Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Religion, spirituality and the postcolonial: a perspective from the south / Duncan Brown -- South African Constitutional Court's reading of the right to freedom of religion / Patrick Lenta -- Faith-based organisations, local governance and citizenship in South Africa / Laurence Piper -- Thabo Mbeki's Bible: the role of religion in the South African public realm after liberation / Gerald West -- Islamisation and Muslim institutions/organisations in South Africa / Suleman Dangor -- Modern pagan witch: negotiating a contested religious identity in post-apartheid South Africa / Dale Wallace -- Decline of Islamist discourse and the rise of new spiritualities in South African Islam? / Tahir Fuzile Sitoto -- Exorcising the past: voices for the present / Michael Green -- Eastern mosaic: shades of Hindu women in South African media / Subeshini Moodley -- Remembering the Bushmen: nostalgia and postcolonial spiritualities / Dennis Walder -- 'Speaking with our spirits': the representation of religion in Marlene van Niekerk's Agaat / Cheryl Stobie -- Building a new society using the building blocks of Ubuntu/Botho/Vhuthu / Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane -- Mediation of public and private selves in the performance of sermons and narratives of near-death experiences in the Nazarite Church / Nkosinathi Sithole -- Afterword: Embedded knowledges and the challenges of the postcolonial project / Ahmed Bawa.

"Religion and spirituality are closely woven into the fabric of South African public and private life - though not always seamlessly or in matching thread. This book is concerned with the role of religion and spirituality in individual identity and belief, as well as in the public spheres of governance and policy-making. It brings together significant researchers from various disciplinary perspectives, ranging from law and politics to theology, literature and media studies, with the aim of investigating new critical approaches to religion and spirituality, particularly in the postcolony/South. The authors engage seriously with the challenge of accounting for the range and power of religious and spiritual discourses that run through individual and communal identification. This volume provides stimulation for further thought and work in this crucial area of South African, and postcolonial, study and life"--Cover.