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For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery Paperback – August 29, 2004

by Rodney Stark (Author)

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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.

Print length

504 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Publication date

August 29, 2004
Dimensions

6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0691119503
ISBN-13

978-0691119502
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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"

"[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

"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

"[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

Review

"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

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (August 29, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 504 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691119503
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691119502
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #850,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,539 in History of Religions
- #3,738 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #4,744 in Christian Church History (Books)

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Rodney Stark

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Rodney Stark is one of the leading authorities on the sociology of religion. He grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, where he began his career as a newspaper reporter. Following a tour of duty in the US Army, Stark received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held appointments as a research sociologist at the Survey Research Center and at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. For many years, the Pulitzer Prize nominee was professor of sociology and professor of comparative religion at the University of Washington. In 2004 he became Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

Stark has authored more than 150 scholarly articles and 32 books in 17 different languages, including several widely used sociology textbooks and best-selling titles like The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries; The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever; The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion; God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades; A Star in the East: The Rise of Christianity ion China; and The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.

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4.6 out of 5

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Daniel Greene

When Sociologists Do Their Homework.

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2007

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This is an incredible read. This is one of the most thorough analyses on any particular subject out there, and Stark has meticulously left no stone unturned in explaining the role Christianity has had in shaping civilization. Though many think of Christianity's influence on Western society as being merely tangential, and in some cases an obstacle (as I used to think), Stark's thesis is that monotheism in general and Christianity in particular has been the primary force responsible for the emergence of science and the demise of slavery.

And with some reflection Stark's thesis makes sense. If religion shapes how one views his relationship to the supernatural, then, not surprisingly, that belief system will have a profound influence on every choice that person will make. If true, as Stark points out, different religious belief systems will produce different cultural, economic, political and technological results. Stark does a great job of explaining how polytheistic faiths reach different conclusions about moral issues versus monotheistic ones. Where Stark falls short is that the bulk of his book is about Christianity and he doesn't specifically explain why Christianity, with its unique emphasis on Jesus, produced different results from the other two major monotheistic faiths: Judaism and Islam.

The book has four main sections, each dealing with subjects in the subtitle. The least interesting, yet informative, is on Reformations. The most riveting is the section on Science. Stark boldly asserts that Christian theologians were the first in world history to conduct authentic science and were doing it long before they came across Greek philosophy. He points out, though early Christians found Aristotelian logic useful in developing a sound philosophical foundation for their theology, they found Aristotelian physics useless.

What's most impressive about this work is that Stark refuses to reach deductive conclusions based on broad sweeping assumptions. He backs his theories with a penetrating and nuanced analysis of the historical record along with a healthy use of statistics and regression analysis. An annoying quality of the book, however, is that Stark appears to be on a myth bashing mission. It's clear Stark has an axe to grind with `Enlightenment' thinkers and Marxist historians who he accuses of either distorting history or carelessly force fitting their theories. It isn't so much that he's wrong but he discusses ongoing debates between scholars, mentioning names and works, that laypersons are generally unfamiliar with.

Overall this is a great work and it's highly recommended for anyone who's interested in learning about Western Civilization and the influence Christianity has had in shaping our modern society.

12 people found this helpful

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R. M. Williams

well organized, thoughtful, interesting, systematic approach

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2004

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I got the book for the contents of chapter 4: "God's Justice: The Sin of Slavery", as a deliberate part of my directed self-study on the issue of the hermeneutics of slavery. After finishing the chapter i completed the rest of the book because of the author's persuasive and compelling writing and knowledge. Two important motifs stand out from the general arguments of the book. The first is the distinction of the "Church of Power" and the "Church of Piety", brought about by the unfortunate Constantinian synthesis that brought power, wealth, control and lots of conniving people into what had been a lowly, poor, unpowerful movement of aimed at righteous living, thus deforming everything it touched. This is the introduction, "Dimensions of the Supernatural". He has a well thought out, and interesting presentation of several related ideas: the level of commitment as indicative of not just what people are willing to put into an institution but what they expect to obtain from it, level of commitment as the psychological motor of reformation and sect-formation. This is the second great idea of the author's: The one true God of monotheism leads naturally to the idea of the one true faith as expressive of belief in this God, along with the level of commitment of individual's as determinative of where they lie on a continuum of interest/commitment. The more people demand of an institution that controls a monopoly on the belief system the more it either splits externally or reforms internally, depending on how the institution treats the rising commitment levels. This is chapter 1: "God's Truth: Inevitable Sects and Reformations", and apparently the author's first book, <u> the One True God</u>, which i ordered on the grounds of reading this one.
His research and argumentation is top-notch, for instance, in the section on comparing Islamic and Western slavery(in the Americas) he notes that roughly equal numbers of Africans where taken to both areas(7 million, pg 304). But where there are millions of the descendents of these slaves throughout the Americas, there exists few to none in the Islamic crescent from the Sudan through the old Ottoman empire, to India and ending with Indonesia. Such a simple yet compelling observation, indicative of much of the reasoning in the book, straightforward, interesting, and very persuasive.
I did not get what i came to read, that is an analysis of the arguments for and against slavery, but i got more than i expected, and interesting and awareness increasing book. If you are interested in getting a taste of the book before commiting to read it, i would start with the first dozen or so pages of chapter 2: "God's Handiwork: The Relgious Origins of Science." A very readable revisionist, debunking account of the rise of Western science and the relationship it had to Christian theology.

87 people found this helpful

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Derek E Iverson

A careful, enlightening, history of Western thought and culture

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017

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Rodney Stark is a very thorough investigator and engaging author. Rather than just repeat the exaggerated, repetitious claims of those who are PC and enforcing stereotypes on history, Rodney actually does research, looking for data which characterizes events or periods which are caricatured by popular accounts. This particular book deals with the rise of monotheism and it's different streams of thought and organization in the west; the unique rise of science and technology in this Western intellectual climate; exploration of witchcraft and similar trials across Europe (There were only 347 witchcraft trials (and ~900 defendants) from 1300-1499 and men were more likely than women to be executed; from 1540-1700 in Spanish Inquisition there were 44,701 cases from all offenses with a total of 826 executions); and the rise of anti-slavery attitudes in Christianity, unique among the major religions of the world, and the corresponding laws agains slavery, unique among many societies and nations in the world, even today;

His style of writing is one I really enjoy. He has a good overview of direction he is going at major launching points in the text; he addresses the assumptions, data limitations, and logic behind his conclusions; he shows data summaries and anecdotal pictures or artwork from the periods in questions; he illustrates the exaggerations that are commonly taught as fact by accurate quotations; and he carefully defends what he believes to be the correct interpretation of the data. His writing is thus carefully phrased, without be academically dry and suited only for technologists working in the field.

I would highly recommend this book as well as his others.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

CC

Excellent!

Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book so much. It is clear, enlighting and enriching for someone who is not a scholar but has a great interest in this kind of issues. I will surely be reading more by this author soon.

P Griffiths

Stark hits the mark

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2005

Verified Purchase

Rodney Stark has written a book that every history and sociology student should read. It's also a great resource for Christians wishing to research the triumphs and some of the mistakes that have been carried out in God's name. I would also recommend it to aficionados of Religion like Dan Brown fans and people who love a conspiracy!
The book deals with three topics over which there is much controversy and confusion. With tons of research and great sensitivity Stark separates truth from error and presents his own reasoned arguments. The careful reader is left with a much clearer picture of why the God of Christianity in particular has been such catalyst for change and shaped history so dramatically.
The book is easy to read, although it contains some dense documentary in places, and is very rewarding. It is an excellent addition to any thoughtful person’s library.

6 people found this helpful

Mr M R Langton

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2015

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interesting view of how Christianity has shaped the development of science

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