WORLD RELIGIONS

AN OVERVIEW OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

Abstract

Most of the world religions have come of age in the second millennium confronting their internal conflicts and encountering the challenge of other cultural and religious forces. The European renaissance and enlightenment guided by the spirit of rationalism in the modern period seem to have necessitated a process of secularization leading to the emergence of a mutually distancing framework for religions and the scientific and humanistic culture. The present number of Journal of Dharma primarily concentrate on the internal conflict religions have faced in the second millennium, preparing their way to reckon with the postreligious discourses of the postmodernity.