The Triumph of Faith: Why the World Is More Religious Than Ever by Rodney Stark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
First things first. Stark in this book is evaluating the presence of religion globally, not just Christianity. This is not a chronicle of growth or decline of Christianity but religion including all the major ones (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) as well as many other world religions including Hinduism, Buddhism and local, regional, folk religions.
Stark lays his work out geographically, not chronologically or by religion. In many places there is enough context given to connect the history and growth of a religion to its region.
Stark does a good job challenging the recent death cries of the church and religion in general. In fact he points out that the truth is religious beliefs and practices are growing worldwide. One area of note was the discussion of the growth of those who call themselves “none” (no religious affiliation). Stark points out that this number has not changed in over 40 years. These same people used to call themselves Methodist, Lutheran etc. even though they never attended religious services. In all practicality they have always been “nones”, now they just admit it. The other recent trend in religion reporting is the exodus of young people from churches. Again this number has not changed in over 40 years. Yes there is a certain age group of young adults who leave the church. What is left out is most of these same people return after marriage and kids. They may not always return to the same local church they left but they do return.
Stark does spend time in defending his sources and numbers as well as the weaknesses of some recent survey methods. (Amount of people returning surveys. Amount of people completing surveys and other factors)
Two other items to note.
1. When comparing the education levels of the religious it seems the more educated are the more religious. In fact in some Asian regions the more educated are leaving their familial folk religion for more contemporary religious systems.
2. When comparing the connection between moral behavior (stealing, cheating etc.) and religious belief there seems to be little correlation. The religious respondents had the same moral standards as the non-religious.
In the end this is a well researched and informative book. If you like charts, tables, statistics, surveys and polls there is plenty here to substantiate Stark’s claims.
For those who have been bombarded with all the funeral announcements lately about the death of religion, here is a dissenting voice. Religion (and Christianity) is alive and well on planet earth and shows no signs of decline. For those of us with strong spiritual beliefs (I am a practicing Christian in the Reformed tradition attending a non-denominational church) there is hope. People have not abandoned belief in a God, a spiritual realm or an afterlife. Many are still attempting to navigate their way through these beliefs and need reasonable voices presenting truth and not panic and doom.
Thinking About Theology 