Religion, Policy, and Politics

Religion has made a core contribution to the shaping of the Scottish nation, and continues to influence its politics and policy—albeit in the context of relatively recent and dramatically rapid secularization.

This briefly outlines the development of some key, and varied, religious traditions in Scotland, and illuminates the impacts that migration and secularization have made upon these. It examines religion’s role in party politics and on the constitutional question.

The focus is upon the role of religious identity, and religious engagement, and their relationship to broader social and political attitudes. It considers the extent to which the recent policy interests of the Parliamentary Offices of Scotland’s main churches fit—or not—with broader religious, and irreligious, attitudes.