Starting from William James' 1902 study "The Varieties of Religious Experience," Charles Taylor traces the shifts in the relationship between religion, the individual, and society, from the spiritual and the political to the present day. The retreat of the religious from the public sphere has not confined religion to the private realm; rather, behind this process lies a cultural revolution: modern expressive individualism has given rise to a variety of new forms and communities of religion that interact with traditional forms and transform society. The place of religion must be redefined.