When Adrian Wooldridge was an undergraduate at Oxford he was not well known for his sympathy towards Christianity, so it was a pleasure to learn so much about the faith from his pen.
Every page is worth reading, but the best part of the book was on Christianity in America. As the authors end their section on the decline of faith in Europe, we are introduced to a young American student in Oxford in the 1960's who `shared none of the careless atheism of his British contempories or Oxford students'. Indeed the future President Clinton, much maligned by the religious right, was a very genuine Christian. He shared none of the 1960's `careless atheism', because by and large, his country did not. While the authors rightly focused on the separation of religion from the state as providing the overall context for Christianity's success in the USA, they did not ignore the impact of the revivalists and preachers.
All the famous ones, past and present, receive attention: Jonathan Edwards, Dwight Moody, William Seymour, Aimee McPherson, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberson, James Dobson, Rick Warren Bill Hybels, and others.
And not only the famous: there is a fascinating section on the unknown Pastor Richard Smith who started preaching aged fifteen and now works in a rough area of Philadelphia. It's obvious that one of the authors, probably Adrian Wooldridge since he used to be based in Washington, has spent time with Richard Smith. Crusading atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins view people like Pastor Smith as peddlers of medieval poison. While Wooldridge elsewhere in print has said he is still an atheist (when, interestingly, writing about Jesus Christ as the most important figure in world history), it is clear he shares none of Hitchens' or Dawkins' dogmatic hostility to the Christian faith, as it is also clear he admires the work of Richard Smith, and by implication, thousands of others like him. This hands on knowledge of the American Christian scene, combined with the confident thesis that religion there has thrived because the pluralism created by the separation of faith from the state, makes this main section of the book one of the best pieces of writing on American Christianity around today.
When the authors got onto other religions, the buzz of the book was not so strong. There was the irritation of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity all having the same God. And then the `God is Back' theme only works for the Christian West. There has been no comparable decline of religion in the Middle East or Asia due to secularism. Even the seemingly modern feel of the Shah's Iran in the 1960's and 1970's was a mirage, only appearing in the cities. In the thousands of small towns and villages people were solidly religious. And finally there was a mixed message on Islam. We have this odd assertion, `The idea that Islam is incompatible with the modern world is clearly untrue', followed later by a reminder that apostasy is a punishable crime in Islamic countries. The authors could have added that the punishment in question is death for the male apostate and life imprisonment for the female, unless she repents. If modern means free choice, Islam with its apostasy laws is not compatible with the modern world.
In some ways the book would have been purer if it had just focused on the success of American Christianity. The authors return to this success in their conclusion, arguing convincingly that it is something that both believer and secularist can celebrate because it depends on the oxygen of liberalism: individual free choice. The authors then aptly end with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: `when a religion is good...it will support itself....', but if it needs state support, this is a `sign...of it being a bad one.'
This is a wonderfully optimistic view, indeed a very American view, that if people support something, then it is probably good. And it asks the likes of Hitchens and Dawkins to calm down, trust people more, and be less arrogant towards believers. In the context of the debate between believers and atheists in the West this book comes up with the best answer: let's all say `Amen' to the importance of free choice.
But that shared `Amen' between believers and secularists only makes sense in the West, in civilisations moulded by Christianity and the enlightenment which guarantee the centrality of the individual. There is no such `Amen' from the minarets of Muslim lands, or the temples of India where the identity of the community is much more important than the individual. And if the Allah of Islam is back with his apostasy laws or the gods of Hinduism are back with their caste system, then the `Amen' for individual choice will have to wait until more Christians give their lives to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For wherever that Gospel has gone, individual freedom has flourished. Where the Gospel is rejected, as in Afghanistan or North Korea, there is no individual freedom.
This is an excellent book with an excellent thesis, but it needs to be taken further: individual freedom makes for a happier society, and Christianity has proved to be a strong anchor for individual freedom. So, publications like the Economist, advocates of liberalism, should be more open in supporting the faith that has done more than any other movement in human history to give man freedom: Christianity.
Every page is worth reading, but the best part of the book was on Christianity in America. As the authors end their section on the decline of faith in Europe, we are introduced to a young American student in Oxford in the 1960's who `shared none of the careless atheism of his British contempories or Oxford students'. Indeed the future President Clinton, much maligned by the religious right, was a very genuine Christian. He shared none of the 1960's `careless atheism', because by and large, his country did not. While the authors rightly focused on the separation of religion from the state as providing the overall context for Christianity's success in the USA, they did not ignore the impact of the revivalists and preachers.
All the famous ones, past and present, receive attention: Jonathan Edwards, Dwight Moody, William Seymour, Aimee McPherson, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberson, James Dobson, Rick Warren Bill Hybels, and others.
And not only the famous: there is a fascinating section on the unknown Pastor Richard Smith who started preaching aged fifteen and now works in a rough area of Philadelphia. It's obvious that one of the authors, probably Adrian Wooldridge since he used to be based in Washington, has spent time with Richard Smith. Crusading atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins view people like Pastor Smith as peddlers of medieval poison. While Wooldridge elsewhere in print has said he is still an atheist (when, interestingly, writing about Jesus Christ as the most important figure in world history), it is clear he shares none of Hitchens' or Dawkins' dogmatic hostility to the Christian faith, as it is also clear he admires the work of Richard Smith, and by implication, thousands of others like him. This hands on knowledge of the American Christian scene, combined with the confident thesis that religion there has thrived because the pluralism created by the separation of faith from the state, makes this main section of the book one of the best pieces of writing on American Christianity around today.
When the authors got onto other religions, the buzz of the book was not so strong. There was the irritation of Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity all having the same God. And then the `God is Back' theme only works for the Christian West. There has been no comparable decline of religion in the Middle East or Asia due to secularism. Even the seemingly modern feel of the Shah's Iran in the 1960's and 1970's was a mirage, only appearing in the cities. In the thousands of small towns and villages people were solidly religious. And finally there was a mixed message on Islam. We have this odd assertion, `The idea that Islam is incompatible with the modern world is clearly untrue', followed later by a reminder that apostasy is a punishable crime in Islamic countries. The authors could have added that the punishment in question is death for the male apostate and life imprisonment for the female, unless she repents. If modern means free choice, Islam with its apostasy laws is not compatible with the modern world.
In some ways the book would have been purer if it had just focused on the success of American Christianity. The authors return to this success in their conclusion, arguing convincingly that it is something that both believer and secularist can celebrate because it depends on the oxygen of liberalism: individual free choice. The authors then aptly end with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: `when a religion is good...it will support itself....', but if it needs state support, this is a `sign...of it being a bad one.'
This is a wonderfully optimistic view, indeed a very American view, that if people support something, then it is probably good. And it asks the likes of Hitchens and Dawkins to calm down, trust people more, and be less arrogant towards believers. In the context of the debate between believers and atheists in the West this book comes up with the best answer: let's all say `Amen' to the importance of free choice.
But that shared `Amen' between believers and secularists only makes sense in the West, in civilisations moulded by Christianity and the enlightenment which guarantee the centrality of the individual. There is no such `Amen' from the minarets of Muslim lands, or the temples of India where the identity of the community is much more important than the individual. And if the Allah of Islam is back with his apostasy laws or the gods of Hinduism are back with their caste system, then the `Amen' for individual choice will have to wait until more Christians give their lives to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For wherever that Gospel has gone, individual freedom has flourished. Where the Gospel is rejected, as in Afghanistan or North Korea, there is no individual freedom.
This is an excellent book with an excellent thesis, but it needs to be taken further: individual freedom makes for a happier society, and Christianity has proved to be a strong anchor for individual freedom. So, publications like the Economist, advocates of liberalism, should be more open in supporting the faith that has done more than any other movement in human history to give man freedom: Christianity.
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