The preface recounts the intellectual history of the project, and how it originated in a realization about the similar role of religious elites and institutions in Greece and Turkey. It discusses the evolution of the project. Also, it describes how the author’s own attachment to the notion that secularization and the modernization unfold in tandem, and that state-imposed secularization is possible, took years to shed. The author notes that, similarly, some readers, especially those grounded in the Western tradition, may find themselves reluctant to embrace some of the insights and conclusions that emerge from this book. The author argues that the promise of secularization has always burned bright—perhaps too bright—and that is high time to question the concept and its link with modernization.