How should we deal with religious diversity in the public sphere of liberal-democratic societies? And more specifically, what does ‘good citizenship’ mean, and which forms of religion and secularity are appropriate in contexts of religious diversity? In order to answer question such as these, I analyse recent controversies about religious issues, for instance:

• the public display of images that many religious people experience as offensive and disrespectful (e.g. Andres Serrano’s art work ‘Piss Christ’, or Muhammad cartoons);
• the practice of not shaking hands with the opposite sex as an example of a bodily practice that disrupts and unsettles culturally predominant expectations and norms of civility;
• publicly shared time, for instance, the official calendar that includes holy days of certain religions (albeit in culturalised forms), but not of others, and the public commemoration – or ‘oblivion’ – of the past.

I approach such controversies from a political philosophical perspective that is informed by current research in anthropology, history, political theory, religious studies and sociology. I am particularly interested in how normative principles such as freedom of religion and moral and political equality are invoked, and how they actually function in liberal-democratic and pluralistic societies. Moreover, I inquire which formal and informal institutions, norms, values and sensibilities enable or hamper people with different religions to fully participate in social and political interactions.

The final aim of this research is to provide a political philosophical theory that includes a concept of citizenship on the one hand, and a critical theory of religion and secularity on the other hand. This will allow us to better understand conflicts such as those mentioned above, and to develop even-handed solutions for societies that aspire to be open and resilient with respect to the challenges resulting from religious diversity.