Introduction: Essays in Honor of R. Scott Appleby

Abstract

This essay serves as an introduction to a special symposium of essays in The Review of Faith & International Affairs in honor of R. Scott Appleby, one of the pioneers and luminaries in the field of religion and international affairs. The essay also discusses the reasons why R. Scott Appleby received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Religion and International Relations Section of the International Studies Association (ISA).

Keywords:

• R. Scott Appleby
• religion
• international studies
• international relations

R. Scott Appleby is the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Last year he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Religion and International Relations Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), and this year marks the 20th anniversary of his highly influential book, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation (2000). Inspired by these events, this section of The Review of Faith & International Affairs presents a special symposium of essays in honor of Scott Appleby's contributions to the field. Contributors from multiple disciplines offer their reflections on Appleby's work and its ongoing relevance to theory and practice regarding the role of religion in international relations. They shed light on how Appleby has helped the field better understand what religion is as a concept (if it can fit into a concept), what its role is in international affairs (or can potentially become), and what this means for the practice of public affairs, diplomacy, and statecraft.

In selecting Appleby for its Distinguished Scholar Award, the ISA nominating committee of the Religion and International Relations Section highlighted five significant intersecting and mutually reinforcing areas that set apart his record and contributions to the study of international relations. These five areas are: (1) the development of key concepts in the study of religion and international relations, which existing scholars, and new scholars in this area, still grapple with, as noted by many of the contributors here—e.g. fundamentalism, the ambivalence of the sacred, contending modernities, sustainable peace, religious peacebuilding, religious engagement, and more; (2) the development of new and innovative research programs related to religion and international relations (e.g. major programs focused on fundamentalism, contending modernities, religious engagement, and inter-religious dialogue; (3) new and innovative institutions for embedding and operationalizing the study of religion and international relations (e.g. the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies); (4) new and innovative global networks (e.g. networks focused on strategic peacebuilding and Catholic peacebuilding); and (5) impact on foreign policy-making vis-à-vis religion (e.g. via major policy papers). Moreover, Appleby has had a keen sensitivity for the positive role of the media in trying to convey the complex interactions of religion, society, and international relations. This is why over the years he wisely invited selected journalists to be a part of some of the research projects and presentations.

Long before the study of religion became a more recognized area of the study in international relations, Appleby (working with Martin E. Marty) was a pioneer in the research on “religious fundamentalism” with The Fundamentalism Project (6 volumes). This international scholarly investigation brought together scholars from around the world to critically examine the concept of “religious fundamentalism,” and the impact of these types of religious movements throughout the world (1987–1995). It remains, after a quarter of century, a key reference in the field, even though he has reflected since then, and even continues to reflect and struggle with the use and abuse of this concept, and what it is trying to convey about religion, politics, and international relations.

The first wave of scholarship on what is often called the “religious turn” in the study of international relations had to overcome an entrenched pattern of neglect and marginalization of religion in the field (see the essay by Fabio Petito on the possible historical divisions of the study of religion in international relations). What had to be overcome was the conventional view in international relations, which often still exists, that religion was only “epiphenomenal,” only an ideological covering for what scholars really should be studying—politics, power, poverty, economics. Appleby helped a generation of scholars (reflected in some of the essays in this section) to begin to see why actually studying religion might be important, and what taking religion seriously might begin to mean in the study of international relations.

However, Appleby also contributed to the start of a second, more reflexive wave of scholarship on religion and international relations. He, among others, but in a quite decisive way with the publication of The Ambivalence of the Sacred, started to recognize that what was called the global resurgence of religion was based on a set of problematic assumptions which needed to be interrogated (also reflected in these essays by the diverse ways his impact and legacy has been used and interpreted by other scholars). At a time when the negative role of religion in international affairs was prominent, he showed that analysts had overlooked the positive political role that religion could play in modernization, democratization, development, and peace-building in many parts of the world. In the words of this pioneering book, Appleby showed “the ambivalence of the sacred”—religion could be part of the problem but also part of the solution.

Further, as part of a third wave of scholarship on religion and international relations, Appleby also pioneered a more practical policy-related set of considerations, which started to absorb aspects of this second, more reflexive, multifaceted understanding of the role of religion in international relations. In the first instance this quite understandably was related to U.S. foreign policy. The results of the more reflexive wave now situated religion in U.S. foreign policy in ways that could have at least the potential to promote better ecumenical relations (especially with American evangelicals, or at least some evangelical groups, given their important role in U.S. politics and culture). This is illustrated by the influential report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for US Foreign Policy, which Appleby co-authored with Richard Cizik, President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good (Appleby and Richard 2010).

Appleby can be credited for the early development of this concept of “religious engagement” in foreign policy, which was taken up by the U.S. Department of State, and more broadly now by the international diplomatic community. His concepts on the ambivalence of the sacred and religious engagement contributed to the creation of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. The coming to fruition of this set of concepts showed how much it was increasingly recognized that religion was a part of global affairs generally and not only an issue of religious freedom (as important as this is).¹

Moreover, Appleby has helped create a remarkable array of leading institutions within the University of Notre Dame that explore intersections of religion and world affairs. As the Regan Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies (2000–2014) Appleby developed the Institute into one of the world's leading centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace. It became an important source of research and advocacy for the emerging field of religious peacebuilding and the role of religious actors in conflict and conflict resolution. The financial enabling, of course, for this and other institutional initiatives came from several extraordinary bequests by Joan B. Kroc, the wife of the founder of McDonalds. It was also under Appleby's leadership that a “Strategic Peacebuilding Approach” and a Catholic Peacebuilding Network (CPN) were developed. He co-edited The Oxford Handbook on Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding (Appleby, Omer, and Little 2015), and he serves as the lead editor of the series “Studies in Strategic Peacebuilding,” published by Oxford University Press. Appleby's research, and his collaborations with an array of scholars, has set the intellectual basis and vision for the launching of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame (http://keough.nd.edu/). The School institutionalizes and develops a research program related to human dignity and integral human development, key concepts of modern Catholic social teaching.

Finally, Appleby was also instrumental in creating (along with Ebrahim Moosa and Atalia Omar) the important research project “Contending Modernities” (https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/), reaching back to the earlier concern for religion, modernity, modernization, and religious fundamentalism. It explores how secular and religious forces interact and can build bridges towards each other in the modern world. In this way the project helps to reinforce the role of religious ethics and inter-religious dialogue on global social problems. Most recently, the Keough School has launched the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion (https://ansari.nd.edu/), which seeks to further develop and institutionalize religious engagement, now more directly connecting it to foreign policy, and inter-religious dialogue on global social policy issues and global political issues facing all of us in the 21st century.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott M. Thomas

Scott M. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor of International Relations and the Politics of Developing Countries in the Department of Politics, Languages, and International Studies at the University of Bath. He is the author of The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations (Palgrave 2005) and many other articles. He is a senior academic advisor to the Religion and International Relations Section of the International Studies Association (ISA), and is a contributing editor at The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Notes

1 On August 7, 2013 Secretary of State John Kerry famously remarked that, “If I went back to college today, I think I would probably major in comparative religion—that's how integrated it is in everything that we are working on and deciding and thinking about in life today.” His comments went viral on the web pages of theology and religious studies departments around the country. See https://www.c-span.org/video/?314438-1/sec-state-kerry-launches-faith-based-community-initiative.