The third issue of “Madarat Gharbiya” highlights on the status of Christianity in the West in this post-modern era. What role does religion play in these secular societies? Are religion and state really separate in the western democracies?
 

• Dr. Mohamed Nehme, publisher of “Madarat Gharbiya” interviews the French philosopher Marcel Gauchet about his philosophical concepts regarding contemporary theology, religious sociology, and overall status of the church in the post-modernized West. Also discussed in this dialogue Gauchet’s most controversial theory, known as "the religion of the end of religion."
   
• Under the title “Contemporary Christianity,” Italian theologian Bruno Forte presents his deepest theological views on the trinity of faith, Ideology, and secularism in the post-modernization era of the West. Comparative to other great religions of the world, such as Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, Mr. Forte argues his views against the current status and position of Christianity in the west, Western Europe and North America, as well as in the east, Eastern Europe and Asia.
   
• German Catholic thinker, Hans Joachim Meyer, discusses in a speech titled “Religion and Politics in the Secular Society” the problematic relationship between religion and politics in the secular society, using unified Germany as a live model to study and diagnose the pros and cons in that relationship.
   
• Two new books are reviewed in this section: “One France without God – death and resurrection of Catholicism” by French journalist Henri Tincq and “Catholicism and the End of the World” by French researcher Danièle Hervieu-Léger. Both books discuss the widening gap between the Catholic church and the society, the systematic defect in the French theological institution, and the effects of all this on the religiosity and faith of individuals and social groups.
   
• “Religion and Politics in the United States” is the title of an article by Chip Berlet, an American political researcher who spent many years documenting right-wing political activities in the U.S. In this article, Mr. Berlet statistically analyses the political clout of the religious groups and their unprecedented influence on the decision making process in Washington.
   
• German writer Herman Barth discusses freedom of religion in a multi-religious society, citing Germany as a model in this regard.
  
  

• Argentinean thinker, Robine Dry, discusses the concept of “domination theology,” focusing on comprehensive and historical changes of the neo-liberal thoughts as represented by the Anglo-Saxon model. He also discusses the religious and philosophical roots of the neo-liberals, highlighting on the “theology of fate and destiny” theory, adopted by the neo-Calvinism in the U.S.
   
• Under the title “Religious Theology Between Creation and Revelation,” Yves Labbé, professor of Catholic theology at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, compares the views of two contemporary Jesuits, Christoph Theobald and Jacques Dupuis, regarding creation and revelation, in their search for a theological source of religious pluralism and multi-paths of salvation.
  
  

• A dialogue with French thinker Régis Debray centered on religion in the west, as a phenomenon that is increasingly effecting the public behavior. The subject, for Mr. Debray, seems to be explored merely on the edge of religiosity. He believes that sacredness is the best path taken to understand earthly matters.
   
• The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, talks to Roy Hattersley, from London-based “The Observer,” about a variety of political, social and theological issues related to the ongoing debate between the Anglican church and the secular mainstream in Britain.
  
  

• There are two articles in this section: The first explores a Vatican document – a set of advices to promote the use of the Internet as a means to strengthen the Christian faith. The second, by Raphaël Ntambue-Tshimbulu, focuses on the relationship between religiosity and the Internet.
  
  

• In these two sections of the issue, the reader finds a selection of documents, articles, and reviews that shed more light on the subject of Christianity in the West in a post-modernization era.