"God's Partisans are Back"

Here is a short piece, in The Chronicle, by my friend and colleague Dan Philpott (Pol. Sci., Notre Dame) and others, about the failure of the "secularization" thesis to explain what's happening in the world around us.

But if American foreign-policy makers want to promote democracy and stability, they must come to realize that secularism is a poor analytical tool. The great surprise of the past generation has been the resurgence of religion's influence. Despite a powerful array of secularizing regimes, ideologies, and social trends, religion has not only outlasted its most ferocious 20th-century rivals, but in many cases, it also appears poised to supplant them.

Among other things, the piece suggests that religious freedom is a "critical [factor] when assessing whether religion is more likely, on balance, to yield peace or terrorism, democracy or authoritarianism, reconciliation or civil war."

The piece is based on the authors' excellent new book, God's Century.