Redemption policies and policy redemption

Abstract

New puritan movements around the world claim to save the worldthrough the politics. The salvation means to cope with the moral disorder that themodern State is not able to cope with. Therefore their action tend to be a sort ofredemption of politics. The political sphere is the realm of corruption for manyleaders of these movements, because it reflects the idea of the neutrality of theState towards the ethics and religious values. Restoring the ethic profile of theState means to restore the social order and to regain the consciousness of thecollective identity, its religious roots and its good social performances. Religionbecomes an archives of symbols of the collective memory where political leadershipand religious one could furiously ransack for searching strong symbols of identityto exhibit against the other. The outcome of the policy of redemption run by thesemovements is contradictory: on one hand the politics tends to be devaluated, onthe other religion tends to be a tool of the policy. Both of them, religious andpolitical actors, when they agree with this strategy, aim to destroy the modernfunctional separation between religious and political spheres.