ABSTRACT
Considerable challenges arise from the interface between the religious communities and traditions of Europe, and the states and societies within which these religions are set. These challenges are likely to intensify in the present millennium and this underlines the need for concerted analysis, planning and action by all the peoples and institutions of Europe. This chapter offers several propositions that are the product of the author's personal, religious, academic, and professional engagements. Religious establishments that provide particular forms of religion with privileged access to the social and political institutions of various European states need to be re-evaluated. In the context of the struggles over who are 'insiders' and 'outsiders' in the stream of European history, 'cultural religionism' or 'religionized racism' can be stimulated when Christian identity is confused with, or subsumed in, other forms of ethnic, national or European belonging.
