Theorizing desecularization of the military: the United States and Israel

This article addresses scholarly deficiencies in identifying the conditions under which the desecularization of militaries takes place. To theorize this process, two militaries are studied, the United States and Israel. Arguably, six drivers sequentially generate the desecularization of the militari...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Leṿi, Yagil 1958- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2020
In: Armed forces & society
Year: 2020, Volume: 46, Issue: 1, Pages: 92-115
Further subjects:B Usa
B Pluralism
B Religion
B Israel
B Religiosity
B Culture
B Military
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:This article addresses scholarly deficiencies in identifying the conditions under which the desecularization of militaries takes place. To theorize this process, two militaries are studied, the United States and Israel. Arguably, six drivers sequentially generate the desecularization of the militaries: (1) Militaries largely mirror the growing influence of religion in the broader society. However, intramilitary drivers play their role in promoting/mitigating the extra-military mechanisms of desecularization. Thus, (2) organizational interests along with external constraints drive militaries to promote religious diversity, which may (3) lead to the empowerment of religious actors, and thereby to further desecularization through religious intolerance, and to (4) reliance on the spiritual and religious services provided by military chaplains, and jointly stimulate (5) the use of religion to motivate military sacrifice. By religiously increasing the symbolic value of military sacrifice, (6) religiosity becomes more naturally associated with good soldiering, thereby reshaping intramilitary hierarchies and, hence, further triggering desecularization.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis Seite 112-115
ISSN:1556-0848
Contains:Enthalten in: Armed forces & society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0095327X18806516