Religions newly play a considerable role in the public space, to an extent that was hardly imaginable until recently. In the new century, religiosity seems to consist of a flourishing of beliefs and belongings – but in the context of secularised societies. This leads to the risk of ephemeral ‘DIY (do it yourself)’ and unscrupulous spiritualities, borrowing “updated” symbols from traditional beliefs, for purposes that often do not relate to the experience of ‘genuine’ religiosity.

The void that has emerged with the crisis of the great secular ideologies of the last century cannot be filled by a trivializing appeal to religious-racial identities, which often results in an increasingly widespread and worrisome religious illiteracy as well as in a ‘politicization’. Understanding these dynamics does not only mean describing and analysing them, but involves the delicate task of imagining possible strategies to channel useful energies into initiatives to counter problematic deviances.