For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery

Rodney Stark's provocative new book argues that, whether we like it or not, people acting for the glory of God have formed our modern culture. Continuing his project of identifying the widespread consequences of monotheism, Stark shows that the Christian conception of God resulted--almost inevitably and for the same reasons--in the Protestant Reformation, the rise of modern science, the European witch-hunts, and the Western abolition of slavery. In the process, he explains why Christian and Islamic images of God yielded such different cultural results, leading Christians but not Muslims to foster science, burn "witches," and denounce slavery.

With his usual clarity and skepticism toward the received wisdom, Stark finds the origins of these disparate phenomena within monotheistic religious organizations. Endemic in such organizations are pressures to maintain religious intensity, which lead to intense conflicts and schisms that have far-reaching social results.

Along the way, Stark debunks many commonly accepted ideas. He interprets the sixteenth-century flowering of science not as a sudden revolution that burst religious barriers, but as the normal, gradual, and direct outgrowth of medieval theology. He also shows that the very ideas about God that sustained the rise of science led also to intense witch-hunting by otherwise clear-headed Europeans, including some celebrated scientists. This conception of God likewise yielded the Christian denunciation of slavery as an abomination--and some of the fiercest witch-hunters were devoted participants in successful abolitionist movements on both sides of the Atlantic.

For the Glory of God is an engrossing narrative that accounts for the very different histories of the Christian and Muslim worlds. It fundamentally changes our understanding of religion's role in history and the forces behind much of what we point to as secular progress. more

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Recent Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Feb-18-2009; Rodney Stark recommended; I am greatly enjoying this book and I recommend it for anybody who wants to have a reality check on their high school history classes.This book is written in an academic manner, so its chock full of reference citings and statistics,...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Nov-28-2008; Provocative reassessment; This is a fascinating book and pleasantly surprising. Whether Stark considers himself a gadfly or not, this is a highly readable, thoroughly engaging book, made even more startling by its questioning of traditional historiography. I...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-06-2007; When Sociologists Do Their Homework.; This is an incredible read. This is one of the most thorough analyses on any particular subject out there, and Stark has meticulously left no stone unturned in explaining the role Christianity has had in shaping civilization. Though many...; read full review | report as inappropriate

1/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Dec-19-2006; Bias and Bigotry; Rodney Stark comes off as a hard-nosed, half-baked individual incapable of higher reasoning. I want to focus on his claims that science needed Christian theology in order to thrive. Why didn't he talk about how Copernicus and Galileo and...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Feb-18-2009; Rodney Stark recommended; I am greatly enjoying this book and I recommend it for anybody who wants to have a reality check on their high school history classes.This book is written in an academic manner, so its chock full of reference citings and statistics,...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Apr-30-2006; More entertaining than Grant's "Foundations", not as accurate; Stark stretched very far to be able to have a toehold and a fingertip grip on both the emergence of science and the Christian faith. While a lot of early scientists WERE Christians, it's a bit simplistic to say that they all toiled so...; read full review | report as inappropriate

1/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Dec-19-2006; Bias and Bigotry; Rodney Stark comes off as a hard-nosed, half-baked individual incapable of higher reasoning. I want to focus on his claims that science needed Christian theology in order to thrive. Why didn't he talk about how Copernicus and Galileo and...; read full review | report as inappropriate