Johann P. Arnason is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Human Studies at Charles University, Prague. He taught sociology in Heidelberg and Bielefeld from 1972 to 1975, and at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, from 1975 to 2003. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and at the University of Leipzig, and a research fellow of the Alexander v. Humboldt-Stiftung, the Swedish Institute of Advanced Studies, the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Essen), the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in Göttingen and the Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt. His research interests centre on social theory and historical sociology, with particular emphasis on the comparative analysis of civilizations. Ireneusz P. Karolewski is Head of the Political Studies Department in the The Willy Brandt Centre for German and European Studies at the University of Wrocław. He graduated and received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Potsdam in Germany. He was Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Potsdam from 1999 to 2008. He has held guest professorships and fellowships at the Harvard University, the Université de Montréal, Institut D’Etudes Politiques in Lille, the University of California in Santa Barbara and the New York University. He is co-convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Identity and managing editor of the Annual of European and Global Studies, published by Edinburgh University Press.

• IntroductionJohann P. Arnason and Ireneusz Paweł KarolewskiThe Religio-Political Nexus: Historical and Comparative ReflectionsJohann P. ArnasonPolitics and Religion in a Global AgeJeffrey HaynesComparative Secularisms and the Politics of ModernityElizabeth Hurd and Linnell CadyEurope in the Global Rise of Religious NationalismMark JuergensmeyerEuropean Civil Religion in the Making?Ireneusz Pawel KarolewskiDemocracy, Secularism and Islam in TurkeyAyhan KayaOrthodox Religion and Politics in Post-Soviet RussiaMikhail Maslovskiy and Nikita ShanginReligion and Politics, Church and State in Chinese HistoryJohn LagerweyReligion and the State in Contemporary JapanElisabetta PorcuArab Revolutions and Political Islam: A Structural ApproachKarel ČernýBeyond Post-Secularism: Religion in Political Analysis (Review Article)Michal MatlakNotes on the ContributorsIndex