This article reviews various theoretical approaches political scientists employ in the analysis of religion and politics
and posits culture as a conceptual bridge between competing approaches. After coming to the study of religion
slowly in comparison with other social science disciplines, political science finally has a theoretically diverse and
thriving religion and politics subfield. However, political scientists’ contributions to the social scientific study of
religion are hampered by a lack of agreement about whether endogenous or exogenous theoretical approaches
ought to dominate our scholarship. I assert that the concept of culture—and more specifically, subculture—might
help create more connections across theoretical research traditions. I emphasize how the concept of religionbased
subculture is inherent in psychological, social psychological, social movement, and contextual approaches
to religion and politics scholarship, and I explore these theoretical connections using the example of religion-based
“us versus them” discourses in contemporary American politics.