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Schon in frühen Zeiten und an verschiedenen Orten der Welt existierten oft mehrere Religionen nebeneinander, sei es dass diese unterschiedlichen Ursprungs waren oder sich aufgrund divergierender Auffassungen der religiösen Akteure innerhalb einer gemeinsamen Tradition ausdifferenzierten. Nicht immer war und ist diese Koexistenz eine friedliche. Die Religion der anderen wird häufig als 'deviant' wahrgenommen oder gar als 'nonkonformistisch' stigmatisiert und sanktioniert, bis hin zur physischen Vernichtung der 'Devianten'. Im vorliegenden Band gehen vierzehn ausgewiesene Wissenschaftler_innen aus den Fachgebieten Religionswissenschaft, Soziologie, Sinologie und Judaistik aus ihrer jeweiligen fachlichen Perspektive und anhand diverser Fallbeispiele aus Geschichte und Gegenwart der Frage nach, unter welchen Umständen, aus welchen Gründen und mit welchen Folgen religiöse Pluralität als Problem wahrgenommen wird. Das Buch verbindet so systematische Fragestellungen mit empirischen Fallbeispielen und liefert damit eine ausgezeichnete Grundlage für die Erforschung des gesellschaftlichen Umgangs mit religiöser Pluralität.

Abstract
Cultural encounters, entanglements, and comparisons were the driving force behind the formation of a global history of religion. Such encounters require the formation of comparative concepts; for Europeans, the most important of these was 'religion' . With European expansion, and especially its forays into Asia starting in the late fifteenth century, 'religion' gradually became a general term to describe a distinct subset of human culture, with encounters between European missionaries and the Japanese people playing a decisive role in this regard. Arguably, the ultimately failed attempts of the Christian mission led to the emergence of analogous comparative concepts on the Japanese side, too. As a side effect, the encounter with Christianity brought about an individualisation and confessionalisation of Buddhism. From here, it was only a small step to the 'religionisation' of Buddhism in the nineteenth century – and, thus, to its integration into a global religious system.

The title of this contribution may be translated as: "Thinking about identity construction with special reference to the 'German Christians' and Japanese Shintō as examples." After a brief introduction the main facts concerning the two examples are presented with appropriate quotations. In both cases religion was mobilized in the service of a nationalist and even a militarist identity. However in the conclusion the author points out that in one sense apples and pears are being compared here. Would the comparison not be stronger if two universal religions such as Christianity and Buddhism were compared in connection with their use in the support of national hybris? And Shinto, as a questionable reconstruction of an allegedly autochthonous religion, would conceivably find a better correspondance in Germanic Neo-Paganism. However the point of the lecture was to show that religions which are structurally quite different from each other can have very similar effects under certain historical circumstances. The "German Christians" (an expression which of course does not include all and any German Christians, but only those who specifically sought to combine Germanness with Christianity during the Nazi period) succeeded in turning a universal, monotheistic religion into a racist, national-socialist ideology including an antisemitism based in part on late statements of Martin Luther. State Shinto was a quite different phenomenon. Based on a localised, ethnically defined polytheism, and syncretistically interwoven with Buddhism, it was reconstructed from the 18th century onwards as a pure Japanese religion. The Emperor thus became the centre of a national cult, and resistance against the political power of the Emperor Meiji (Meiji Tennō) and the associated instrumentalization of Shinto in the nineteenth century became well-nigh impossible. Thus, in spite of the fundamental typological difference between these two religions, both served the construction of a national and ethnic identity, which made a decisive contribution to national fanaticism in times of war. Thus it may be concluded that the type of a religion, and its specific teaching, only have a limited connection with the way in which it may be used in the political arena. The main danger lies simply in the supernatural legitimation of political actions, whatever the religion. This leads to irrationality and the inability to confer with those who hold different beliefs or convictions.

"This volume brings together contributions that, from different disciplinary perspectives, highlight certain aspects and problems related to the configuration of the relationship between the religious and the secular in Japan. In the background stands the question of the historical path dependencies that lead to the formation of a specifically Japanese secularity. Based on the assumption that existing epistemic and social structures shape the way in which Western concepts of secularism were appropriated, the individual case studies demonstrate that the culturally specific appropriation of Western regulatory principles such as secularism has created problems that are of political relevance in contemporary Japan"--

Beschreibung der Herausgeber: Die Blockaden des G8-Gipfels 2007 haben ein Stück Widerstandsgeschichte geschrieben. Ihre letztendliche Bedeutung werden sie aber dadurch erhalten, was wir und Ihr aus diesen Erfahrungen macht, wie Block G8 zum Referenzpunkt oder zum Steinbruch für kommende Aktionen wird. Mit dieser Broschüre verabschiedet sich Block G8 als politische Struktur und versucht, den Erfolg und Erfahrungen schriftlich zu dokumentieren und damit für die Bewegung festzuhalten und diskutierbar zu machen. Eine Broschüre zum Querlesen, Weiterdiskutieren und Ausprobieren, die in fünf Teile gegliedert ist.