Towards A New Christian Political Realism The Amsterdam School of Philosophy and the Role of Religion in International Relations

1. Introduction. Towards a New Paradigm on Religion and IR?

2. A Global Resurgence of Religion

3. Religion is Virtually Everywhere

4. The ‘Religion-Blindness’ of the Old Paradigm: The Dominance of the Westphalian System

5. The Dominance of Naturalism in the Genesis of the Old Paradigm

6. Religion in Morgenthau’s Classical Realism: ‘It is the Theology’

7. An Assessment of the Religion Scholars' Claim: Morgenthau's Classical Realism

8. Religion in Waltz’s Neorealism: ‘It is the Theory’

9. An Assessment of the Religionists’ Claim: Waltz’s Neo-Realism

10. Evaluation of the Debate between the Religionists and Political Realists and a New Christian Realism as Promising Perspective

Biography

Simon Polinder is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of History of International Relations at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He is associated with the project Reimagining Religion, Security and Social Transformation. His research is on religious leaders and their response to violent extremism in Kenya and Nigeria. He is the co-editor of the volume Christian Faith, Philosophy and International Relations: The Lamb and the Wolf (2019). His dissertation received an Honorable Mention for the Mark Juergensmeyer Best Dissertation Award 2023.

"Simon Polinder’s book is a significant illustration of the progress made in the analysis of religion and International  Relations over the last two decades. It does not simply state that religion matters but offers a theoretical framework to understand why and how it matters. It is a testimony of the promising advancement of the field of religion and politics."

Jocelyne Cesari, Professor of Religion and Politics, University of Birmingham, UK

"Religion has long been downplayed or ignored in theories of international relations. Simon Polinder addresses this issue, providing a critical reconstruction of the views of theorists that advocate for more attention to religion. Focusing on two of the 'giants' of IR theory, Hans Morgenthau and Kenneth Waltz, Polinder assesses their ideas in relation to religion, identifying theological inspiration from St Augustine and Reinhold Niebuhr. Polinder offers an alternative theoretical approach - 'new Christian political realism' - inspired by 'the Amsterdam School of Philosophy'. Polinder's book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in a strangely neglected topic: the role of religion in international relations."

Jeffrey Haynes, Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK

"Scholars, for quite some time, have engaged the philosophy of social science in the study of international relations, and in the role of religion in international relations. This book furthers the debates in these areas in significant ways through the use of the Amsterdam School of Philosophy. Since the Amsterdam School recognizes its own religious foundations, it argues for an open, pluralistic, dialogical, approach, which recognizes all people, secular or religious, scholars, activists, or policy-makers – have a variety of presuppositions, contexts, and interests, which constitute their ‘world-and-life views’ and commitments, which any theorising needs to consider. In this way the Amsterdam School offers a creative, valuable approach, relevant to examining the empirical world, and to engaging with religion as an aspect of reality, a way of linking theory, practice, and interreligious dialogue, given the rise of the global South, and the multi-religious, multicultural and multipolar world of the twenty-first century."

 Scott M. Thomas, Associate Professor of International Relations, University of Bath, UK

"It has been claimed in recent years that International Relations scholars and theories for a long time have neglected religion as a potential key factor in international relations. For that reason those practitioners working with IR theories were taken by surprise by the Iranian revolution that led to the ousting of the Shah in the 1970-ties, the role of the Catholic Church in the collapse of communism or autocratic regimes in the 1980-ties and 1990-ties, and of course the 9/11 attacks in 2001. A quarter of a century later Simon Polinder takes stock of this claim and partly acknowledges the correctness of it: religion has been neglected indeed. However, at the same time he rehabilitates the ‘old school’ of Realism. Niebuhr, Morgenthau and Waltz had good reasons – even theological reasons – to use a ‘realist’ lense in the analysis of the relations between states and not give attention to religion. Key insights of Realism are still worth preserving. While drawing on the christian-philosophical tradition of the so called ‘Amsterdam School’, Polinder therefore gives a new synthesis that combines and deepens the views of Realists and their ‘religion-critics’, sketching the worldview and philosophy of science contours of a new ‘Christian Realism’."

Govert J. Buijs, Professor of Political Philosophy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

"Since the 1990s, when Samuel Huntington published his famous and contested essay ‘Clash of civilizations’, discussions on the place of religion and culture in IR were back on stage. Subsequent events and developments only reinforced that trend. The rise of terrorism, extremism, fundamentalism and populism since then compounded the notion of primacy of the domestic in international relations. Simon Polinder’s book contributes to this ongoing reassessment of the role of religion in IR via three axes: he identifies instances of ‘ideological blindness’ for the role of religion in IR, debunks a series of arguments  pivoting around the modernization and secularization thesis that do address religion, but in a far too deterministic and lopsided way, and offers a way forward – interestingly – by looking back and brushing the dust off classic realism and neorealist theory. Why not revert back to Augustine, Niebuhr, Morgenthau and even Waltz by combining a scientific approach to IR theory with a more theological, philosophical discussion on world views and beliefs? There is still too much to gain from these classics if we – with Polinder - scrutinize them carefully and critically to discard them to the status of historical source material. Given the abundance of today’s arguments on religion, identity, culture clashes and the role of universalist paradigms (international law, human rights), Polinder’s study is a constructive, careful and solid contribution to the ‘turn to religion’ in IR."

Beatrice A. de Graaf, Distinguished Professor of International Relations and Governance, Utrecht University, Netherlands

 "I am so grateful for a book that not only capably introduces current debates in religion and international relations, but advances a genuinely new way of thinking about the problem: an "Amsterdam School" for Christian Realism. It is a School of enormous philosophical and social scientific substance, and Polinder makes a landmark case that it should, and must, sit alongside fraternal projects in the English School, and in America. Theoretically robust and practically persuasive, this is the beginning of an important new paradigm."

Robert Joustra, Professor of Politics & International Studies, Redeemer University, Canada

"This book brings together an almost dizzying array of literature in a single volume. Dr Polinder revisits foundational IR scholars and texts in conversation with more recent research on religion and raises pertinent questions regarding the place of religion in the history of the field. These questions matter for contemporary scholarship exploring how exactly analysis of religion fits with the various different branches of IR theory. This is a challenge that continues to confront IR scholars and one to which this volume makes an important contribution."

Erin K. Wilson, Chair of Politics and Religion, University of Groningen, Netherlands