Religion in an Expanding Europe

With political controversies raging over issues such as the wearing of headscarves in schools and the mention of Christianity in the European Constitution, religious issues are of growing importance in European politics. In this volume, Byrnes and Katzenstein analyze the effect that enlargement to countries with different and stronger religious traditions may have on the EU as a whole, and in particular on its homogeneity and assumed secular nature. Looking through the lens of the transnational religious communities of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Islam, they argue that religious factors are stumbling blocks rather than stepping stones toward the further integration of Europe. All three religious traditions are advancing notions of European identity and European union that differ substantially from how the European integration process is generally understood by political leaders and scholars. This volume makes an important addition to the fields of European politics, political sociology, and the sociology of religion.

Author Biography

Professor Byrnes is Professor of Political Science at Colgate University. He is the author of Transnational Catholicism in Postcommunist Europe (2001) and Catholic Bishops in American Politics (1991). He is the co-editor of Abortion Politics in American States (1995) and The Catholic Church and the Politics of Abortion: A View from the States (1992). Professor Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He has written widely on issues of political economy and security in both Europe and Asia. He is the author of many books including most recently A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium (2005) and Beyond Japan: East Asian Regionalism (co-edited with Takashi Shiraishi, forthcoming, 2006).