For a long time there seemed to be a broad consensus in Western democracies -at least among political theorists and legal scholars -concerning the place of religion in the public sphere and the separation of church and state. However, since the end of the last century, religion has again become a highly contentious issue. With the arrival of sizable groups of immigrants for whom religion remains an integral part of their identity -not only Muslims, but also evangelical Christians -religion is

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... ck in the public square of many modern Western democracies (a place, arguably, it never really disappeared from in the United States). This reassertion of religion, Stanley Fish observed in 2005, has 're-alerted us to the fact [...] that hundreds of millions of people in the world do not observe the distinction between the private and the public, or between belief and knowledge, and that it is no longer possible for us to regard such persons as quaintly pre-modern or as needy recipients of our saving (an ironic word) wisdom'. In the same article, Fish predicted that religion was going to be the wave of the future in academics: 'Announce a lecture or panel on 'religion in our time' and you will have to hire a larger hall'. 1 Intrigued by this resurgence of religion -and tempted by a high attendance ratewe hired a larger hall and convened a conference on 'Religion in the 21st Century' at the Erasmus School of Law, in September 2011. The focus of this conference was the question: Does the revival of religion confront us with a familiar phenomenon that we can describe and analyse in tried-and-tested categories, or has religious experience transformed into something altogether different, which demands a new approach, a new way of relating to religion? The articles collected in this special issue all originate from this gathering and all, in their own way, try to come to terms with its central theme. The secularisation thesis, in its classic Weberian form, remains a mainstay of sociology and social theory. Modernisation, rationalisation and functional differentiation are still widely believed to lead to a retreat of religion from more and more spheres of social life, to a growing disenchantment of the world and, eventually, to the disappearance of religion. However, so far, this expectation has failed to materialise. With the exception of a number of countries in Western Europe, religion remains a potent force in modern societies around the globe. This endurance, or even resurgence, of religion, as Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen argue in a recent volume on religion in the public sphere, has called into question a number of our central notions and myths about religion: 'Religion is neither merely private, for instance, nor purely irrational. And the public sphere is neither a realm of straightforward rational deliberation nor a smooth space of unforced assent. Yet, these understandings of both religion and public life have long been pervasive, perhaps especially in academic circles '. 2 Moreover, the persistence of religion has raised questions about the notion of secularism as something that needs no argument, as a mere absence of religion with no substantive content of its own. Secularism is a position in its own right, which has developed into different forms, and is not simply a neutral response to problems of religion. 3 Consequently, the secular nature of liberal democracy is losing its artless, selfevident quality. Secularism is coming under increased scrutiny. Indeed, in a number of