For the Glory of God, by Rodney Stark
This volume completes an ambitious two-part study of monotheism in Western culture that began with One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism (Princeton University Press, 2001). As with the previous effort, Rodney Stark's aim is to show that belief in one God--a supreme, personal and perfectly good Being--has exerted a definitive shaping influence on certain events and institutions in the West.
The reason for this impact lies in the unique character of monotheism, which differs fundamentally as a religious axiom from the chaotic, immoral polytheisms of primitive and classical cultures, as well as from the impersonal, godless Asian systems--Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist--that construe the divine as an amoral supernatural essence. Unlike these creeds, monotheist faith shows "immense capacities to mobilize human action," especially in the intellectual quest for truth and the moral pursuit of justice.
Whereas in volume one Stark underscored certain traits characteristic of the monotheist mind--such as zeal for missions and the will to coerce when in power--his discussion here centers on four major historical episodes. Allegiance to the idea of the one God's one true church propelled recurrent drives toward reform, culminating in the momentous revolt of Protestantism. Trust in the luminous rationality of the Creator inspired the rise of science. And faith in divine justice fired the modern crusade to end slavery. Paradoxically, that same faith, linked to a vivid belief in satanic possession, also brought the West to one of its darkest moments--the age of hunts for witches. Stark devotes a healthy mix of explication and analysis to each of these developments, appositely adducing results of recent research and fashioning a brisk, readable narrative.
