Marginal Christianity

Giles Fraser Religion itself thrives in places where liberal individualism fails. That’s the real clash of civilisations Thursday 26 May 2016 12.25 EDT Last modified on Friday 5 May 2017 13.19 EDT The so-called “masters of suspicion”, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud, all thought that religion would wither and die in the 20th century. Others enthusiastically backed the secularisation hypothesis. Intellectually, the enlightenment had punctured it below the waterline and it was sinking. Religion was dead. Except, of course, the reverse happened: it flourished. In 1900, the year that Nietzsche died, there were 8 million Christians in Africa. Now there are 335 million. And the growth rate continues to accelerate. God wasn’t dead. God was reborn. Indeed, far from being the century in which religion went away, for both Christianity and Islam, the 20th century was numerically the most successful century since Christ was crucified and Muhammad gave his farewell sermon on Moun...

Sep 14, 2013 @ 9:15 By Scot McKnight Leave a Comment   How the West Really Lost God by Mary Eberstadt, Review by David Moore Several theories have been proposed as to the cause(s) of secularization.  Mary Eberstadt’s book, How the West Really Lost God , is an important new addition to the debate. From the outset it is critical to pick up on the spirit of Eberstadt’s book.  Her subtitle, A New Theory of Secularization , highlights her approach.  The author has a particular view and argues it with intelligence and conviction, but she is not making a dogmatic pronouncement.  According to my count, Eberstadt mentions at least three times (pages 101, 103, and 215) that “speculation” can’t be avoided in the argument she is making.  So hers is a modest proposal.  It should be added that speculation can be informed or simply “spitting in the wind.”  Eberstadt’s is clearly the former. So what is this “new” theory of seculari...