Manlio Graziano Invited by Johns Hopkins University to Present his Book on the Relations between the US and the Catholic Church

Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) has invited Professor Graziano to present his recent book In Rome We Trust: The Rise of Catholicism in American Political Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017) on December 8th.

Sharing the panel with Professor Graziano will be Donald Jensen, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, John Gizzi, Chief Political Correspondent for NewsMax Media, and John Farina, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University. Moderating the panel will be Emiliano Bos, journalist, Washington Correspondent for the Swiss public radio and television network RSI.

Manlio Graziano has been conducting research about geopolitics of religion for over two decades, developing the idea that even in countries operating under a separation of Church and State, religion has had a major impact on internal politics as well as on international relations. In this book, he explores the reciprocal influence between the United States and the Catholic Church. “This book examines the unusually serene relationship between the chief global superpower and the world's most ancient and renowned institution. The "Catholicization" of the United States is a recent phenomenon: some believe it began during the Reagan administration; others feel it emerged under George W. Bush's presidency. What is certain is that the Catholic presence in the American political ruling class was particularly prominent in the Obama administration: over one third of cabinet members, the Vice President, the White House Chief of Staff, the heads of Homeland Security and the CIA, the Director and deputy Director of the FBI, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top military officers were all Roman Catholic. Challenging perceived wisdom that the American Catholic Church is in crisis and that the political religion in the United States is Evangelicalism, Manlio.Graziano provides an engaging account of the tendency of Catholics to play an increasingly significant role in American politics, as well as the rising role of American prelates in the Roman Catholic Church.”

In Rome we Trust is one of the three books that Manlio Graziano published this year. Holy Wars and Holy Alliance, The Return of Religion to the Global Political Stage, published by Columbia University Press in April 2017, examines the resurgence of religion in world politics and its increasingly important role in social, economic and political spheres that had recently been dominated by secular ideologies. It places a particular focus on the Catholic Church’s efforts to promote dialogue between world religions and to strengthen its own influence on international politics.

Borders was published in Italian by Il Mulino in March 2017. It looks at the current evolution of the world order toward a reinstatement of the importance of borders after the past three decades, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, were marked by market integration and political and monetary unions. An English translation of Borders was done by Stanford University Press and will be published in 2018.