Religions and the Global Rise of Civilizational Populism

This chapter introduces the concept ‘civilizational populism’ and defines it as “a group of ideas that together considers that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people, and society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’ who collaborate with the dangerous others belonging to other civilizations that are hostile and present a clear and present danger to the civilization and way of life of the pure people”. It very briefly introduces civilizational populism across the world, and provides a summary of how it manifests in various societies and within a vast number of religious and political contexts. It then describes the research questions, methods, arguments, and the content of each of the book’s eight chapters.