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Hans-Martien ten Napel

Hans-Martien ten Napel is an Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands and a Research Fellow of the Leiden Law School. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University and was a Research Fellow in Legal Studies at the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in Princeton, NJ. He is a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Religie, Recht en Beleid (Journal for Religion, Law and Policy). His latest book, titled Constitutionalism, Democracy and Religious Freedom (Routledge), was published in 2017.

Recent Articles by Hans-Martien ten Napel

  • Book review: ‘The Political Theology of European Integration,’ by Mark R. Royce

    The Political Theology of European Integration: Comparing the Influence of Religious Histories on European Policies. Mark R. Royce.
    Palgrave McMillan, 2017. 310 pages.

    The central question political scientist Mark R. Royce addresses in his book, The Political Theology of European Integration: Comparing the Influence of Religious Histories on European Policies, is whether the process of European integration as it has developed since the Second World War, and continues to develop as a result of issues such as Brexit, is also influenced by political theological considerations. He defines “political theology” as “the authoritative application of sacred ideas to public policies and discourses” (p. 1). In the context of Royce’s study, which focuses on 17 Western European countries, in particular Roman Catholicism and the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican forms of Protestantism are relevant.

    Mark Royce's At the beginning of his research, Royce expected countries of a Roman Catholic political theology to be more open towards European integration – a common economic area and an “ever-closer union” politically – than countries of a Protestant political theology. Roman Catholicism, after all, represents “the Church that dominated the late Classical and medieval eras,” whereas Protestantism “helped give birth to new Westphalian regimes” (p. 3). While...