The Future of Christianity

Reflections on Violence and Democracy, Religion and Secularization

Bibliographic Data

ID19949615
AuthorsDavid Martin (0000-0002-2914-8063, corresponding author)
Year2016
Pages240
Publication date2016-03-16
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueFuture of Christianity (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315557946
OpenAlexW4254107229
ISBN9781315557946
Open LibraryOL53998187M
LanguageEN
Citations received5

This book offers a mature assessment of themes preoccupying David Martin over some fifty years, complementing his book On Secularization. Deploying secularisation as an omnibus word bringing many dimensions into play, Martin argues that the boundaries of the concept of secularisation must not be redefined simply to cover aberrant cases, as when the focus was more on America as an exception rather than on Europe as an exception to the 'furiously religious' character of the rest of the world. Particular themes of focus include the dialectic of Christianity and secularization, the relation of Christianity to multiple enlightenments and modes of modernity, the enigmas of East Germany and Eastern Europe, and the rise of the transnational religious voluntary association, including Pentecostalism, as that feeds into vast religious changes in the developing world. Doubts are cast on the idea that religion has ever been privatised and has lately reentered the public realm. The rest of the book deals with the relation of the Christian repertoire to the nexus of religion and politics, including democracy and violence and sharply criticises polemical assertions of a special relation of religion to violence, and explores the contributions of 'cognitive science' to the debate

Christianity · Political science · Christian Theology and Mission · History · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies

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