The reconstruction of religious arenas in the framework of 'multiple modernities'

This paper analyses the far-reaching resurgence of the religious dimension in the contemporary world, in the framework of the continual development of 'multiple modernities'. It is a part of the story of continual development and formation, constitution and reconstitution of a multiplicity of cultur al programs of modernity and of distinctively modern institutional patterns . Contemporary religious movements attempt to completely dissociate Western isation from modernity. They deny the monopoly or hegemony of Western moder nity, and the acceptance of the Western modern cultural program as the epit ome of modernity. In the context of these new social movements, the confron tation with the West does not take the form of a search to become incorpora ted into a hegemonic-predominantly Western-civilisation but rather in attem pts to appropriate modernity on their own distinctly modern terms.