Economist editors speak about recent re-emergence of religious conflict
Religion's role in today's global climate discussed as part of FAS series
The interplay of religion and politics stood at the center of the Foreign Affairs Symposium's (FAS) event last Friday night. FAS played host to John Micklethwaite, the editor-in-chief of The Economist, and his colleague Adrian Wooldridge, the magazine's Washington bureau chief.
The men discussed their recently published book, God is Back. The book's topic, the re-emergence of religion as a driving factor in geopolitics, served as the main subject of their presentation.
Micklethwaite began the night by giving background on the role that religion has played in a variety of historic political events, from the English Civil War to the Iranian Revolution.
While he acknowledged that religion could sometimes play a positive role in society, he focused more on the ways that it had divided society and led to conflicts that he referred to as "culture wars."
"The last great war of religion caused more deaths than the Black Plague," he said, referring to the English Civil War, which divided the population between Catholics and Protestants.
He also commented on the somewhat provocative title of his book.
"When you say God is back, you imply that he went away," he said, going on to explain that God had, in fact, faded into the background of geopolitics for a time.
"We're dealing with a world that many of us thought was never supposed to exist," he said. "Intellectuals have assumed for a very long time that modernity was going to marginalize religion."
According to Micklethwaite, The Economist held the same view for a long time: Several years ago, they published an obituary for religion.
However, he argued that instead of fading away or edging towards moderate interpretations, harder, more extreme forms of religion have begun to grow and take hold.
At this point, Micklethwaite began to take something of an economic approach to considering the resurgence of religion.
He referenced Adam Smith in stating that the separation of church and state "was license to breed the sort of competition that religion needed . . . I think it comes down to supply and demand."
The men discussed their recently published book, God is Back. The book's topic, the re-emergence of religion as a driving factor in geopolitics, served as the main subject of their presentation.
Micklethwaite began the night by giving background on the role that religion has played in a variety of historic political events, from the English Civil War to the Iranian Revolution.
While he acknowledged that religion could sometimes play a positive role in society, he focused more on the ways that it had divided society and led to conflicts that he referred to as "culture wars."
"The last great war of religion caused more deaths than the Black Plague," he said, referring to the English Civil War, which divided the population between Catholics and Protestants.
He also commented on the somewhat provocative title of his book.
"When you say God is back, you imply that he went away," he said, going on to explain that God had, in fact, faded into the background of geopolitics for a time.
"We're dealing with a world that many of us thought was never supposed to exist," he said. "Intellectuals have assumed for a very long time that modernity was going to marginalize religion."
According to Micklethwaite, The Economist held the same view for a long time: Several years ago, they published an obituary for religion.
However, he argued that instead of fading away or edging towards moderate interpretations, harder, more extreme forms of religion have begun to grow and take hold.
At this point, Micklethwaite began to take something of an economic approach to considering the resurgence of religion.
He referenced Adam Smith in stating that the separation of church and state "was license to breed the sort of competition that religion needed . . . I think it comes down to supply and demand."
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