Religion and Nationalism: Competing Global Cosmologies?

Nationalism is conventionally understood to be a modern political ideology. It is seen as a secular phenomenon associated with the replacement of theocratic rule with the sovereign state. For many social theorists, nationalism replaced religion; it became the "civil religion" of the nation.
However, in recent years, the rise of religious nationalism, not only in the Global South and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) but also in the West itself, has questioned the secular narrative of the nation. Populist leaders have explicitly drawn on religion and religious symbols in order to mobilize popular support for their nationalist agendas within democratic and authoritarian political systems. Nations are increasingly imagined not only as political but as "sacred" communities making the distinction between "religion" and "nationalism" problematic. However, the transnational appeal of global religions challenges the limited territorial basis of the nation-state. Given the importance of the sacred to both religion and nationalism, this panel will pose the question of whether both may be seen as competing, and/or complementary, political cosmologies rather than ideologies? Papers examining the relationship between religion and nationalism from a cosmological perspective using empirical case studies from a global perspective are particularly welcome. The panel papers may form the basis for (an) edited volume(s) for a potential IPSA Book Series on Politics and Religion.