God in Politics Is Not Uniquely American

For many observers, religion is an emblematic feature of American politics. It is seen as a unique and confounding manifestation of American exceptionalism, in which religious fervor co-exists with an industrialized, "modern" democracy and an explicitly secular state. The course of the presidential race thus far might be viewed as yet another instance of America's particular obsession with religion. Yet this campaign, for all its familiar tropes, both departs from the historical American norm and remind us that the US is not so unusual in its mix of religion and politics, after all.

Even before Paul Ryan's selection for the Republican ticket, Rick Santorum's and Mitt Romney's primary campaigns for president meant that religion had already played a particularly vivid version of its familiar role in American electoral politics – one which went beyond the usual prayer breakfasts, pastoral exhortations, allegations of theological unsoundness, and public proclamations of the candidate's commitment to Jesus, Christianity, and America united under one God.