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

by Rodney Stark

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691119502
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/29/2004
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rodney Stark was for many years Professor of Sociology and of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he became University Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the author of many books, among them The Rise of Christianity and One True God (both Princeton).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Dimensions of the Supernatural 1

CHAPTER 1

God's Truth: Inevitable Sects and Reformations 15

CHAPTER 2

God's Handiwork: The Religious Origins of Science 121

CHAPTER 3

God's Enemies: Explaining the European Witch-Hunts 201

CHAPTER 4

God's Justice: The Sin of Slavery 291

Postscript: Gods, Rituals, and Social Science 367

Notes 377

Bibliography 419

Index 465

What People are Saying About This

Jeffrey Burton Russell

This important and brilliant new book makes a number of points desperately needed to be understood by academics, teachers, and lay people. The conventional wisdom on science, religion, witchcraft, slavery, and sects is unfortunately both firmly and falsely fixed. This book will clear up the muddle for anyone open minded enough to learn from it.
— Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of "A History of Heaven"

From the Publisher

"I unequivocally recommend this book. Iconoclastic toward the conventional iconoclasts, it is likely to meet with considerable furor."—David Martin, author of Does Christianity Cause War?

"This important and brilliant new book makes a number of points desperately needed to be understood by academics, teachers, and lay people. The conventional wisdom on science, religion, witchcraft, slavery, and sects is unfortunately both firmly and falsely fixed. This book will clear up the muddle for anyone open minded enough to learn from it."—Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of A History of Heaven

David Martin

I unequivocally recommend this book. Iconoclastic toward the conventional iconoclasts, it is likely to meet with considerable furor.
— David Martin, author of "Does Christianity Cause War?"

Editorial Reviews

"[A] provocative volume—lucid and tightly reasoned."

Booklist

"For the Glory of God . . . is an important book. It is immensely learned, consistently contentious, and filled with brilliant, if sometimes eccentric, insights. . . [F]or those who are open to a very different interpretation of the development of Western Civilization ... For the Glory of God is strongly recommended."

First Things

"[A] provocative volume—lucid and tightly reasoned."

Booklist

This is a sociology of religion that takes seriously what people believe. Stark knows that beliefs have consequences. They can even change the course of history.

Christianity Today - David Neff

[Stark] writes with a clarity and concision that make him a pleasure to read. . . . A number of fondly held myths get demolished in this book.

National Review - David Klinghoffer

This is a sociology of religion that takes seriously what people believe. Stark knows that beliefs have consequences. They can even change the course of history.
— David Neff

Christianity Today

[Stark] writes with a clarity and concision that make him a pleasure to read. . . . A number of fondly held myths get demolished in this book.
— David Klinghoffer

National Review

The burning question for sociologist Rodney Stark is: Did Newton's religious faith actually produce his innovative mathematics? In his latest book, For the Glory of God, Stark maintains that the extraordinary scientific and mathematical achievements of Newton and his contemporaries were in fact a direct consequence of their Christian beliefs. — Lisa Jardine

The Washington Post

In One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism, sociologist of religion Stark examined the nature of God, the wrath of God, the kingdom of God, the grace of God and the "chosen" of God. In this follow-up volume to his ambitious magnum opus, Stark investigates the role of monotheistic religions in reformations, witch-hunts, slavery and science. Such efforts represent an attempt by monotheistic religions to preserve the idea of the One True God against corrupting influences inside and outside the religions themselves. Stark asserts that, contrary to traditional notions, no single religious reformation can be isolated in any monotheistic religion. Thus, Christianity has experienced not simply the Reformation of Luther but many and various reformations that resulted in a diversity of sectarian movements that practice the worship of the One True God in their own ways. Stark also argues that science could have evolved only out of a monotheistic culture that viewed the world as God's handiwork, and that the witch-hunts of Europe could have taken place only in a culture marred by religious conflict and motivated by the desire to displace heretical religious sects. Despite its purported general focus on monotheistic religions, however, the book devotes very little attention to Islam or Judaism, a serious omission in a study that claims to cover so much ground. In addition, Stark's turgid prose and social-scientific style mar what otherwise could have been an engaging study. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Winner of the History/Biography Award of Merit, Christianity Today Magazine

Winner of the 2004 Distinguished Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

From the Publisher