Conclusion: Policies, Problems and Controversies

Abstract

Putting a book like this one together is a bit of a juggling act. This is not because of inefficiency on my part alone, though in this area of faiths at the public table I do sometimes feel that I am running up and down a line of spinning plates (to mix my circus metaphors). But public faith sits at the intersection of a number of arenas, both material and conceptual. It is this vantage point which makes it such an interesting phenomenon when thinking about the public table. In negotiating the range of civil society encounters, faiths illuminate many of the questions raised by the extension of the public table more generally. In doing so, they have a great deal of complexity to contend with to keep the plates spinning.