Georges Korm is a philosopher, economist, author of many remarkable books on the history of Western Europe and the countries of the Middle East.In this book, he turns to an analysis of the rise of religious sentiment in the last decades of the 20th century and at the beginning of the century present. It is they who are becoming today the dominant factor in world politics, one of the key issues in the construction of modern society and, most importantly, the most acute of the existing (along with environmental problems) problems of humanity as a whole and of each country, each society in particular. Islamic terrorism, problems of social and cultural integration, religious intolerance and, finally, wars based on religious contradictions - all this is the reality of today | and only by trying to see, to understand the most complex fabric of interconnections - philosophical, historical, political - can we hope to get out of the impasse into which modern civilization has entered. After all, religion today is not only a banner of struggle, not only a moral guideline - but also a means actively used in the interests of various groups, an instrument of pressure, an instrument for achieving goals that are sometimes too far from religion.