The Future of World Religions

Facts, Figures and Projections for 2050

Four decades ago, it seemed as if religions' influence on society was decreasing. Yet, religion is playing an even more important role today.

Alan Cooperman of the Pew Research Center has got the numbers: the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated are shrinking worldwide. At the GDI, Cooperman will offer a global outlook on the future of world religions. Based on demographic and migration data, he will predict which ones are expanding, which ones are declining – and state the consequences for society, politics and the economy.

If current global trends continue, he forecasts developments for 2050 such as:

Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population in Europe and will nearly equal Christians worldwide;
four out of ten Christians in the world will live in poor sub-Saharan Africa;
the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.

How will these trends affect Western societies? How will they influence global trade relations? And how will they change global politics?

Programme

18.00
David Bosshart, CEO, GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Introduction

18.10
Alan Cooperman, Director of religion research at the Pew Research Center
The Future of the World’s Great Religions: Which are growing, which are shrinking, and why

19.00
Paneldiscussion «The Future of World Religions – What Are the Impacts?»
with Alan Cooperman, Norbert Bolz and David Bosshart

19.30
Apéro riche and networking

Speakers

Alan Cooperman

Director of religion research at the Pew Research Center, a US-based non-hyphen partisan “fact tank”. Cooperman is an expert on religion’s role in US politics and has reported on religion in Russia, the Middle East and Europe. He is a former editor and reporter at The Washington Post.

Norbert Bolz

Professor of Media Studies at the Technical University of Berlin, zeitgeistphilosopher and trend analyst. Bolz is an important thinker on cultural development and author of numerous publications on media, marketing and communication.

David Bosshart

Dr. David Bosshart is CEO of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for Economic and Social Studies. Dr. David Bosshart holds a PhD in philosophy, is the author of numerous international publications and sought-after speaker worldwide. His work focuses on the future of consumption, societal transformation, digitisation (human-machine), management and culture, globalisation and political philosophy.

Informations

Date
13 June 2016

Price
CHF 190.–

Event location
GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Langhaldenstrasse 21
8803 Rüschlikon

Further
Language
English (simultaneous interpretation in German)

Documentation