The global religious politics and religious governance: A theoretical perspective from sociology of religion

Since the 1970s, contrary to the promise of secularization, religion does not decline or get privatized, but takes the trend of global resurgence and politicization. Narrowly speaking, "the global religious politics" is mainly about the change from fundamentalism to terrorism. This can be explored in three dimensions: (1) Religious Movements and Identity Politics: The global religious politics is firstly based on the function of religion as identity and meaning structure. (2) Religious Conflicts and Power Politics: At the heart of global religious politics is the interaction between religion and power. (3) Religious Terror and Violence Politics: Now, terrorism may be the most influential part of global religious politics. As a whole, these three dimensions represent the general dynamics of global religious politics. Islamism is the most typical case of global religious politics. Evangelicalism represents an alternative way of global religious politics. September 11, 2001 is the highlight of global religious politics. "The global religious governance" is a way to prevent or avoid the negative effects of global religious politics.