Despite the once convincing thesis that religion would disappear as the world became “modern”, the role of religion in today’s world is perhaps as large, and possibly larger, than ever. This course allows the student to understand religion as it is practiced and politicized in today’s geopolitical landscape, in which it is as confictive as much as it cohesive—as, perhaps, has always been the case. The course examines the solutions that actors in the modern world have devised to attempt to arrest and minimize religious conflict by exploring the ideas around secularism/secularization, tolerance, pluralism, and religious freedom. We will unpack these concepts, i.e., their aspirations and shortcomings, in this course, allowing students to work through some recent controversies of religious conflict, in an effort to determine better and worse practices, and assess the state of inter and intra-religious dialogue today. The course draws on thinkers from the world over.