ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a new evidence of individual consciousness affecting the social system which indicates a need to merge both approaches, the Narrow and the Broad, to get a truer picture of both religion and the system, and how the system works. It summarizes the doctoral thesis, namely that individual religion is having a significant impact on that bit of the system which 'coordinates activities', to use Wilson's language. The chapter focuses on a study of a British government phenomenon, the Inner Cities Religious Council, administered by the Department of the Environment and provides a short narrative sketch of the work. Dedifferentiation – the blurring of the rationalized spheres of religion and state cannot be attributed to the promotion of minority religious agendas and the need to change the mechanisms of response to them. Paradoxically, the internal logic of secularization in a context of pluralism, liberalism and human rights has put other religions in the driving seat.
