God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World

For anyone of faith, this book has to be a 'must read'. This is one of the best books I have read on the growth of contemporary Christianity across the globe. For some readers it will spell a bright future, while for others it could make depressing reading. If you are at all interested in where Christianity has come from in recent years and where it is headed, I strongly recommend you read 'God is Back'!

A few years ago, philosopher Daniel Dennett wrote a book - "Breaking the Spell," - that proposed to analyze religion from an evolutionary perspective. This book - "God is Back" - could serve as an interesting companion piece. In it, journalist John Micklethwait (of The Nation) proposes to examine religion through an economic lens. Just like businesses compete for customers via offering consumers a superior product, Micklethwait suggests that competing religions and sects can be analyzed in the same way: competing for members by offering rival products and filling different "market" niches. The first section of this book looks at a curious contradition that makes Micklethwait's case. In Wester Europe, there are a plethora of established "national" churches, but citizens' religiosity has long been on the decline. In the US, which has no established religion either nationally or by the states, religion has been flourishing. Why does a non-establishment of religion seem to strengthen, rather than weaken, religion? Because it encourages religions and sects to compete for members and leaves them free to experiment, innovate, tweak and advertise, all without having to consult with government. The big winners of this American laissez-faire attitude, according to Mickletwhait, has been the "hot" religions that speak to the raw emotions - fundamentalist faiths like methodism and pentacostalism (uncoincidantally, both American inventions). Like good businesses, religions advertise aggressively, offer consumers immediate gratification/payoff, and cater to what "customers" want. Unlike some of the more traditional or cerebral varieties of religious experience, these religions are more celebratory and less cumbersome. The next section focuses on how religions - and particularly Christianity - have embraced modern technology in order to get the word out, advertise, and grapple with a changing market (that is younger and more tech-attuned). We explore the phenomenon of mega-churches that are ruun more like bueinesses than country churches, a growing market for religious literature, film, and music, and religion's creative use of tools like the internet. Like any good businesses, religion uses whatever media prove to be the most effective in order to win new "clients" and keep current ones coming back. Lastly, we get to the section discussing religion's increasing presence in the world, from holy wars to the culture wars. To my eyes, this section is a bit far afield of what seems to be the book's general theme of religion's economy-like properties. But the author does do a good job in showing that, far from modernity marginalizing religion, modernity seems to be witnessing an increase of religious zeal and discussion (whether for good or ill.) Throughout this well-reasoned and thoughtful book, John Micklethwait takes a very neutral approach to religion. I suspect that he is a believing Christian, but the fact that I am not quite certain of that should s

One of the authors is a Catholic and the other an atheist. Micklethwait is editor-in-chief of The Economist and Wooldridge is head of that periodical's Washington desk. The book is a study of the relationship between modernity and religion. According to the authors, there are two main models for the future of this relationship -- which takes on added importance given the modernizing of India, China, S. America and parts of Africa. One is American the other is European. In the European one, modernity has crushed religion. Europe is highly and aggressively secularized. Religion may be tolerated as a very private affair, but is viewed with suspicion, its demise anticipated, and has no place in the broader culture (and especially not in politics). In America, on the other hand, religion and modernity not only co-exist, they are interrelated, bestowing benefits on each other. Religion remains a vital force in American culture, including in the political arena, though Americans have a more formal separation of church and state than Europe. Western academics have assumed that the European model was the future and that as the rest of the world modernized, they would become as radically secular as Europe. America, it was believed, was an aberration and was likely just lagging behind the Euro phenomenon. The authors reject this conclusion and believe that the American model is likely to be the prevailing model. The authors attribute much of this success to the American founder's solution to the "religion problem," by separating formally church and state and allowing religions to compete with each other but without excluding religious sentiment and expression from the public square. The result is competition and a religion that empowers its practitioners. The authors also note that in the U.S. churches provide billions of dollars in social services that in Europe are viewed as the exclusive domain of the state. In Europe, churches have been identified with the power of the monarch and other oppressive forces and accordingly were viewed with suspicion and hostility when revolutions displaced such authorities. Europeans also are much more likely to identify religion with the cause of strife and war given the history of religious wars on that continent. A history with which the U.S. has nothing to compare. Indeed, in the U.S., religions not only has placed a vital role in the delivery of social services but has also been identified with noble goals, such as the Abolitionist Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The history of Christianity and modernism is tracked throughout America's history, as well as its present interaction throughout the world. Want to learn about how Christianity is doing in China? Well covered. The spread of Pentacostalism in South America? Also discussed. What are Christians up to in South Korea? Read about it here. Each is not exhaustive of course, but it is a great place to get a flavor of what is going on in so many pla

The authors, who are journalists by trade, do an excellent job of summarizing recent findings in the sociology of religion that are challenging the long held assertions of secularization theory. More importantly, this book is a good answer to Trinity College's American Religious Identification Study (ARIS)making big headlines recently. The ARIS Study claims that the number of "non-religious" (poorly defined) has doubled since 1990, reaching 15% of the US poplation. This result, based upon bad sampling methodology and poor interpretatin of open-ended questions, is at odds with nearly every other survey showing the "non-religious" (who are not atheist or agnostic) as hovering around 10% of the population give or take a percentage point or two. This book reviews some of the sociological findings supporting the thesis that religious activity is alive and well in the US and around the world. Moreover, they also pepper the book with interesting anecdotes and fun stories that make the book read more like a "human interest" story in the newspaper. This is a book well done by a bunch of British chaps who are supposedly more intelligent and secular than us rednecks across the pond!

This is the latest of several topical, perceptive, and well-written books by Micklethwait and Wooldridge of The Economist. They take on the difficult and complex subject of how religion and politics relate throughout the world, and they argue persuasively about the compatibility of modernity and religion in the twenty-first century. Their analysis of religion in America is particularly brilliant, certainly the best explanation I've read of the rise of Evangelicalism and the popularity of megachurches. As in their previous books, Micklethwait and Wooldridge write with a combination of erudition and wit - vignettes of places like the Golgotha Fun Park in Kentucky make God Is Back an enjoyable read. I can fault the book only for its lack of photographs and other illustrations.