1. One Version of the Secularization Thesis (Drawing on the Work of James Davison Hunter)
Features of “modernity”
Functional Rationality
Cultural Pluralism
Structural pluralism
(Increasing differentiation between the public and private spheres)
Impacts on Religion
Isolation (the Amish?)
Decline/Death of Religion (Strong Secularization Hypothesis)
Adaptation (Religion changes to be more compatible with “modernity.”)
Resistance (Religious actors organize to resist the forces of “modernity.”)
Secularization theorists tend to believe that resistance is, in the long run, futile. This is a major point of disagreement with the authors of God’s Century.

2. A. The Rise of Politically Assertive Religion
Quiz Question: These are four periods of relations between political and religious actors described in chapter 3 of God’s Century. Arrange them in historical order, from earliest to most recent.
A. The Rise of Politically Assertive Religion
B. Friendly Takeover of Religious Actors
C. Hostile Takeover of Religious Actors
D. Friendly Merger of Religious and Political Authority

3. Discussion:
It is the early 1970s. You work for a religious group in an office that focuses on political activism. Your supervisor has read authors explaining the secularization thesis and has looked at several centuries of history in which the general trend seems to be one of declining political significance. He/she decides that the situation is hopeless and your office should be disbanded.
Use what you have learned in God’s Century to save your job! What are the factors that open the way for more politically assertive religion? How do these factors work to promote the rise of politically assertive religion?
In what ways is the argument in God’s Century consistent and/or inconsistent with secularization theory?

4. Why the Rise of Politically Assertive Religion? See pp. 13-15, 76-79.
1. Perceived Failure of Secular Alternatives (Nationalism, Communism)
2. Growing Independence of Religious Actors
a. Religious actors stripped of state privileges
b. Democratization
c. Globalization: transnational communications and travel help religious actors mobilize and strengthen their position versus national states
3. Rise of more assertive Political Theologies