The Future of Faith [antikvár]

chapter i An Age of the Spirit The Sacred in the Secular? What does the future hold for religion, and for Christianity in particular? At the beginning of the new millennium three qualities mark the world s spiritual profile, all tracing trajectories that will reach into the coming decades. The first is the unanticipated resurgence of religion in both public and private life around the globe. The second is that fundamentalism, the bane of the twentieth century, is dying. But the third and most important, though often unnoticed, is a profound change in the elemental nature of religiousness. The resurgence of religion was not foreseen. On the contrary, not many decades ago thoughtful writers were confidently predicting its immanent demise. Science, literacy, and more education would soon dispel the miasma of superstition and obscurantism. Religion would either disappear completely or survive in family rituals, quaint folk festivals, and exotic references in literature, art, and music. Religion, we were assured, would certainly never again sway politics or shape culture. But the soothsayers were wrong. Instead of disappearing, religion—for good or ill—is now exhibiting new vitality all around the world and making its weight widely felt in the corridors of power. Many observers mistakenly confuse this resurgence of religion