This book explores key themes and issues confronting modern Catholicism. Bringing together cutting-edge research in the field of religious studies and the sociology of religion, it offers a systematic overview of the global Church in its contemporary context. It examines Catholicism from a social scientific perspective, and provides an analysis of a major global social institution from the point of view of its presence in a range of diverse social settings. Topics covered include Catholicism and post-secularism; digital Catholicism; Catholic practice in the context of modernity; global Catholicism in a multi-faith world; Catholicism and world politics; the tensions between Catholic thought and social action; the Church's relations with major faiths such as Judaism and Islam; and religion and social change driven by modernity.