At present quite a few sociologists specialized in the analysis of cultural tendencies and processes — for example John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of The Economist, and Adrian Wooldridge, author of the bestseller “God Is Back” — are not convinced that atheistic secularism or religious indifference is advancing in society; rather, the opposite is happening.
Decades ago some predicted the death of religion, above all of Christianity, but later they have had to rectify themselves and admit a return of the religious under very varied forms.
Not a few say that we are in a post-secular period, characterized by a growing interest and debate on fundamental human questions, with a patent religious dimension.
In a recent report titled “The Return of God,” a non-confessional Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, was surprised by the boom of books on faith in Italian bookstores, where sales have increased by 27% in the past year.
Concretely, it stated that the sale of books on religious topics had increased by 196% in the large centers of distribution, such as supermarkets and commercial centers.
I have been saying for quite a while that the Secular Age would turn out to be a blip in the graph of history …. So it’s quite nice to see such ‘prejudice’ confirmed for once!