ABSTRACT
Religion and languageas constituted in Western liberal democratic settingsdiffer in several fundamental ways that shape the politicization of religious and linguistic difference in contemporary Western liberal democratic settings. There are good theoretical reasons for studying religion in relation to language, in the context of a broader concern with the politics of difference. Language is a medium of communication, and in modern conditions it is also a key medium of identification and a potent symbol of belonging. Linguistic difference became politically charged only with the development and global diffusion of the modern state. The upshot is that religion has tended to displace language as the cutting edge of contestation over the political accommodation of cultural differencea striking reversal of the longer term historical process through which language had displaced religion as the primary focus of contention.
