Introduction

The first edition of this handbook was published in 2009. Now, nearly a decade later, the publisher has requested a second edition. As editor, I was fortunate to be able to gather together again nearly all the original, eminent contributors for the second edition. I asked them to update their chapters and to include new material that would reflect ten years of development in our understanding of religion and politics and international relations. The result of the contributors’ and my efforts are collected in the book you are now reading.