This second volume of the "Collected Works" brings together the most important writings of Hans Maier on political theology and political religions. Few other German thinkers have explored with comparable intensity the question of how religion is politically effective and can be in the modern world since 1945. Maier's rejection of the demand for a comprehensive politicization of the church is justified here, as is his critique of a political theology that seeks to derive a unity in the political actions of believers from a unity in faith. More than Maier's liberal plea for the plurality of the political, his contributions to the analysis of political religions have also gained international attention. In essays that have become foundational for the topic, Hans Maier traces the religious interpretative patterns with which the totalitarianisms of...