Book Review: Review Section: Religion and International Relations
| Author | Scott Thomas |
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298000290030801 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
© Millennium: Journal of Int ernational Studies, 2000. ISSN 0305-8298 . Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 893-986
893
Book Reviews
Review Section: Religion and International Relations
Peter Berger (ed.), The Dese cularisation o f the World: Resurgent R eligion and
World Politics (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B . Eerd mans/Ethics and Public Policy
Center, 1999, 135 pp., $17.00 pbk.).
R. Sco tt Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and
Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Lit tlefield, 2 000, 42 8 pp., no price
given pbk.).
Titles of books are not alway s a good indication of what is in them. This is often
the case with books on religion and intern ational relations. Books with titl es about
‘resurgent relig ion a nd world politics’ often turn out to be ‘glo bal’ only in a
geographic sense, co mprising comparative stu dies of the way religion increasingl y
affects th e domestic politi cs of a variety o f countries around the world. Th is is the
case for the books u nder review, eve n though they are of consid erable importance
to any study of religion and politics.
These book s vary greatly in st yle and substance from each other. The first, rather
slim volume, The Desecularisation of the World, is the product of a conference
sponsored by the Ethics a nd Public Pol icy Centre, in Washington, DC. The
references are not ext ensive, and most of the chapters have the feel of conference
papers quic kly co mpiled for a book. There is o nly a short preface (by Ellio t
Abrams, p reviously of Iran-Co ntra fa me), and no conclusion bringing the
arguments o f the book together. What may justify this approach is that the authors
of the chap ters: Peter Berger, David M artin (Evan gelical Protest antism), George
Weigel (Catholicism), Jo nathan Sacks (Judaism), Grace Davie (Western Europ e),
Tu Weiming (China), and Ab dullah A. An-Na’im (Islam) are so me of the
acknowled ged experts i n their fields. The book is written a s if rea ders know this
and are familiar with the larger bo dy of the ir scholarly work so that only a short
summary of their views with up-to -date reflectio ns was necessary. Th e
Ambivalence of the Sacred, o n the other hand , is a far more su bstantial piece of
scholarship . It is part o f the Carnegie Commission on Pre venting Deadly Co nflict,
and its endnotes and bibli ography are a mine o f useful references a nd information,
and come to about 100 pages.
The first i ssue these books raise, is the debate about the p henomena t hey are
trying to examine, resurgent relig ion. Is ‘resu rgent religion’ (Berger) the same
thing a s ‘political reli gion’ (An-Na’im), religious ‘fundame ntalism’ and ‘reli gious
To continue reading
Request your trial