Legions of the Popes II: A Case Study in Social and Political Transformation

《教皇军团》是一个关于宗教行为者（教皇）和宗教实践（朝圣）的案例研究，它解决了政治学的主要问题。该项目对民族国家和世界社会的变化类别感兴趣，将自己定位于新兴领域“国际关系社会学”。其中的主要重点是正在进行的全球化和欧洲化的转型进程对政治权力的影响。根据建构主义的观点，机构、惯例和身份被视为主要因素，可以解释结构秩序和权力变化，这些变化超越了经济和军事能力，但依赖于合法行为的来源。宗教的作用问题与更广泛的民族主义和归属感问题以及社会实践如何将思想转化为权力的问题有关。宗教团体在世俗环境中的作用，这里是教皇在欧洲，作为一个艰难的情况下，以测试演员和机构。朝圣者教皇（教皇周游世界）和教皇朝圣者（群众的游客教皇在罗马或其他地方，教皇前往）进行了分析，以显示如何大规模动员可以有助于复兴一个衰落的大国作为一个跨国演员在后国家社会。这些发现将揭示秩序的转变以及这些转变中的代理问题。教皇军团考察了朝圣如何在现代化进程中确保宗教社区的公共和政治持久性，以及它们如何影响公共话语和政治决策。朝圣是一种社会实践，使信徒可见，并使精神转化为政治权力：朝圣者是教皇的军团在游行中可见。朝圣是一种特殊类型的游行，因为它使身份建构的过程依赖于经验，话语和想象。朝圣是现代身份建构的重要因素。本尼迪克特安德森在他的开创性的"想象的社区"（安德森，1983）表明，世俗版本的朝圣是多么重要，以建立一个共同的身份，民族社区在前殖民地。《教皇军团》展示了教皇如何重新发明了一种宗教版本的朝圣，以构建一个由忠实支持者组成的新的想象中的社区。通过朝圣的经历以及在这种经历中和之后被认为是真实的想象和叙述，个人和社区的身份和归属感得到了保证和稳定，甚至可以重新发明。这些经历产生了公共和政治影响。在安德森的案例中，民族主义为国家带来了信誉和合法性，宗教朝圣为宗教机构带来了信誉和合法性。

Legions of the Pope is a case study of a religious actor (papacy) and a religious practice (pilgrimage) that addresses major questions of political science. Interested in the shifting categories of nation states and world society, the project situates itself in the emerging field “Sociology of International Relations”. Therein the major focus is on the impact of the ongoing transformation processes of globalization and Europeanization on political power. Informed by a constructivist perspective, agency, practice and identity are seen as major factors that can explain structural order and power changes that go beyond economic and military capacity but rest on the sources of legitimate actorhood. The question of the role of religion is linked to the wider issues of nationalism and belonging, and the question how a social practice can turn ideas into power. The role of religious communities in a secular environment, here the pope in Europe, serves as a hard case to test actorness and agency. Pilgrim popes (popes travelling the world) and papal pilgrims (the masses of visitors to the pope in Rome or other places the pope travelled to) are analysed to show how mass mobilization can contribute to a revival of a declined great power as a transnational actor in a post-national society. The findings will shed light on the transformation of order and the question of agency within these transformations.Legions of the Pope examines how pilgrimages secure the public and political persistence of a religious community in the process of modernization and how they can influence public discourses and political decisions. Pilgrimage is a social practice that makes the faithful visible and enables the conversion of spiritual into political power: the pilgrims are the legions of the pope visible on parade. Pilgrimage is a special type of parade because it enables processes of identity construction that rest on experience, discourse and imagination. Pilgrimage is an important factor for modern identity construction. Benedict Anderson showed in his seminal “Imagined communities” (Anderson 1983) how important a secular version of pilgrimage was to establish a common identity of national communities in former colonies. Legions of the Pope shows how a religious version of pilgrimage was re-invented by the papacy in order to construct a new imagined community of faithful supporters. Through the experience of pilgrimage and the imaginations and narratives which are held true, interpreted and transported during and after such an experience, the identity and belonging of individuals and communities are reassured and stabilized and can even be re-invented. These experiences have a public and political impact. Like in Anderson’s case where nationalism lends credit and legitimacy to the state, religious pilgrimage lends credit and legitimacy to religious institutions.