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God Is Back |
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| Book: Hardcover | 6.14 x 9.25in | 416 pages | ISBN 9781594202131 | 02 Apr 2009 | The Penguin Press | 18 - AND UP |
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Two Economist writers show how and why religion is booming around the world and reveal its vast effects on the global economy, politics, and more
On the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging worldwide. From Russia to Turkey to India, nations that swore off faith in the last century—or even tried to stamp it out—are now run by avowedly religious leaders. Formerly secular conflicts like the one in Palestine have taken on an overtly religious cast. God Is Back shines a bright light on this hidden world of faith, from exorcisms in São Paulo to religious skirmishing in Nigeria, to televangelism in California and house churches in China.
Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed that modernization would kill religion—and that religious America is an oddity. As God Is Back argues, religion and modernity can thrive together, and America is becoming the norm. Many things helped spark the global revival of religion, including the failure of communism and the rise of globalism. But, above all, twenty-first century religion is being fueled by a very American emphasis on competition and a customer- driven approach to salvation. These qualities have characterized this country’s faith ever since the Founders separated church and state, creating a religious free market defined by entrepreneurship, choice, and personal revelation. As market forces reshape the world, the tools and ideals of American evangelism are now spreading everywhere.
The global rise of faith will have a dramatic and far- reaching impact on our century. Indeed, its destabilizing effects can already be seen far from Iraq or the World Trade Center. Religion plays a role in civil wars from Sri Lanka to Sudan. Along the tenth parallel, from West Africa to the Philippines, religious fervor and political unrest are reinforcing each other. God Is Back concludes by showing how the same American ideas that created our unique religious style can be applied around the globe to channel the rising tide of faith away from volatility and violence.
God Is Back
Part One. Two Roads To Modernity
One. The European Way: The Necessity of Atheism
Two. The American Way I: The Chosen Nation (1607-1900)
Three. The American Way II: Surviving the Acids of Modernity (1880-2000)
Four. Bush, Blair, Obama and the God Gap (2000-2008)
Part Two. God's Country
Five. Pray, Rabbit, Pray: Soulcraft and the American Dream
Six. The God Business: Capitalism and the Rise of Religion
Seven. Empires of the Mind: God and the Intellectuals
Part Three. God's Empire
Eight. Exporting America's God
Nine. All That Is Holy Is Profaned: Exporting American Materialism
Part Four. God's Wars
Ten. The Bible Versus the Koran: The Battle of the Books and the Future of Two Faiths
Eleven. The New Wars of Religion
Twelve. The Culture Wars Go Global
Conclusion. Learning to Live with Religion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
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