As late as the 1980s, religiously motivated rituals were still regarded in this country as an endangered species, seen as archaic remnants of at best folkloristic or entertainment industrial interest, which would no longer have any significance in a globalized, highly technological, and increasingly secularized world. Twenty years later, this situation has changed radically. Old rituals live on, new ones are invented, imported, or are pushing into Europe from other parts of the world. Excesses of violence that seem to break into Western societies from outside often prove to be ritualistically grounded and have their European resonances and counterparts. In view of this, Thomas Hauschild develops a new view of rituals and their connection with resentment and violence. Beyond idealization and demonization, from "enlightened West" and "rüc.".