God is Back
Illustration by Kristina DmatteoThe New York Times reviewed a recent book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. I mention it for a couple of interrelated reasons: 1) because it is yet another example of journalists (in this case from The Economist) trying to make some sense of the return of religion in global civil society today; and 2) because they are journalists it is likely going to make this highly complex phenomena accessible to a wider audience. I'm teaching a course this coming fall of the return of religion in the west and it is precisely because of the wider recognition of the new visibility of religion that more rigorous academic reflection on the topic is needed. This is as true for theologians who must bring the nuance of their discipline to bear upon the inner logics and workings of western Christianity today, as it is for students studying religion from a broadly social and phenomenological perspective. I've blogged a bit about this need in relation to Mark Lilla's The Stillborn God some time ago, but the point remains. We need these kinds of books to foster broader public interest and understanding of religion today, but these texts are in no way exhaustive and sometimes struggle in the details. Increasingly, no student can afford to leave university without some understanding of what religion means for today's world.
New Visibility of Religion
Reader Comments (1)
I think you make a valid point about the increasing need for an understanding of religion in academia. I wonder about the role of religion as population density keeps rising and there is no longer any immediately available, isolated frontier.
I wrote a brief note citing this book and linking to your blog entry:
Freedom of Religion, Globalization and Power
Your upcoming class on the rise of religion sounds fascinating, particularly "the end of metaphysics."