Is There a Difference Between “Religion” and “Politics”?

Abstract

Scholars commonly compare and distinguish “religion” and “politics” in their analyses of certain social groups; they often do so in a way that presumes that such terms denote complicated yet still discrete realms that exist in varying degrees of interrelationship. Using the Christian Right as a case study, this essay proposes that we can draw from Bruce Lincoln and Oliver Freiberger’s insights regarding the methodological uses of comparison to reconsider how the terms “religion” and “politics” are deployed in our analyses. Rather than view these concepts as mirrors of some objective reality, scholars can create more robust critical perspectives if they treat these terms as insider products—that is, as flexible rhetorical categories modified by group insiders to achieve certain social effects.