Introductory Remarks on

During the last 40 years not only the economy but also religion went global. In particular what the author calls network religions, loose coupled sects, and the old Roman Church that strived for a world state since 1000 years, are the winners of globalization. Yet, the prize is high, and it has to be paid by the nation state that looses control over markets as well as over global religious networks, and the public sphere as a whole. The third winners of globalization are the executive branches of the global state-system. The paper starts with a reflection on secularization and the possible dependency of modern democracy on religious sources of solidarity. Author then discusses the problem how religion internally might hang together with the coming global crisis of democracy. The paper finishes with some systematic considerations of this crisis