ABSTRACT
One function of religion in the modern West is to set communities apart from one another, not to integrate them. Each religious world-view by definition purports to possess an essential dimension of ultimate Truth, if not all Truth itself. Other religious communities with different worldviews are often perceived, therefore, to be custodians of a lesser truth, if not completely misguided. In many parts of the modern West religious communities find themselves part of a larger society that describes itself as secular, that is, a society whose structures do not institutionalize the vision of any one religious community. Consequently, not only does each religious group feel itself separate from other religious groups, but it is also conscious of its alienation from secular society, some of whose institutions it may find morally reprehensible.
