Religion, Protestants and national identity: a response to the March 2009 issue.

This special issue raised some points of interpretation that need developing. Everyone writes with a (more or less overt) set of assumptions, which is particularly true where the subject matter is as politically contentious as nationalism and that nationalism is still contested, as with Ireland. This was particularly true of this issue. This response aims to tease out some hidden assumptions and interpretations in those papers to further our understanding of the role of religion not just within the general framework of nationalism but also within our own assumptions of religious and ideological norms and values when studying nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]