Some questions for religion, law, and governance

From Hong & Provost on Religion in Contemporary Law & Politics:

• Has "religion" indeed taken the place of "culture" as a center of political tension and social integration? 

• How have liberal democracies faced the rise of religion in the age of multiculturalism? 

• Do religious and ethnic groups pose similar challenges to modern liberal societies, or are these challenges significantly different? 

• Has the traditional struggle for "religious freedom" been transformed to a struggle for political recognition in line with the more contemporary "politics of identity"? 

• Are contemporary discussions of a "post-secular" society similar to those of "multi-cultural" societies? 

• Are notions of religious belief being merged with cultural practices to enlarge the constitutionally protected autonomy of minorities? 

• Can this destabilize societies viewing themselves as multicultural by relying on a common foundation presented as secular? 

• Can the notion of "citizenship" escape any religious overtone, given the significance of religious beliefs in the identities of so many groups constituting modern societies? 

• Is "secularization" itself, as some have argued, "culturally biased"? 

• Is "culture" in the final analysis nothing more than a "secularized" version of (Christian?) "religion"? More generally, what is the philosophical and legal sense of "religion" and "culture"? 

• Have these concepts and the phenomena they represent undergone a historical change?

• Are we in need of new concepts, doctrines and theories to comprehend and resolve the new challenges of religious revival in the post-multicultural age?