God Is Back by John Micklethwait & Adrian WooldridgeThis is a fascinating book, written by the editor of the
Economist and its Washington bureau chief. It is about 75 pages too long, and can be repetitive, but it is definitely worth digging into. It is divided into four sections, so I will review it under those four headings.
Two Roads to ModernityGod Is Back begins with an exploration of the very different approaches to religion in Europe and America. The two most developed continents are so different religiously that they seem a world apart, yet the authors contend that Europe is more likely to move in the direction of America’s religiosity than America is to become more secular. The global trajectory is with people of faith.
Faith in God can just not be stamped out. For example, after decades of government imposed atheism, post-communist Russia is a deeply religious place, with 84 percent of Russians saying they believe in God.
Richard Dawkins may consider believers to be dunderheads but the evidence is in that Christianity leads to an increase in prosperity. The Church in China is growing especially fast among the newly educated, prosperous class who look at American religion and American business and see a model to follow.
In addition to this, the religious have more babies, so simple reproductive maths means the numbers of believers is likely to increase.
The European model since the Enlightenment has been – at best – dismissive of religion. The French revolution was profoundly anti-clerical, and Micklethwait & Wooldridge survey the challenges to belief presented by Marx, Darwin, the Tubingen School of higher criticism, and Freud. While the European elite embraced secularism, America has always been different. In a fascinating section the authors relate how Bill Clinton, who we might imagine as godless, is actually deeply religious, attending Pentecostal summer camps every year from 1977 until he ran for President; something unimaginable in a European politician. During Bush’s Presidency over half the White House staff attended Bible study meetings.
In another challenge to conventional wisdom, the authors claim that America was not particularly religious at first but that church attendance began to rocket after Independence when a religious ‘market economy’ was born. In 1776 only 17 percent of Americans went to church. By 1850 it was 34 percent. And that trend has continued while church going in Europe has seen a corresponding fall.
The emergence of the religious right in America has loomed as a bogeyman for many Europeans, but the authors show how the religious right overreached itself, and is not the force it is often imagined to be.
God’s CountryThis section of the book concentrates exclusively on America and highlights the social capital created by faith. The evidence is that religion makes people happier, and also far more generous. In Philadelphia alone the churches provide the equivalent of $250,000 million worth of social services.
At the same time American Pentecostalism has morphed into a health and wealth gospel that seems to have far more in common with big business than the teachings of Christ. The appalling series of
Left Behind novels have brought in $650 million, and there are a circle of high-profile pastors who enjoy the fruits of their multi-million dollar enterprises. T.D. Jakes owns a Bentley and private jet, as do Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar. Joel Osteen’s Lakewood church raises more than a million dollars a week in offerings.
God’s EmpireOut of the entrepreneurial zeal of America, American Pentecostalism has been spread to the world. Throughout the developing world it is not only Coca-Cola and MacDonald’s who have conquered – culturally American Christianity also holds sway. But in the developing world Pentecostalism has been perfected and is now returning reinvigorated to America.
Just as American branding is more valuable than the actual products created, so American Christianity has a brand value that is traded around the world. “Intangible” assets, such as brand names, account for 70 percent of the value of companies in the S&P 500 and there are pastors and churches who are able to franchise their operations around the world.
God’s WarsThe final section of God Is Back concentrates on the relationship between secularism, Christianity and Islam. Like Christianity, Islam is riding a wave of global expansion, in large part funded by Saudi oil money. Both religions are doing all they can to spread their message. This is represented by the number of Bibles and Korans being printed,
“Over a hundred million copies of the Bible are sold or given away every year. Annual Bible sales are worth between $425 million and $650 million; Gideon’s International gives away a Bible every second.”
Since 9/11 there has been a lot of nervous talk about the “Islamification” of the West, but the authors are sceptical about this:
“Christianity has expanded massively since the sixteenth century, thanks to the dynamism of first Europe, then the United States. During the same period Islam, which once controlled three of the world’s economic superpowers – the Ottoman Empire, Persia and India – has suffered from repeated setbacks. The territory ruled by Islam has been shrinking since the Ottomans were turned back at the gates of Vienna in 1683… The total GDP of the Arab League, which contains twenty-two countries and three hundred million people, is about the same size of that of Spain… The annual ranking of the world’s top universities… includes not a single Arab institution, compared with six in tiny Israel… More books are translated into Spanish every year than have been translated into Arabic in the past millennium.”
The authors do recognize the challenges presented by radical Islam, and argue the solution lies in America promoting in Muslim nations what it did in its own history – separating Church from State and allowing pluralism.
This book should be a must read for all Christians interested in the interplay of culture, politics and faith; but it should also be read by sceptical Europeans who regard religion as obscure and irrelevant.
The authors might think God is back – the truth is he never went away.
