ABSTRACT
The contributors whose chapters appear in this volume have all addressed the implications of the conference’s subtitle – paradigms of power and persuasion – within the context of the conceptual intersections embodied in the institutional trinity: civil society, religion and global governance. All have focused on salient aspects of the secular state whose monopoly on, and control of, institutional violence has reified its use of power to such an extent that the modernistic separation of church and state is being called into question, as institutional limits are sought to the abuse of that power. Many of the chapters in this volume look to the notion of ‘civil society’ as the balancing factor with the capacity to restrict predatory state behaviour, whether in the political, economic or social sectors of human society. Yet they are also conscious that ‘civil society’ itself can be flawed, predatory, violent or corrupt, in fact, not necessarily a panacea for socio-political ills.
