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- Convenors:
-
Talvikki Ahonen
(University of Helsinki)
Tuomas Äystö (University of Helsinki)
Titus Hjelm (University of Helsinki)
Ilkka Koiranen (University of Helsinki)
Send message to Convenors
- Chairs:
-
Talvikki Ahonen
(University of Helsinki)
Titus Hjelm (University of Helsinki)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Alfa room
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 5 September, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
This panel welcomes submissions addressing various themes related to politics in contemporary Europe. The presentations can be empirical, theoretical, or methodological in nature.
Long Abstract:
Politics usually refers to parliamentary setting, where the primary legislative and budgetary power is wielded in a national or international context. More broadly, politics concern collective decisions and the negotiations of various interests. While Europe's politics are secularized, religion remains in many critical political debates from Islamic veils to abortion rights and from ecclesiastical law to immigration and management of religious diversity. Some voters still base their decisions partly on religious values or questions, and certain parties frequently utilize Christian symbols or ways of speaking.
This panel invites papers addressing themes related to politics in Europe. The core concepts (religion, politics, and Europe) are understood broadly, and we are happy to receive submissions from various perspectives. The presentations can be empirical, theoretical, or methodological in nature. Example topics include but are not limited to: religion and party politics, religion and political activism, methodological questions in the study of religions and politics, political influence of religious actors, and political governance of religious diversity.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 5 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I investigate the use-value (or lack thereof) of religious language in debates on abortion and transgender rights in the highly secularized context of Finnish politics in the 2020s. I discuss the far-right, religious language, and Christian identity-building in general.
Paper long abstract:
Abortion and transgender rights have recently been debated in several countries, such as the United States. Christian language often features, and far-right actors frequently participate. In Europe, many have noted that religious language, which refers to national Christian identity, has been used regularly by many far-right parties, including in highly secularized countries such as the Nordics. However, the far-right parties often have a difficult relationship with Christian actors, such as the churches. Also, they do not necessarily emphasize Christianity content-wise as, for example, the Christian democratic parties do. This begs the question: what is the use-value of religious language for the far-right and others when other Christian interests – beliefs and values – are at play in addition to or beside the ones related to the national identity? I investigate the Finnish debates on abortion and transgender rights in the 2020s from this perspective. While explicitly Christian politicians might use Christian language in social media and other venues, parliamentary uses are infrequent. In other words, even religious interests are primarily argued for using secular discourses. Furthermore, religion appears to be a troublesome political resource for the conservative side in parliamentary politics, as some MPs and their constituencies are simply less religious than others. Its main use-value in coalition building and politics, in general, appears to revolve around nationalistic identity claims. However, topics such as abortion or transgender rights offer very little space to present them.
Paper short abstract:
The recent appearance of the far-right CHEGA party, the appeal to religious and political populism has assumed a central position in the rhetoric used and as a way to appeal to voters. This has led to resurgence of right-wing catholic populism in Portugal.
Paper long abstract:
In the last few years, the growth of the far-right, no only in Portugal but worldwide, has had an openly religious expression. The most famous cases of this type of expression are present in the US, with Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but also in Brazil in the case of Jair Bolsonaro and his allies, both relating to Christian evangelical and pentecostal religious expressions.
In Portugal, since 1974, when it left fascism behind and became a democracy, this type of religious discourse is not common even among parties which assume their religious position openly, as is the case of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDS).
However, with the recent appearance of the far-right CHEGA party and its leader André Ventura, this appeal to religious and political populism has assumed a central position in the rhetoric used and as a way to appeal to its followers. Initially attempting to appeal both to Catholic and Evangelical voters, it has since recentred on right-wing catholic populism.
In this paper I seek to chart the history of the political antecedents which might help to explain this tactical move as well as analyse the way in which André Ventura uses catholic religious expressions as a way to self-promote, which is is target audience and which political parallels can be found with other European politicians in the same political quadrant.
Paper short abstract:
My paper will be an attempt at representing the literary vision of the interreligious and social transgression of Frank’s heresy in Olga Tokarczuk’s “The Books of Jacob”. Therefore I will try to analyse her book as projection of an alternative model of the Polish community, memory and identity .
Paper long abstract:
Scooping the Nike reward for “The Books of Jacob”, at the time of the migration crisis in 2015 Tokarczuk said that her awarded book is “a metaphor of what was happening at the gates of Europe”. And Poles as a nation, who believed that it was fighting “for your freedom and ours”, didn’t pass the exam. According to Tokarczuk, “The Books of Jacob” reminds us how difficult it is to assimilate, what costs are borne by the newcomers to get through. But it also says that ethnically pure societies do not exist.
Alfred Whitehead said that religion is the deepest sort of loyalty to the world. For Tokarczuk it is also the deepest sort of contestation. Each heresy represents an idea of change to the world. Deconstruction of an existing faith leads immediately to the new ideas for life and society. It leads to a contest of the old concepts and their replacement with the new ones. The appearance of the heresy is always revolutionary and terrifying.
According to Tokarczuk a change of the perception of the religious order is at the same time a challenge against all human order. The heresy undermines the obviousness of current law and leads to a rebellion. Jacob Frank started his mission in Smyrna from a discussion about the dark side of God. The thought of God’s imperfection or absence or disinterest in the Creation changes the view of the world and of the other people. It also changes the accountability for disciples’ actions. For Tokarczuk it is the most fascinating factor in the story of Jacob Frank. The mystic experience – the descent of the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha-Kodesh) on the group of people in a religious trans becomes the foundation of a great rebellion with its transgressive structures and institutions.
Paper short abstract:
Black metal, the most extreme subgenres of metal, have been a part of Turkish underground culture since the early 1990’s. Despite this, it was not until the mid 2000’s that references to Islam started to emerge within the Turkish black metal scene cultural production. This paper will explore why.
Paper long abstract:
Black metal, one of the most extreme subgenres of metal, have been a part of Turkish underground culture since the early 1990’s. Since the genre’s inception in Europe during the 1980’s and particularly the 1990’s in Norway, it’s esthetical and lyrical focus have revolved around blasphemy, satanism, violence, and a critical stance towards Abrahamitic faiths. Despite this, it was not until the mid 2000’s that references to Islam started to emerge within the Turkish black metal scene cultural production.
Based on years of fieldwork in the Turkish black metal scene, this paper aims to answer questions such as; which references to Islam are utilized by the Turkish black metal scene, how are these composed in lyrics, artworks, or audio? It further aims to shed light on why these references to Islam have only just started to occur in the scene by paying particular attention to the national context of Turkey. Since 2002 the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been in power and although their early years in government was marked by increased liberalization and democratization, they have become increasingly autocratic during the last decade. Their politics, marked by a program of pious conservatism, have resulted in religion, and particularly Islam, taking a bigger part in the social and political climate. This paper will investigate this change through the lens of the Turkish black metal subculture. In doing so, the paper also aims to broader our understandings of religious identity in Turkey as well as to complicate our understandings of how people in Muslim majority societies relate to Islam.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses how devils and other demonic entities were portrayed in various European folklore and culture in the modern times.
Paper long abstract:
The devil, the spirit of plague and various other demonic entities have been an object of European folklore and both high and low culture for a very long time (for example, in Lithuanian folklore, the devil was often portrayed as a "German", while the spirit of plagues was imagined as a strange Jewish person). In this paper, the author analyses the ways the images of the demonic and the foreign intersect and affect each other, paradoxically humanizing the otherworldly powers of evil and demonizing foreign (both neighbors and not) at the same time.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses how the Finnish church-state relations are manifested, maintained, and constructed in MPs’ speeches in plenary debates in the Finnish parliament, and how ideals of institutionalized religion are or are not translated into judicial norms.
Paper long abstract:
The relation of church(es) and state is often approached from the perspective of legislative articulations, whereas the construction of that relation in political speech appears as a lacuna in academic research. This paper examines how the Finnish church-state relations are manifested, maintained, and constructed in MPs’ speeches in plenary debates in the Finnish parliament. The data contain party programmes, legislative initiatives, and plenary session debates, which are contrasted with results from Religious and Social Attitudes survey (RSA, N=1579).
According to previous research Finnish population widely supports the idea of further separation of church(es) and state; however, this way of thinking has not pervaded Finnish political parties or parliamentary processes. Our starting point is to scrutinize this incongruity in Finnish societal thinking and (mis)representation of the people in parliamentary politics, i.e., how ideas and ideals of institutionalized religion are or are not translated into judicial norms.
Our analysis suggests that historical conventions of parliamentary discourses on churches and their societal positions maintain the status quo. Political arguments of the Finnish MPs are on the whole church-state relations affirming, with very few exceptions. Churches’ vast intertwinement in the Finnish society as a provider of public services seems to further reinforce their legislative status and autonomy within the state. This paper is a part of University of Helsinki’s The Religious Legitimation of Politics and the Political Legitimation of Religion in Finland (LegitRel) project (2020–2024).