Reconsidering Religion, Law, and Democracy: New Challenges for Society and Research

How are Western, mostly secular, societies handling religion in its increasingly pluralistic and complex forms? Here, the authors study the interaction and negotiations between religious organizations and religious citizens on the one hand, and the state, the judicial system, the media, and secular citizens on the other. Religion has become more and more visible in contemporary society and is, more often than before, recognised as a public matter and not merely a private issue. As such it presents new challenges or opportunities to scholarly research and to society at large. The contributors to this volume shed light on what follows when expressions of religion meet different spheres of society. The authors explicitly point to the need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the roles played by religion in society today. By presenting case studies, fresh perspectives and new questions they suggest that deeper knowledge is best achieved by further, increasingly nuanced interdisciplinary research.