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Title: One True God : Historical Consequences of Monotheism by Rodney Stark ISBN: 0-691-11500-1 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 24 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: continuing to work through his writings
Comment: One True God: Historical consequences of Monotheism
Rodney Stark
Oftentimes i find myself very directed in my reading, the last few years have been such a time. I found what is vol 2 of this set For the Glory of God first, as a result of recommendations to read simply one chapter out of it. This book is vol 1 of the set, and now i found that i bought yet another book by Stark The Rise of Christianity, thus moving into the other systematic way of reading, not by topic but by author. And this author has earned such a task, he is witty, interesting and more important presents these big important ideas and defends them with flair.
His big idea is the exchange relationship as a sociological way of looking at religions. The book assumes this and moves on to showing the results of such thinking. The first is that some types of Gods work better as exchange partners, powerful, larger scope(not a local deity, bound to a particular piece of land), a personal Being not an intellectual essence. This is essentially chapter 1- "God's Nature". The subtopic is the inevitable dualism that most answers to the question of theodicy requires, that is blaming the presence of evil in the universe on another less powerful god, devil, satan etc.
Chapter 2- "God's Chosen: Monotheism and Mission" is an analysis of inclusivity vs exclusivity, or universalism vs particularism and the missionary impulse. Aptly summed up in the phrase: "indeed the duty, to spread knowledge of the One True god: the duty to missionize in inherent in dualistic monotheism" pg 35 The analysis of the Church of Power and the Church of Piety and the Constantinian synthesis is worth the reading of the entire book, pg 59-77. It is these pages i would recommend reading to see if you would desire to read the whole book. Converting the masses vs converting the elite and powerful is in fact a great criticism of the church that bears understanding and prayful consideration as a very serious failing.
Chapter 3- "God's Wrath:Religious Conflict" is an analysis of one of the biggest items in history that atheists or secular people point to as a deep criticism of the Church and rightfully so. "But if monotheists believe there is only One True God, they have been unable to sustain One True Religion. Rather, from the start all of the major monotheisms have been prone to splinter into many True Religions that sometimes acknowlege one another's right ot coexist and sometimes don't. Hence internal and external conflict is inherent in particularistic religion." pg 117 He follows up by introducing the idea of the natural difference in the intensity of human committment to religions and how different groups supply a varying amount of requirements to match the person with the system he/she adheres to. This leads naturally into an informative analysis of how the Church as asked and relied upon the State to enforce conformity and why. The Constantinian synthesis with a sociological bent, nicely done. A good subtopic is how both internal and external tolerance are turned on together but external demands, in particular the battles with Islam via the Crusades.
Chapter 4- "God's Kingdom: Religious Persistence" is an analysis of Jewish assimilation and persistence, with an interested example of the Chinese Jews.
Chapter 5- "God's Grace: Pluralism and Civility" is a hopeful analysis and prescription for how to get along(civility) and the basis for such in true pluralism not the synthetic state enforced peace.
So i liked the book, i appreciate the author's writing, both style and creativity and hope that you do as well.
Rating: 3
Summary: Provocative and Interesting, but typically flawed
Comment: Like most of Stark's contributions, this book is down-right fun to read: engaging, polemical, clear, provocative, etc..
But the flaws are there, as always. First off, the whole reduction of religious belief and involvement to some sort of abstract "economic man" theory is not only annoying, but more importantly, void of empirical data. Costs, benefits, exchange relations, limited supplies, compensators....please. Give it a rest. Sure, some people may choose gods in the same manner they choose laundry detergent -- but most people are religious because of good old fashion processes of socialization. They believe in God because grandma and grandpa do. They worship Buddha because everyone in their village does. They pray to Jesus because that's what mom said to do. For Stark to cling to this rational choice silliness is bizarre -- and strange, coming from someone supposedly affiliated with the discipline sociology. Oh well. I at least appreciate the alternative way of looking at and theorizing about people, flawed though it is.
Finally -- and this is nit-picky I know, but check out this quote in the introduction (p.5):
"It is entirely impossible for science to discover the existence or nonexistence of Gods."
Hm. Really? What if for "Gods" we substituted other possibilities:
"It is entirely impossible for science to discover the existence or nonexistence of Fairies....
of Thor...
of leprechauns....
of floating purple dragons in outer space..."
Those who assert there is a God out there shoulder the burden of proof. Baring convincing evidence, we must remain skeptical. I don't understand why Stark -- who hates "postmodernism and other opponents of reason" (p.14) -- becomes quite post-modern himself by allowing for the existence of Gods without empirical evidence.
Rating: 3
Summary: Weakest of his most recent works
Comment: The problem is that Stark seems to have begun with an assumption,'Religion thrives in a free-market, pluralistic society,' and then spent the rest of the book trying to support it, rather than letting the research take him to the its conclusion. Actually, I quite agree with him, and I say we should all thank God - literally - for two great oceans and forefathers of rather dicey faith. But there are no revelations here, like there were in "The Churching of America," and "The Early Christian Church." If there is anything you can take away with from this book, it is this: we as Americans really ARE different. I know that human nature is universally the same, but for whatever reason, we just don't see the world the way other poeples do. Whatever our warts are, and we sure do have them, they pale in comparison to Rhine residents roasting Jews alive, Crusaders reveling in infants impaled on their spears, Muslim warriors slaughtering whole towns of "infidels." There are a lot of pious people in Hell, wondering how they got there.
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Title: For the Glory of God : How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery by Rodney Stark ISBN: 0691114366 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 24 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force .... by Rodney Stark ISBN: 0060677015 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 18 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion by Rodney Stark, Roger Finke ISBN: 0520222024 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 07 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power by David Aikman ISBN: 0895261286 Publisher: Regnery Publishing, Inc. Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626796 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
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