Integrationspotenziale von Religion und Zivilgesellschaft

Religions can be both a resource and an impediment for social participation. The social contexts and conditions that enable and evoke potentialities of integration by religion and religions are at the focus of the systematic, historic, and empirical studies. The book is about the contribution of religious groups and communities for individual and collective social integration as well as for civil society and social coherence. The contributions underline that religion should be a part of the public and that public religions facilitate social integration. Furthermore, it is argued that religious communities carry potentialities to support processes of integration and that in the context of social marginalization these religious communities offer shelter and refuge for its members. This shelter turns out to be the prerequisite for social integration. Finally, an empirical study attests that religious practice can be a motivation for civil society engagement and thus turns out to be a benefit for social cohesion.