), who discusses 'obligatory religious citizenship'.…”

“…A recent instance is that of Beaman (2013), who discusses 'obligatory religious citizenship'. While Beaman suggests that a 'responsibilized citizen' is increasingly being framed as a religious citizen (ibid., 145), she does not offer a definition of the term.…”

“…The role of religion in the public sphere is, however, intensely debated (Casanova 1994;Weithman 2002;Habermas 2006;Dillon 2010;Turner 2012;Beaman 2013). While religion continues to play a significant role in many people's everyday life, meaning constructions and personal identities (McGuire 2008), potential conflicts and contradictions between religious freedom, religious accommodation and human rights are being debated (Rosenblum 2000;Spinner-Halev 2000;Loenen and Goldsmith 2007), as well as conflicts between religious freedom and gender equality (Okin 1999;Sunstein 1999;Skjeie 2006).…”

Religion, Gender and Citizenship

“…Despite an increasing use of the term 'religious citizenship' by academics (e.g., Yip 2003;Levitt 2004;Ryder 2008;Permoser and Rosenberger 2009;Beaman 2013), there are few attempts at offering precise definitions of what it means. 7 A recent instance is that of Beaman (2013), who discusses 'obligatory religious citizenship'.…”

Spirituality, the opiate of scholars of religion?

“…Referring to Beck and Giddens, Skeggs (2004, 53) also argues that their sociology may 'be viewed as part of a symbolic struggle for the authorization of their experience and perspectives': perhaps students of religion would benefit from pondering the socio-political implications of these claims, including what it is that they authenticate. (Beaman 2013 for instance provides us with an illuminating and compelling critique of the practical and regulative consequences resulting from academics' ideological overestimation of religion's significance and universality. )…”