2026/01/28 by Lucienne Engelhardt · 2 voices · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Christianity #Cohesion (chemistry) #Element (criminal law) #Invocation #Islam #Migration, Refugees, and Integration #Narrative #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Religion and Society Interactions #Rhetoric #Rhetorical question
paper · doi:10.1177/13540688261421091
published in Party Politics (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2026/01/28 · openalex created_date 2026/01/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Far-right communication often portrays a division between ‘the people’ and perceived antagonists, potentially fuelling intergroup tensions. A pivotal element is the politicisation of religion: in Christian-shaped regions, far-right parties invoke Christianity as part of Western identity – despite their weak religious ties and growing secularisation. This paradox raises questions about religion’s function in far-right discourse. I argue that far-right parties systematically use a conservative reading of Christianity as a demarcation tool – marking not only Islam but also cultural liberalism as incompatible with a Christian-framed ingroup. Using parliamentary data from Europe, I conduct automated text classification to identify religious markers and their co-occurrence with inclusionary–exclusionary rhetoric across countries and over time. Results reveal group-specific framing, distinct patterns of religious invocation compared to other parties, and links of these patterns to events. This study demonstrates how Christian narratives serve as rhetorical resources for boundary construction, challenging the cohesion of even secularised societies.