Here’s the future of religion

The authors say a huge world of faith has been hidden from Western intellectuals, who assumed modernity would kill religion. Twenty-first century faith is being fueled by a very American emphasis on choice and competition. The global rise of faith is powerfully impacting and destabilizing our century.

The First Amendment created tolerance in its fullest sense and it introduced competition. It was up to churches to get people in the doors.

Religious revival continued after the Second World War. Church membership rose to 69% in 1959 and religion regained some intellectual prestige. There were remarkable steps forward in religious toleration.

If the religious wars of the early twentieth century were ignited by the overreach of America’s Evangelicals over alcohol and evolution, the religious wars of the second half were ignited by the overreach of those bent on driving religion to the margins of American society. The Supreme Court decision to remove prayer and Bible reading from public schools was followed shortly by a permissive decision on pornography and the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Evangelical America showed a resurgence led by Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and The Moral Majority. The rise of the religious right bound Evangelical Protestants to conservatives of other religious traditions. Several presidents articulated their Christian commitments.

Capitalism and the Rise of Religion

Nashville is a place where God and Mammon happily coexist. American religion has a competitive advantage. Religious products make up a $6 billion business. America leads in producing religious entrepreneurs and empires. Mainstream media is getting in the business. Faith based companies are pushing into the mainstream market as well. Christians are increasingly media savvy. The modern corporate model is working well for worship in the total service mega churches. Some preachers are worried they are producing a tribe of spectators who come only for the spectacle, the Disneyfication of religion. The megachurches are simply using the tools of American society to spread religion where it wouldn’t otherwise exist…. The megachurches may be soft on the surface, but they are hard on the inside. You may start out in a Disney theme park but you end up in the heart of Evangelical America.

God and the Intellectuals

There is a resurgence of interest in religion among America’s intellectual elite. A number are being caught up in the religious revival. For most of human history the intellectual elite have been religious. Theology was the queen of the sciences. The return to religion was supercharged by 9/11.

William F. Buckley was instrumental with his 1951 bombshell, God and Man in Yale followed by his founding of the National Review. Evangelicals are starting to produce scholars again. Abut 10% of undergraduates at Ivy League Colleges are regularly involved in Evangelical groups. Harvard now has a chair in Evangelical Theological Studies.

Exporting America’s God

Pentecostalism is the great religious success story of the 20th century. It can be seen everywhere in the developing world. Christianity in Latin America and Korea is being fueled by the embrace of the free market (competition) and individual choice.

Everywhere you look in religious America, Christians and churches are taking the Bible’s ‘great commission’ to ‘make disciples of all nations’ to heart.” There is a vigorous ‘Christian solidarity’ movement in America. The campaign against religious persecution quickly developed into a wide-ranging campaign against everything from sex trafficking to slavery. Religious organizations provided $8.8 billon in foreign aid in 2006, 37% of all U.S. government foreign aid.

Missionary work is dangerous, so why is it growing?

1. The success of ‘hot’ religion (growth of evangelicals),
2. The boom in short-term missions (which is having a big impact on the next generations), and
3. The growing sophistication of missionary activity. At the same time immigrants are helping reshape American religion. And developing countries are sending missionaries here.

Conclusion

The great forces of modernity–technology and democracy, choice and freedom–are all strengthening religion rather than undermining it. Democracy is giving the world’s people their voice and they want to talk about God. The world is generally moving in the American direction – with three caveats.
1. The relationship between religion and modernity is far from smooth for many believers.
2. This does not mean that the alternatives disappear.
3. The natural accompaniment of modernity is not religiosity but pluralism: religious beliefs become competitors in the marketplace.

Excerpts from  God is Back
by John Micklethwait is the editor in chief and Adrian Wooldridge is
the management editor for The Economist. One is an atheist and one a
Catholic.