Religion in the Age of Re-Globalization

Chapter 1 Overview: A “Loss-of-Control” Age?

Chapter 2 Introduction: Transfiguring the Ground—Religion in Our Days: Between Return, Revival and Renewal

Chapter 3 A Shifting Global Scenery: The Age of Re-globalization

Chapter 4 Re-globalization: An Array of Factors Shaking the Fundamentals of Neoliberal Globalization

Chapter 5 Religious Re-globalization Rhetoric from the United Nations

Chapter 6 The Changing European-Western Setting: Post-Postmodernity and Meta-Modernity as Carriers of a Renaissance of Values Toward “Everyday Spirituality”?

Chapter 7 The Interweavement of the Global and the Western: The Threefold Return of Religion and Spirituality on the International Scene

Chapter 8 The Disputed Role of Religion in De-Liberalizing Settings

Chapter 9 The Business of Religion: A Religious Business?

Chapter 10 Trends 1–7

Chapter 11 Trends 8–14

Chapter 12 Trends 15–21

Chapter 13 Summary: The Twenty-One Trends are Changing the Global Ecosystem of Religion. Will the Outcome be a Rather Retro- or Post-Religion: A More Fragmented or More Universal “Structured Spirituality”?

Chapter 14 When It Comes to the Future: A Non-Unified Community of Scholars, Civil Society Activists and Politicians

Chapter 15 A Decisive Question in the Eyes of Many: Toward More Explicit or More Implicit Religion?

Chapter 16 Chaotic Narratives, Shifting Numbers

Chapter 17 The Demography Factor

Chapter 18 Switching and Migration

Chapter 19 Food Fights, or: Between the Bitter and the Comical—The Dispute Between Culturalization and De-culturalization

Chapter 20 Civil Religion as a Replacement or Even “End of Religion”?

Chapter 21 Religious or Spiritual Re-globalization? Toward a “Secular Spirituality” or a “World Ethos”?

Chapter 22 Europe’s Path of the Past Decades: De-religionization as De-culturalization—An Example for Europe’s future, for the West or for the World?

Chapter 23 An Additional Variety of Phenomena: Suggestive Metaphors, Extremist Misuse, Inventive Banalizations

Chapter 24 The Debate About the Future of Religion: A Particularly Wide Field—Between “Happiness” as a Substitute and the Growing Global Impact of the Traditional

Chapter 25 Three Main Dimensions to Discern

Chapter 26 A Different Option Perhaps Still Undervalued: The “Angel of History” Replacing Religion—A More Humble, Rational, Unifying or Peaceful Meta-Perspective?

Chapter 27 Conclusion: The Many Questions Ahead

Chapter 28 Institutional and Academic Offensives to Cope with Increasing “Religious Uncertainty”

Chapter 29 Religion, Critique and the Contemporary Spirit of Polarization

Chapter 30 Modernizing the Debate: About “Wire-Walking” Pioneers and Looming Dangers: Is the Future of Religion About Personal Courage and Individual Charisma?

Chapter 31 Trends Versus the Eternal: The Lasting Questions of Religion and Spirituality Remain—within and Throughout All Twenty-One Trends

Chapter 32 Outlook. The Future of Religion in—and by the Means Of—Re-Globalization: An Open, Insecure yet Evolving Prospect Inviting Participation