Diarmaid MacCulloch

Göran Rosenberg

Richard Miles

A.N. Wilson

Wolfgang Palaver

Elaine Pagels

Simon May

Pär Stenbäck

Gary Lachman

Martin Goodman

John Scheid

Malise Ruthven

Reza Aslan

Candida R. Moss

Adrian Wooldridge

Robin Osborne

Daniel T. Potts

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad

Wouter J. Hanegraaff

William O´Reilly

Julius J. Lipner

Harvey Whitehouse

Armin W. Geertz

Benedetta Berti

Mona Siddiqui

Jayne Svenungsson

Janne Haaland Matláry

Esther Benbassa

Ariel Glucklich

Jessica Frazier

Marco Pasi

The belief in a governing, universal, celestial principle has followed us through human history. More than 80 per cent of the world s population has a religious affiliation and even in secular states, religion continues to play an important role. Politics and international relations today cannot be understood without accounting for the element of religion in cultural contexts. The essays in this book derive from the Engelsberg Seminar of 2014, and investigate the role which religion plays in society today and in the past. They also explore religion as a phenomenon in relation to the human condition and how it manifests itself as an individual experience. In order to understand ourselves, do we need to understand religion?