This volume is a collection of interdisciplinary contributions concerning a number of case examples of religious deviance and the cultural dynamics inherently found in such deviance. It is complemented by systematic inquiries with empirical case studies. Even in early times there were many instances of places on the planet where any number of religions existed side by side. Yet the religion of others was often deemed "deviant" or even stigmatized as "nonconformist." The contributors to this volume come from many different fields such as religious studies, sociology, Sinology and Jewish studies. They report from their respective research vantage points and use case examples from the past and present to determine how, under what circumstances, for what reasons, and with what consequences religious plurality was considered a problem.
