‘Religion has emerged as a key variable in understanding modern societies, and all modern nations, no matter their formal definitions of church-state relations, must engage in the management of religions and religious groups in order to maintain peace between rival religious factions as well as societal harmony. This volume by eminent scholars in the field offers great insight into how public religions are functioning in a variety of modern states, the perils and benefits garnered as governmental authorities attempt to manage this crucial area of public life, and the need to redefine the meaning of secularization in the modern world.’ —Dr James T. Richardson, University of Nevada, Reno

‘There is something here for everyone who wants to be au courant with the ways in which religion and the capitalist economy co-create each other, with citizens and believers both increasingly conceived as consumers. A valuable contribution to the contemporary debate on secularism and secularization.’ —John Torpey, City University of New York Graduate Center

This volume addresses a central problem of contemporary states, namely how to manage the eruption of public religions. While the liberal framework formerly regarded religion as simply a matter of private practice and conscience, in modern states religion has often come to challenge the so-called Westphalian model of church-state relations, and has brought into question many liberal notions of secularism and tolerance. There is much discussion about post-secular society in which religion has to be taken seriously in public affairs. This collection of case studies – looking at Turkey, Singapore, India, China, Britain, Europe and the United States – explores a number of examples in which the state exercises some degree of management of religion, thereby bringing into question the traditional separation of religion and state. This study also attempts to refine the notion of secularization by examining this process in terms of political arrangements (church-state relations) and the role of religion in everyday life. Ultimately, this study reveals that there is no uniform or standard pattern of secularization in modern societies.