The belief in a governing, universal, celestial principle has followed us through human history. More than 80 per cent of the world's population has a religious affiliation and even in secular states, religion continues to play an important role. Politics and international relations today cannot be understood without accounting for the element of religion in cultural contexts. The essays in this book derive from the Engelsberg Seminar of 2014, and investigate the role which religion plays in society today and in the past. They also explore religion as a phenomenon in relation to the human condition and how it manifests itself as an individual experience. In order to understand ourselves, do we need to understand religion?With: Reza Aslan, University of California; Esther Benbassa, Université Paris-Sorbonne; Benedetta Berti, Tel Aviv University; Jessica Frazier, University of Kent; Armin W. Geertz, Aarhus University; Ariel Glucklich, Georgetown University; Martin Goodman, Oxford University; Wouter J. Hanegraaff, University of Amsterdam; Gary Lachman, Writer and lecturer; Julius J.

Lipner, University of Cambridge; Diarmaid Macculloch, Oxford University; Janne Haaland Matláry, University of Oslo; Simon May, King's College in London; Richard Miles, University of Sydney; Candida R. Moss, University of Birmingham; William O'Reilly, Cambridge University; Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge; Elaine Pagels, Princeton University; Wolfgang Palaver, University of Innsbruck; Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam; Daniel T. Potts, New York University; Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Lancaster University; Göran Rosenberg, Writer and journalist; Malise Ruthven, Writer; John Scheid, Collège de France; Mona Siddiqui, Edinburgh's Divinity School; Pär Stenbäck, Writer and journalist; Jayne Svenungsson, Lund University; Harvey Whitehouse, University of Oxford; A.N. Wilson, Writer; and Adrian Wooldridge, Editor of The Economist.