The success of fascist and communist regimes has long been explained by their ability to turn political ideology into a type of religion. These innovative essays explore the notion that all forms of modern mass-politics, including democracies, need a form of sacralization to function.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Politics and Religion; P.Dassen, J.Augusteijn & M.Janse PART I: DEFINITION Religion and Politics: In Search of Resemblances; H.Paul The Religious Side of Democracy. Early Socialism, 21st-century Populism and the Sacralization of Politics; H.te Velde PART II: RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY: A Dangerous Type of Politics? Politics and Religion in Early Mass Organizations: The Anglo-American World, c. 1830; M.Janse De-sanctifying Affairs of State: The Politics of Religion in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852); E.van de Bilt, PART III: SOCIALISM Visual Essay: Religious Aspects of Socialist Imagery, c.1890-2000; J.Groothuizen  D.Bos A Grassroots Sacred Socialist History. Dutch Social Democrats (1894-1920); A.van Veldhuizen PART IV: NATIONALISM Nationalism as a Political Religion: The Sacralization of the Irish Nation; J.Augusteijn The German Nation as a Secular Religion in the First World War? About the Problem of Unity in Modern German History; P.Dassen History or Civil Religion? The Uses of Lincoln's 'Last, Best Hope of Earth'; A.Fairclough PART V: RELIGION AND REVOLUTION Revolutionary Mystique: Religious Undertones in the Russian Revolution of 1917; H.Kern The Belief in Disbelief: Anticlericalism and the Sacralization of Politics in Spain (1900-39); E.Storm Concluding Remarks; J.Augusteijn, P.Dassen & M.Janse