Toleranz - Religion - Recht

Crucifix, headscarf, caricatures - three keywords which can be regarded as symbolic of a development which has taken place during the past years. There has been a distinct increase in the public debates on the position of religion in society. It is obvious that the model of a democratic society which would prefer to reduce religion to the status of a primarily private matter has come up against limiting factors. Based on a description of the situation of religion in modern society as well as an exact analysis of the judicial decision pertaining to crucial cases, Karl-Heinz Ladeur and Ino Augsberg show how the problem of the complex and tense relationship between the state, society and religion cannot be solved completely, but that it can however be given a different character in the sense of a new and dynamic modus vivendi.