This text provides a comparative overview of the relationship between religion and politics, covering Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. It examines how and whether societal development has led to nations becoming more secular as they have modernized. The book explores how religion, far from fading from political relevance, has assumed an important role within many cultures. It analyzes the effects associated with modernization, such as socio-economic and political change, involving: urbanization; industrialization; centralization of government; and the insertion of national economies into a world economic system. The book also examines religion as accountable to structural and systematic attributes and developments, and yet how it also reflects the characteristics of the culture which produces it.