Sep 25, 2025 05:15 PM EDT - Zoom

Political Theologies of the Nation: Religion, Citizenship, and the Making of Modern Statecraft

by Harvard Divinity School Religion and Public Life

What role does religion really play in modern politics? Using a comparative approach, Prof. Jocelyne Cesari will show how the integration of religion into the nation-building process has produced distinct models of citizenship, legal authority, and collective identity—models that continue to influence both domestic politics and international norms. The lecture will discuss how national identity, law, and citizenship have been built with or against deep religious foundations, even in supposedly secular societies.

Jocelyne Cesari, University of Birmingham (UK)

Jocelyne Cesari is Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham (UK) and Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. From 2018 to 2024, she served as the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School.

A leading scholar on the intersection of religion and politics globally, her work has been widely recognized with numerous honors, including:

· The 2025 Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Outstanding Scholar Award, American Political Science Association

· The 2020 Distinguished Scholar Award, Religion Section, International Studies Association

· Election as President of the European Academy of Religion (2019)

· Fellowships from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and the Royal Society of Arts (UK)

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