ABSTRACT
The epilogue brings together the insights provided by the chapters in the volume on the role that religion plays in rebellions, revolutions, and social movements. The first part of the epilogue identifies the various ways in which religion is useful to political actors. It then considers the insights of cultural theorists (Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci, Christian Smith, William Sewell, Ann Swidler, and E. P. Thompson) whose work facilitates an understanding of how religion is transformed from a taken-for-granted and order-maintaining cultural model into an order-transforming one. The second part of the epilogue takes up each of the cases covered in the volume. It first discusses rebellions, then revolutions, and finally social movements. The chapters on rebellion reveal religion’s central role in governing relationships while the chapters on revolutions show how religion has played a central role in each of them—in particular, in France, Russia, Iran, and Zimbabwe. Finally, the chapters on social movements reveal religion’s potential as a mobilizational, if not discursive, force for both progressive and regressive politics. The epilogue ends with a discussion of how violence plays a key role in rebellions and revolutions and addresses the potential of nonviolent social movements.
