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God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World |
Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed that modernisation would kill religion, and that religious America is an oddity, but religion is surging all over the world: nations that swore off faith in the last century, or even tried to stamp it out, are now run by avowedly religious leaders, and the de-stabilising effects of religion can be seen far from Iraq or the ruins of the World Trade Centre.
God Is Back argues that religion and modernity can thrive together, and that the American way of religion is becoming the norm, sparked by the failure of communism, the rise of globalisation and fuelled, above all, by market competition and a customer-driven approach to salvation. John Micklethwait is the editor of the Economist. His latest book is God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World.
John Micklethwait is the editor of the Economist. He has written four books with Adrian Wooldridge: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalisation, The Witchdoctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus and The Right Nation: Why America is Different. His latest book is God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World.
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October 27th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
“Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed that modernisation would kill religion”
I don’t think I hear the voice of, say, a Michael Sharma ‘assuming’ such a proposition, only that prosperity and progress would keep the wolf in check for a while.
“God Is Back argues that religion and modernity can thrive together, and that the American way of religion is becoming the norm”
Jeezuus christ I hope not, if that means propH8ist, anti ‘Darwinist’ anti-’Scientism’ist Palinites running amuck surrendering the ‘fruit-fly research’ to China then we are gonna accompany them in their swan-dive off the perch.
“market competition and a customer-driven approach to salvation”
I don’t know how he argues it in the book, perhaps it limits itself to rather parochial matters, anyway, the fast-growing one does not deal in ‘salvation’ – it’s about submission.
Then again, the one’s purporting be concerned with ‘salvation’ were never really about that anyway were they?, whether it was ‘antichrist’ popes selling the rich their indulgences, or evangelists fleecing gullible widows to fill up their Learjet, it’s always been the same old protection racket.
The only intellectual card they ever had worth heeding was the promise that they could inculcate fear of a diviners ‘the Moral Law’ to hold back the amorals from slitting your throat in your sleep.
Too right it will be back with a vengeance (in time)
7 billion people, the deadly maths of Malthus, and the coming ‘Energy Desert’ guarantee the 4 horsemen are galloping this way.
Cassandra.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Sorry, random ‘intellectual’ was supposed to be Simon Schama (not a composite of him and Michael Shermer!)