Southeast Asia is a crossroads of many religiousinfluences, which have always been treatedsyncretically. One precondition for this basicallypeaceful syncretism is the fact that the differentreligious communities largely eschew orthodoxy andcontent themselves with their followers’ commitmentto a particular ritual practice (orthopractice). Asa result, the superseding of indigenous religions byIslam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other world religionshas been left incomplete. As a result, todaySoutheast Asia still presents a highly complexculturally and religiously dynamic picture.

The striving for supremacy of certain world religionsis a relatively recent phenomenon in Southeast Asia.It is taking place in the wake of an expansion ofthe scriptural religions and their interpretation asmonotheisms. Although these monotheistic religionslargely appear to have superseded indigenousbeliefs, in local conditions not only these beliefsbut also the mechanisms of conflict regulation theyhave shaped have both survived. One of thesemechanisms is religious practice organized notexactly along confessional lines, but ratherincorporating adherents of different religiouscommunities ritually and committing them normativelyto common values. In this way, in many parts ofSoutheast Asia a local ethos has survived inconfronting processes of globalization.

This local ethos draws sustenance from therevitalization of putative traditions, which havesimultaneously been subjected to an innovativeprocess of reinterpretation. In this process,moments of a flexible and reflexive confrontationwith both expanding world religions and Westernmodernity can be recognized. Against thisbackground, indigenous religions function not leastas a resource for a critique of modernization. As aresult, the creative re-appropriation of traditionalbeliefs not only has far-reaching impacts oninterethnic relations, but also casts new light onold theoretical conceptions, such as magic andmodernity.

The present volume deals with magic and modernity andasks about their current significance for thedynamics of religion in Southeast Asia. Inaltogether thirteen articles it is demonstrated howreligious conceptions and magic practices contributeto meeting the challenges of modernity. Against thisbackground, religion and modernity are no longerperceived as existing in contradiction; rather, itis argued that a revision of the western notion ofreligion is required to understand the complexity of‘multiple modernities’ in a globalized world.