In the middle of the 20th century Harvey Cox brought the secularization debate that was all the rage in the sociology of religion to a popular audience with his classic The Secular City. Since then, many of the assumptions on which his book were based have been debunked by overwhelming evidence that secularization is not what we once thought it was. So what would Cox say about it now? In his new book The Future of Faith we get to find out what he now thinks about religion in the world and where he thinks it is headed. As any reader of this blog knows, secularization is an area that I have been studying and so, thanks to Tripp Fuller shooting me a copy, I will get to engage the book with many others!
Philip Clayton also has a new book out and he and Cox are taking them out on tour. One of the blog tour stops will be here, but as you can see below they will be making their rounds over the next month until they wrap things up in Montreal at the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting. There they will be joined by an illustrious panel including Eric Gregory, Bruce Sanguin, Serene Jones, Frank Tupper, and Andrew Sung Park to share a 'Big Idea' for the future of the Church. These 'Big Ideas' will be video tapped and shared, so be on the look out for live footage from the last night of the tour.
Philip's new book is Transforming Christian Theology for Church & Society and Harvey's is The Future of Faith. Both are worth checking out at one of the many tour stops. If you can't wait you can listen to them interview each other. Meanwhile, stay tuned to my blog and check out my fellow theobloggers below.
Joseph Weethee , Jonathan Bartlett, The Church Geek, Jacob’s Cafe, Reverend Mommy, Steve Knight, Todd Littleton, Christina Accornero, John David Ryan, LeAnn Gunter Johns, Chase Andre, Matt Moorman, Gideon Addington, Ryan Dueck, Rachel Marszalek, Amy Moffitt, Josh Wallace, Jonathan Dodson, Stephen Barkley, Monty Galloway, Colin McEnroe, Tad DeLay, David Mullens, Kimberly Roth, Tripp Hudgins, Tripp Fuller, Greg Horton, Andrew Tatum, Drew Tatusko, Sam Andress, Susan Barnes, Jared Enyart, Jake Bouma, Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, Blake Huggins, Lance Green, Scott Lenger, Dan Rose, Thomas Turner, Les Chatwin, Joseph Carson, Brian Brandsmeier, J. D. Allen, Greg Bolt, Tim Snyder, Matthew L. Kelley, Carl McLendon, Carter McNeese, David R. Gillespie, Arthur Stewart, Tim Thompson, Joe Bumbulis, Bob Cornwall
This Tour is Sponsored by Transforming Theology DOT org!
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Suggesting one can achieve a fulfilling existence without religion should not be news by now. Over the past decade you’ve either heard a great deal of religious questioning, or you’ve intentionally ignored it. If you fit in the latter group your media is likely limited to reality television, blockbusters starring CGI monsters, and the Bible. Oh, and probably Fox News. If that is the case, you really don’t know what is going on anywhere.
It's interesting to think about the future of faith and religion. There is a paradox I was wondering about. I was raised by my parents in the christian faith and as a child I went to the church every Sunday and there were a lot of people. Now there are even more churches but a lot less people actually go there. Is that because people became less religious and they lost faith?
What is the future of our faith? Or is there a future for our faith and religion? Maybe the seminary can help us with this set of questions.