Religion or Citizenship? : beyond the binary : lessons after a century of disagreement

Abstract

Abstract: This article describes how different approaches to religion (institutional and cultural) lead to startlingly different conclusions when analyzing how religion shapes the republican citizen. Through a genealogical discourse analysis, I examine educational reports issued by Argentinean authorities in the early twentieth century that made the Jew out to be a dangerous other, as well as the Gerchunoff’s account of the everyday life in Jewish colonies, to show how Jewish narratives intersected and assembled in the construction of the Argentinean republican citizen. In times when non-Western institutional religions are raising fears and anxiety in many Western countries, this article illustrates how a cultural historical approach to religion is essential for a comprehensive analysis of how religion shapes the republican citizen.