In democracies of advanced plurality, religion is a contested and powerful part of public discussions and practices. Today, religious difference is articulated and negotiated controversially in interaction with other spheres of society. While there are clear tendencies of increasing polarization, we also encounter moments of acknowledgement and appreciation of plurality. Facing these complexities and challenges of our time, this volume scrutinizes contested practices where religious difference matters.Committed to an interdisciplinary exchange between theology, the study of religion and political philosophy, this volume is grounded in the attention for concrete practices and phenomena as well as the conviction that difference is both a productive concept and an enriching experience. Exploring practices of shared places, sexuality, justice and the commitment to the human being in education, migration and violent conflicts, the volume as a whole contributes to the analysis of contested social and political practices in order to investigate the significance and role of religion in contemporary societies, and thus it further develops theoretical reflection about religion in contemporary research.

The authors of this volume investigate the analysis of visual sources and their indispensable role for understanding and interpreting religions, their symbol systems, and the wider traditions of which they are a part. A particular interest in this study is the focus on the methodological challenge of images from a comparative perspective. The common concern that ranges over all the contributions is the search for a methodological perspective where images may be analysed in a comprehensive way, with particular regard for the social, and wider intellectual settings, as well as the religious, in which the images are embedded. Accordingly, we seek to show that visual sources need to be interpreted from different angles, In the last decades, a broad range of publications has contributed to highlight the significance of images, and visual media in general, for understanding religious traditions, communities and discourses in both historical and contemporary perspective. In more recent research streams, focussing on visual media in religious traditions and symbol systems, various avenues have opened up and been explored focussing on the status of images and of the gaze of the viewer as central aspects. Furthermore, there are illuminating contributions dealing with the theoretical premises and settings with which to approach the visual as a central component of religion, on the one hand giving an overview of essential definitions and implications, on the other hand concentrating on specific techniques and/or media.

Ob klassischer Sonntagsgottesdienst oder christliche Rockband - Jugendliche suchen sich ihre eigenen Ausdrucksformen im religiosen Bereich. Exemplarisch stellen Studierende der Theologie und der Religionswissenschaft die vielfaltigen religiosen und weltanschaulichen Orientierungen von Jugendlichen der grossstadtischen Agglomeration Zurich vor. Sie beschreiben biografische Zugange, Gewohnheiten, Weltbilder und Traume von jungen Menschen. Von bewusster Wahl einer bestimmten Kirche bis zu ausgewahlten Teilaspekten von Religion, von Mainstream-Angeboten bis zu provokativen Haltungen: Ein breites Spektrum kommt zum Vorschein. Die lebendigen Beitrage sind von eindrucklichen Bildern der Fotografin Ursula Markus begleitet - interessant und aufschlussreich sowohl fur Jugendliche selbst als auch fur in der Jugendarbeit tatige Pfarrer/-innen, Padagogen/-innen oder Psychologen/-innen. Thomas Schlag, Dr. theol., Jahrgang 1965, ist Professor fur Praktische Theologie an der Universitat Zurich. \x0D\x0A\x0D\x0AAnnette Schellenberg, Dr. theol., Jahrgang 1971, ist Assistenzprofessorin am San Francisco Theological Seminary in Kalifornien. Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, Dr. theol., Jahrgang 1966, ist Professorin fur Religionswissenschaft an der Universitat Zurich und Leiterin des interuniversitaren\x0D\x0ANetzwerks Zentrum fur Religion, Wirtschaft und Politik (ZRWP). Reiner Anselm, Jahrgang 1965, ist Professor fur Theologische Ethik an der Universitat Gottingen. \x0D\x0A