ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that there is more to power relations and secularism. It proposes a re-evaluation and re-adaptation of the existing vocabulary from a transnational historical perspective, derived from alternative empirical strategies. The focus on the dominant character of secularism projects underestimates their subversive dynamics, which have historically been no less significant. Critiques of secularism in postcolonial societies argue that particularly in these societies, secularism has always been and still is an enterprise of state elites. The spatial strategies of the colonial government and the new role for Christian missionaries within the secular space of the New Villages complemented each other. Secularism projects assumed the form of violent social conflict between leftist and conservative social forces in the context of the Cold War. The Cold War created new latitude for local, but also transnational, religious organisations and thereby transformed the existing secularism projects.
