Religionstheorie und Religionspolitik

The volume collects selected articles by Hubert Seiwert on theoretical issues in the study of religion. The chapter on »Religion and Symbolic Representations« discusses problems of the definition of religious phenomena and the identity of religions, religious truth, religion and cultural evolution, and the dynamics of religious movements. In the chapter »Religion and Modernity« the author critically examines the historical taxonomy of modern versus pre-modern forms of religion. The third chapter »Sects, Cults and Political Order« mainly deals with political controversies on religious minorities in Germany supplemented by a piece on religion and state in traditional China. The volume concludes with contributions to the methodology of the study of religions.