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

~ (Author), Adrian Wooldridge (Author)
Key Phrases: United States, Saudi Arabia, White House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Diana Butler Bass Conventional analysis of contemporary faith divides the world into two camps of political engagement: liberal secularists, who reject any role for religion in public life, and conservative believers, who strive for a Christian or Muslim state. As a result, discussions on religion and politics degenerate into arguments over excising religion from or adding more religion to public life. Readers who subscribe to this dualistic view will be surprised by "God Is Back." At first glance, the title gives the impression that John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge are arguing for an international faith-based political agenda. But this is a cool-headed book, more analytical than partisan, marked by crisp prose and well-formed insights into politics and policy. Although the authors are sympathetic to religion, they recognize its limits and problems, especially the tensions between fundamentalist forms of Christianity and Islam. While explaining the worldwide renewal of faith, they also examine the flash points of religion and politics. In the end, they criticize both secularists and believers. They argue that the main fault lies not with religion but with the "union of religion and power," used coercively. They urge their readers to move beyond a good/bad view of religion toward a more thoughtful approach that considers the role of churches in strengthening economies, providing meaningful work and reducing poverty. A historical question frames the book: Is modernity hostile to religion? The authors give two answers. First, the French Revolution proposed that religion itself was problematic and that societies should embrace secularism. Second, America's founders envisioned that religious freedom and its resulting competition might foster a healthy interplay of faith and politics in public life. "God Is Back" argues that while Europe has followed the French model of secularism, the American model of religious tolerance seems to be prevailing in the world today. The book opens with an American evangelical-style Bible study in Shanghai, where the pastor proclaims: "In Europe the church is old. Here it is modern. Religion is a sign of higher ideals and progress. Spiritual wealth and material wealth go together. That is why we will win." These words echo the American view that economic prosperity meshes with religious freedom. This vignette supports the book's main point: that religion and modernity are not at odds, that, in the American mode, they can function together to create prosperity and individual freedom. Historians have been making similar arguments for several decades. But "God Is Back" moves beyond the standard analysis to argue that religion offers people a wide range of additional social rewards beyond economic ones, including comfort, community and meaning. Because modern life tends to cut people off from tradition, it creates a longing to reconnect that religion can satisfy. Thus, the more advanced a country becomes, the greater its people's need for faith to fill in the gaps left by cultural change. But the atheists keep asking, Isn't religion the primary source of conflict in the world today? Wouldn't a secular world be less violent? Can radically different religions get along in the modern world? The authors say yes, no and yes. They admit the conflicts but insist that the American model provides a hopeful template for religious pluralism and mutual tolerance. I have a few quibbles with their argument. In the historical sections, they depend too heavily on evangelical historians, thus giving their overview of American religion -- and Christianity in general -- an overwhelmingly Protestant cast. In addition, they accept the theory that people choose religion rationally on the basis of its social benefits; this is a hotly debated topic in religious studies. As journalists, however, Micklethwait and Wooldridge excel: Their eye for detail, ability to see the other side of the story, sense of nuance and irony are all highly developed. "God is Back" is an intelligent account of contemporary religion and the role it might play in making the modern world more open, tolerant and peaceful. In the end, the authors confess that their basic message "is a profoundly liberal one." Complete religious freedom -- including the freedom to reject religion -- is the best human path to the future. To that it can be hoped that people say: Amen.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594202133
• ISBN-13: 978-1594202131
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,703 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Topical, perceptive, and well-written, April 8, 2009

By	Perdix (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

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.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Prepared to Learn a Lot, May 24, 2009

By	C. Price "Layman, Lawyer, Blogger" (Southern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 places.

Islam is also covered, including its spreading influence in Europe, though its interaction with modernity less a match made in heaven than is Christianity's. Hinduism and Buddhism are also discussed, but in much less detail.

I highly recommend this book. In addition to helpfully examining the big picture, God is Back is full of anecdotes and witty observations that never fall to the level of condescension. A few comments seem under informed and some sections seemed a forced fit, but these are minor drawbacks of a highly informative and well written book.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Readable Summary of Recent Sociological Research, April 10, 2009

By	Dmitri Ulinov (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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!