MACMILLAN The Pope, the Public, and International Relations: Postsecular Transformations (Culture and Religion in International Relations)

This edited volume engages a long-standing religious power, the Holy See, to discuss the impact of the structural and postsecular transformations of international relations through the emergence of a global and digital public sphere. Despite the legal construction that enables the separation of the Holy See as a distinct legal entity, it is also an instrument for the papacy to represent externally and regulate internally the global and transnational Catholic Church. The Holy See is also the tool that enables the papacy to address a transnational or a global public beyond Catholic adherence – most prominently through journeys that are often at the same time state visits and pastoral journeys. Instead of understanding these hybrid roles as an irregular exemption, the contributions of the book argue that the Holy See should be seen as a certainly special but nevertheless quite normal actor of international and public diplomacy. Review "The Papacy" and "modernity" are two terms that rarely intersect in international relations, but it will be impossible to ignore the former's impact on the latter -- and vice versa -- after reading this fascinating book. Through multiple forms of intertextual analysis, from a stroll through Paris to the Pope's Twitter feed to examinations of individual Popes and the Papacy's impact in radically different parts of the world, this book reconfigures our conceptions of time and space to foreground the dynamic nature of Papal politics in contemporary world politics." – Cecilia M. Lynch, Professor, University of California, Irvine, USA  "This is not the first IR work paying attention to the Holy See. None, however, matches this volume, edited by one of the most promising IR scholars of his generation, Marian Barbato. The volume is multidisciplinary, not “monochrome,” but very colorful with contributors from many countries with the background not just in IR or political science but, in the humanities, including among other a philosopher, an art historian, scholar of religion, literary scholar. Barbato begins by taking you for a walk through Paris, the city that rose during the long–and for modern international relations pivotal–19th century to the capital of secular nationalism showing the undeniable and enduring entanglements of the public, religion, and world affairs. The multidisciplinary tesserae the contributors put together into a mosaic is an alternative to the foundational IR narrative excluding or playing down religion. You are invited to re-think Western history; you are led to consider new perspectives on the global transformation. The Holy See is a “hybrid actor” on the world scene, merging religious and political but also international and transnational elements. In the uncertain fluid 21st century, with the use of media technology, there may be others." – Prof. Vendulka Kubalkova, University of Miami, Florida, USA "Mariano Barbato‘s edited volume is a valuable contribution to the growing literature on religion and IR. The focus on the papacy shows the limits of the established scholarship that has usually considered  politically irrelevant religious actors and organizations . By extensively analyzing the actions of the papacy and the Holy See  from the  use of social media, to the engagement with international organizations, geopolitical spaces and global transformations, this volume sheds a new light on the continuous relevance of religion throughout different phases of the international system.  It is a must read for students and scholars of International Relations." – Jocelyne Cesari, Professor of Religion and Politics, University of Birmingham and Georgetown University, Author of What is Political Islam? (2018) From the Back Cover "The Papacy" and "modernity" are two terms that rarely intersect in international relations, but it will be impossible to ignore the former's impact on the latter -- and vice versa -- after reading this fascinat