Researching Global Religious Landscapes

How should researchers navigate in a global landscape of religious and secular worldviews? This volume contributes an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of contemporary religion in a cross-cultural or global perspective. The chapters highlight quite different themes, from translation to sexuality and secularity, critically dismantling conceptions of, for example, the 'sacred individual', 'Eastern religions' and multiple belongings. Yet they are united in their search for signs that help us contest categorical cultural, religious and secular boundaries, methodologically, theoretically and epistemologically. The debate on universalism versus particularism simply cannot be put aside, and hence the implications of this dichotomy need to be further investigated.



This volume explores current challenges pertinent to cross-cultural research on religion in today's world. It reflects important aspects of global cultural and religious diversity. All chapters stem from the international research project 'Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective'. The project implemented a mixed-methods study in twelve different countries across the world. The chapters presented here univocally stress the importance

of using a sensitive analytical toolbox when investigating values and worldviews in an increasingly interconnected world. Nevertheless, such sensitivity needs to entail a capacity to move across boundaries and positions, giving voice to novel existential positions that do not fit within the traditional patterns of set religious and secular boundaries.