Coping with Defeat: Islam, Catholicism and the Modern State

Lecture by Jonathan Laurence. The Islamic and Catholic political-religious empires have had a strikingly similar relationship with the modern state. Sunni and Catholic authorities experienced three major shocks and displacements—religious reformation, the rise of the nation-state, and mass migration — which shaped how each religion would come to experience the state’s political jurisdiction. Whereas early Christianity and Islam were characterized by missionary expansion, religious institutions forged in the modern era are primarily defensive in nature. They respond to the simple but overlooked imperative to adapt to political defeat while fighting off ideological challenges to their spiritual authority. This talk will discuss the historical path towards choosing transnational spiritual leadership over temporal political authority.