The Religious Studies Podcast · Bastian Friborg

Ninian Smart - Religion and Nationalism

October 9, 2025·19 min·1 clip

Ninian Smart saw nationalism as a 'tribal religion'—exclusive, doctrinally weak, and offering 'worldly salvation' within the nation rather than a transcendent afterlife.

Can nationalism be read like religion? The episode begins with Ninian Smart, a central figure in religious studies, and uses his dimensions model to compare religion with secular collective life. The move is provocative, but not sloppy. Smart asks whether nationalism has enough religion-like features to be studied through the same dimensions. The hosts keep the answer careful. They track the shared patterns first: sacrifice, passion, loyalty, and the pull of belonging to something larger than the individual self. National defeat can feel personal. National victory can bring a rush of shared joy that sounds close to religious experience. Smart also sees hope built into nationalism. Anthony Smith's phrase salvation ideology helps explain how the nation can offer meaning, direction, and a promised future. Then the comparison gets more concrete. Territory takes on a charged feeling, so the homeland starts to look a bit like sacred space. Holidays and founding moments create sacred time. Myths do a lot of work, too. National stories, heroic tales, and founding narratives can shape identity even when they are selective or partly made up. Ritual comes through symbols: anthems, flags, and parades turn emotion into repeated public performance. Ethics enters when nations set values, duties, and standards for belonging. Institutions give nationalism a visible body through leaders, structures, and social organization. Smart still keeps the line in place. Nationalism is doctrinally thinner than religion, so the comparison is useful as analysis, not as a total merger. The ending is sober: strong collective identities can become dangerous when loyalty swallows judgment.

As heard by us

A clear look at how nationalism can be read through religion without collapsing the difference.

Ninian Smart gives the episode its center by treating nationalism as something that can be read through ritual, myth, sacrifice, shared feeling, and sacred time, not just politics.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want nationalism tested against a religious studies lens.

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