ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the issue of Euroscepticism as well as to the question of how religion and politics interact. It focuses on the importance of Euroscepticism as a growing phenomenon, which has moved from the margins of European politics into the mainstream. The chapter outlines the main definitions and explains why the study of these phenomena is necessary to enhance our knowledge of key political processes in Europe. It discusses that Euroscepticism is not marginal or temporary, but that it has developed into a permanent feature of the European political mainstream. The chapter also discusses the subject of secularisation and religion in the modern world and briefly introduces the key issue of relations between religion and European integration. It examines the scene for the following analysis of political Catholicism and Euroscepticism. Christian democracy, which until the 1960s dominated much of the West European political scene, became the best known embodiment of the political Catholic movement.
