Amazing Grace

I am at the Political Science conference. I attended a panel on a forthcoming book on the sociology of religion by Robert Putnam and Robert Campbell called American Grace. Suffice it to say it will be a must read for us all: a long book packed with findings and insight about religion in America. One of the disturbing findings (at least to me) is that politics determines one’s religious beliefs, not the other way around. I wondered if a primary conception of God as loving or one of judgment (of course, the two are not mutually exclusive could explain a significant portion of the difference in attitudes). Putnam said they asked and it explained very little (though I think those differences might be important factors in people’s minds with different views as to what it means to be a God of love).

Putnam did say that the love/judgment attitude about God is related to trust. If you regard God primarily as a God of love, you are more likely to trust people; less so if you regard God primarily as a God of judgment.