The relationship between religion, politics, and law represents, one of the most important issues in contemporary discussions on the world's future. While global changes and political conflicts in many parts of the world demand serious reflection about the role of religion in politics and in public discourse, the study of religion in post-secular societies calls for reflections about the normative role of religion in politics and law. Through the contributions of scholars in the disciplines of theology, the science of religion, and political science, this volume presents an absorbing analysis of democracy, politics, and law, drawing upon the works of John Rawls, Jfirgen Haberman, Max Horkheimer, Michel Foucault and Theodor W Adorno. Such topics as Islam and democracy are addressed, in addition to the report by the European Council on Fatwa and Research and specific issues in which churches have been involved in political conflicts. Case studies on communism, nazism, and apartheid, for example, are also presented, and finally the question is addressed of how inter-religious dialogue can function in secular societies in relation to the Danish cartoon crisis.

Contributors to this book analyze areas of Martin Luther’s and Lutheran theology that have otherwise been neglected or under-represented in the five hundred years since the Reformation. They widen the scope of Luther and Lutheran theology by viewing both from the perspectives of the “subaltern,” those whose voices are barely or rarely heard. The book formulates an inclusive Lutheran theology that reaches out but does not close out. The book’s sections address “Precarious Life,” from Luther’s own precarious existence as an outlaw under a death sentence; “Body and Gender,” addressing different aspects of gender and sexuality; “Women and Sexual Abuse,” focusing on Luther’s exegesis of biblical “texts of terror”; and “Economy, Equality, and Equity,” addressing Lutheran views on economy and equality that break new ground regarding common goods and the Anthropocene.