Editorial: Religion and Society

The rising significance of the focus on scholarly discourse development on ‘religion and society’ is evident from a number of recent initiatives. For instance, the Religion and Society Programme is a £12m research initiative funded by UK research councils between 2007-2013. To this we can add the growing significance of the Journal of Religion and Society published by Berghahn Journals in both Oxford and New York, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society of the American Academy of Religion, and the fact that we shall have a fourth international conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society in 2014 at the Universidad Nacional Costa Rica Heredia. The founding of programmes for postgraduate research (University of Aberdeen for instance), and research Centers for Religion and Society at universities (Notre Dame University, US; Victoria University; and University of Western Sydney Australia are examples) also speak to this fact. This can rightly be termed a renewed interest for scholarship in the New Millennium. This is also borne out by the seminal book, borne out by the seminal book edited by Gerrie ter Haar and Yoshio Tsuruoka in 2007, viz. Religion and Society: An Agenda for the 21st Century (2007)