Politics of faith: examining the Catholic church's weakening political influence in the Philippines

Abstract

This paper investigates the decline of the Catholic church’s political influence in the Philippines and explores the varied approaches undertaken by the religious institution to maintain its political hegemony. While religious scholarship has pointed to historical state-church interactions as drivers of religion’s political influence, I postulate that the approaches undertaken by the Catholic church have been detrimental to sustaining its political influence amid a globalising population. Using a time-comparative perspective, this study contributes to a more nuanced comprehension of how the transition from a defensive to combative-reactive sacralisation approach expedited the decline of its political influence in Filipino society, while failing to replicate its previous success in political outcomes. Implications and areas for further research for examining the decline of religious political clout will also be examined.