Michael W. Higgins is the Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought at the University of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, takes part in a question and answer session with Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

There are several political leaders who like to speak about or invoke God.

U.S. President Donald Trump frequently calls on God to bless America (admittedly a standard non-partisan presidential trope), but also to bless the troops and him. God is his ultimate transactional partner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cozy relationship with Vladimir Gundyaev, better known as Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’, confirms their shared conviction that the revival of holy Russia is on the horizon, worth the shattering of millions of lives, and in the process reviving the union of temporal power with spiritual power that we haven’t seen since the Romanov dynasty. We know how that ended.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also likes to keep God on his side, building credibility with the fundamentalist wing of his government. His conjoining with Israel’s righteous right may be more a matter of political pragmatism than religious fervour, but it appeals to a vocal minority of his base and........

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