Book excerpt: Recently, cultural and religious traditions have raised new broad and intensive attention in different areas of scholarship. This is especially true with reference to two important theoretical and practical questions: (1) How do cultural and religious traditions work and develop in the context of modern societies? and (2) How do they work and develop in the context of globalization when they are forced to meet each other in a radical new way? The main goal of this volume is to present a representative survey of the international discussion on a theory of cultural and religious traditions, in order to stimulate interdisciplinary and international collaboration. Representatives of all relevant disciplines and approaches have contributed to this volume. Siegfried Wiedenhofer is professor of systematic theology at the University of Frankfurt, Department of Catholic Theology.