Forces of Secularity in the Modern World: Volume 1 (Washington College Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)

Stephen Strehle

ISBN 10: 1433143585 / ISBN 13: 9781433143588

Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2018

About this Item

2018. New edition. Hardcover. . . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9781433143588

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Forces of Secularity in the Modern World: Volume 1 (Washington College Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1433143585
• ISBN 13: 9781433143588
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Stephen Strehle is a leading scholar of church/state issues. In this volume, he focuses his rigorous historical analysis and philosophical acumen upon a topic of great interest today and source of cultural wars around the globe―the process of secularization. The book starts with a discussion of early capitalism and how it saw the real world functioning well-enough on its own principles of individual struggle and self-interest, without needing religious or moral principles to meddle in its affairs and eventually dispelling the need for any intelligent design or providential orchestration of life through the work of Darwin. The book then discusses the growth of the secular point of view: how historians dismissed the impact of religion in developing modern culture, how scientists conceived of the universe running on self-sufficient or mechanistic principles, and how people no longer looked to the providential hand of God to explain their suffering. The book ends with a discussion of how the Deist concept of human autonomy became a political policy in America through Jefferson’s concept of a wall of separation between church and state and how the US Supreme Court proceeded to dismiss the importance of religion in shaping or justifying the values of the nation and its laws. The book is accessible to most upper-level and graduate students in a wide-variety of disciplines, keeping technical and foreign words to a minimum and leaving scholarly details or debates to its extensive notes.

About the Author

Stephen Strehle has doctoral degrees in church history and systematic theology from the Universität Basel and Dallas Theological Seminary. He is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Christopher Newport University, director of its program in Judeo-Christian studies, and the author of many books and articles on the Reformation and church/state issues.