MODERN PAPAL DIPLOMACY AND SOCIAL TEACHING IN WORLD AFFAIRS

This comprehensive collection offers a concise introduction to the institutional framework of the Holy See, conceptualizing papal agency and positions from a range of international theory perspectives. The authors – international scholars from political science, history, and religious studies – explore multiple fields of papal and Vatican influence, ranging from spy networks and inter-religious dialogue to social doctrine and religious freedom.

This book demonstrates that, contrary to secularization theory, the papacy is not in decline in world politics. Since World War II, the Holy See has played a steadily increasing role in international relations. Globalization supports the role of the Catholic Church as a transnational actor not only in the advanced industrial societies of the West but also increasingly across the Global South. In this volume, the authors document the legacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI as well as the current pontificate of Pope Francis from a range of contemporary perspectives.

This book comprises research articles and commentary essays on the papacy in world politics originally published in The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Mariano P. Barbato is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Passau and Heisenberg, Germany. Currently he is the Principal Investigator of the research project ‘Legions of the Pope. A case study in social and political transformation’, funded by the German Research Foundation. He has published widely on religion and politics.

Robert J. Joustra is Director of the Centre for Christian Scholarship and Associate Professor of Politics & International Studies at Redeemer University College, Canada. He is an editorial fellow with The Review of Faith & International Affairs and author and editor of several books, including most recently The Religious Problem with Religious Freedom: Why Foreign Policy Needs Political Theology (2017).

Dennis R. Hoover is Editor of The Review of Faith & International Affairs and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, USA. He is editor of Religion and American Exceptionalism (2014), co-editor with Chris Seiple and Pauletta Otis of The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security (2013), and co-editor with Douglas Johnston of Religion and Foreign Affairs: Essential Readings (2012).