God is back

by John Micklethwait

Two Economist writers show how and why religion is booming around the world and reveal its vast effects on the global economy, politics, and moreOn the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging worldwide. From Russia to Turkey to India, nations that swore off faith in the last centuryor even tried to stamp it outare now run by avowedly religious leaders. Formerly secular conflicts like the one in Palestine have taken on an overtly religious cast. God Is Back shines a bright light on this hidden world of faith, from exorcisms in Sao Paulo to religious skirmishing in Nigeria, to televangelism in California and house churches in China.Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have assumed that modernization would kill religionand that religious America is an oddity. As God Is Back argues, religion and modernity can thrive together, and America is becoming the norm. Many things helped spark the global revival of religion, including the failure of communism and the rise of glob