Dynamics of religion: past and present

Religious ideas, practices, discourses, institutions, and social expressions are in constant flux. This volume addresses the internal and external dynamics, interactions between individuals, religious communities, and local as well as global society. The contributions concentrate on four areas: 1. Contemporary religion in the public sphere: The Tactics of (In)visibility among Religious Communities in Europe; Religion Intersecting De-nationalization and Re-nationalization in Post-Apartheid South Africa;2. Religious transformations: Forms of Religious Communities in Global Society; Political Contributions of Ancestral Cosmologies and the Decolonization of Religious Beliefs; Esoteric Tradition as Poetic Invention; 3. Focus on the individual: Religion and Life Trajectories of Islamists; Angels, Animals and Religious Change in Antiquity and Today; Gaining Access to the Radically Unfamiliar in Today's Religion; Religion between Individuals and Collectives; 4. Narrating religion: Entangled Knowledge Cultures and the Creation of Religions in Mongolia and Europe; Global Intellectual History and the Dynamics of Religion; On Representing Judaism.

The dynamics of religions and cultural evolution: Worshipping Fuxi in contemporary China / Hubert Seiwert -- Religion and public space in contemporary Japan: Re-activation of the civilization of the axial age and the manifestation of State Shinto and Buddhism / Susume Shimazono -- The tactics of (in)visibility among religious communities in contemporary Europe / Kim Knott -- Religion intersecting de-nationalization and re-nationalization in post-apartheid South Africa / Gerald O. West -- Forms of religious communities in global society: tradition, invention, and transformation / Peter Beyer -- Subversive spirituality: political contributions of ancestral cosmologies decolonizing religious beliefs / Sylvia Marcos -- Religion and the historical imagination: esoteric tradition as poetic invention / Wouter J. Hanegraff -- Religion and life trajectory: Islamists against self and other / Abdulkader Tayob -- Angels, animals and religious change in antiquity and today / Ingvild Sælid Gilhus -- Gaining access to the radically unfamiliar: religion in modern times / Kalpana Ram -- 'Cloning minds': Religion between individuals and collectives / Jeppe Sinding Jensen -- Of yellow teaching and black faith: entangled knowledge cultures and the creation of religious traditions / Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz -- Global intellectual history and the dynamics of religion / Martin Muslow -- Narrating, performing and feeling a "religion": on representations of Judaism / Cristiana Facchini.