This volume concerns itself with the connections between religions and the social world and with the extent, limits, and future of secularization. Dealing with the major religious traditions and their explicit or implicit ideas about the individual, social, and political order, as well as offering an overview of the religious situation in important geographical areas,Secularization and the World Religionsanalyzes the legal organization of the relationship between state and religion—as well as the role of the natural sciences—in a global perspective. Contributors include such internationally renowned scholars as Winfried Brugger, José Casanova, Hans Joas, and Hans Kippenberg.
Hans Joasis director of the Max Weber Center at the University of Erfurt and professor of sociology and social thought at the University of Chicago.Klaus Wiegandtis founder and CEO of Forum für Verantwortung.
Notes on Contributors
Foreword
Hans Joas and Klaus Wiegandt
Society, State and Religion: Their Relationship from the Perspective of the World Religions: An Introduction
Hans Joas
1 Catholic Christianity
Cardinal Karl Lehmann
2 Protestantism
Friedrich Wilhelm Graf
3 l.