Georg Klein's talk from the 2006 Holberg Prize Symposium. The symposium was held in honor of Holberg Prize laureate 2006 Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Eisenstadt has been making important contributions to social theory for more than 50 years. He combines sociological theory with historical and empirical research in his studies of modernity and civilisations, and has had great influence in sociology, political science, history, religious studies and anthropology. Georg Klein is Professor of Medicine (tumor biology), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm . The symposium was held at the University of Bergen, Norway. Moderaters were Professor Björn Wittrock from The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, at the Universitetet i Uppsala and Professor Frank Aarebrot from the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway. Less