{"id":135418,"date":"2025-03-06T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=135418"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:10:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T23:10:42","slug":"commonplace-the-stabilization-of-religious-decline-is-a-big-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=135418","title":{"rendered":"(Commonplace) Emile Doak-The Stabilization of Religious Decline Is a Big Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this light, we can see that the dizzying changes of the past decade represent the dying lurches of a postwar consensus and a re-enchantment of the West. History, contra Fukuyama, is not linear, and epochal shifts will often entail volatility as the old order grapples with its demise. In other words, Pew\u2019s RLS data is more evidence of what N.S. Lyons called the \u201cend of the Long Twentieth Century<\/a>.\u201d And it may be the strongest evidence yet that we\u2019ve truly turned the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyons is following Rusty Reno, who sensed in his 2019 book Return of the Strong Gods<\/em><\/a> that the era of a Western \u201copen society\u201d consensus was coming to an end. In its place, \u201cstrong gods\u201d would return. These strong gods \u201care the objects of men\u2019s love and devotion, the sources of the passions and loyalties that unite societies.\u201d While the twentieth century saw an attempt to domesticate the strong gods through the promotion of weak ones like \u201cinclusion\u201d and \u201cmulticulturalism,\u201d the quest has proved futile. These weak gods stand in negation<\/em> to certain values\u2014\u201canti-racism\u201d or \u201canti-totalitarianism\u201d\u2014and are therefore incapable of stirring the aspirational loyalty necessary for a cohesive society.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all strong gods are equally benevolent. Some can be quite destructive. Reno argued that to counteract the rougher edges of strong gods like nationalism, we will need \u201cto nurture to primeval sources of solidarity that limit the claims of the civic \u2018we\u2019: the domestic society of marriage and the supernatural community of the church, synagogue, and other communities of transcendence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we can say that religion is perhaps the strongest of the strong gods….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Read more in @commonplc<\/a>, an essential journal: https:\/\/t.co\/FNH7Z8pLNd<\/a><\/p>— Emile Doak (@EADoak) March 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>