Defending the Faith - (Proceedings of the British Academy) by Todd Weir & Hugh McLeod (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book explores how conflicts between secular worldviews and religions shaped the history of the 20th century.

Book Synopsis

This volume explores the many ways in which conflicts between secular worldviews and religions shaped the history of the twentieth century. It introduces the notion of 'apologetics' to highlight a common feature of these conflicts: both secular and religious groups employed a mixture of learned argument and popular propaganda to defend their faith, but also to come up with new forms of outreach and mission. By bringing the dynamics of religious and secular apologetics into a comparative perspective, and drawing on examples from Western Europe, the USSR, the USA, North Africa and Asia from the 1920s to the present, the volume offers important historical perspectives on current debates over the place of religion in contemporary politics.

Review Quotes

Defending the Faith nicely captures much of the variety and complexity of 20th century religious conflicts, and its use of apologetics to facilitate meaningful comparison is intriguing.

-- "Graham G. Dodds, Politics, Religion & Ideology"

scholars and students of religion and politics in the twentieth century --especially those interested in thinking comparatively, theoretically, and internationally -- will find this collection of essays a valuable addition to their libraries and classrooms.-- "Matthew S. Hedstrom, Church History"

After reading this conceptually stimulating volume, there can be no question about the fact that religion and secularism formed a powerful pair of concepts in the 20th century and the conflicts between the two influenced contemporary politics and decisively shaped culture.-- "Eveline G. Bouwers, Historische Zeitschrift"

Indeed, the volume as a whole will stimulate much useful thought and discussion. For those in scholarly circles, it offers much food for thought on subjects from the Cold War and decolonization to American evangelicalism and world religions. It also has much potential for use in university courses.-- "Erik Benson, Fides Historia Review"

It would be invidious to pick out particular chapters for praise: they all open interesting doors and make for worthwhile reading.-- "Andrew Chandler, Modern Believing"

The book conforms to the chronological boundaries 1917-1989 of the "short 20th century". Its tripartite organization starts from the European hearth, approached in the five articles of the first part, "Apologetics in Europe between the two wars" (p. 17-116).-- "Cornelius Crowley, Archives de sciences sociales des religions"

The book is distinctive in extending the notion of apologetics to include non-Christian and even anti-Christian contentions.-- "David Bebbington, The English Historical Review"

The book presents a great variety of contributions...-- "Arie L. Molendijk, University of Groningen, NTT JOURNAL FOR THEOLOGY AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION 76.1"

About the Author

Todd H. Weir is Professor of History of Christianity and Modern Culture in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen. Prior to arriving in the Netherlands, he taught at Queen's University Belfast for nine years. He is the author of Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession (Cambridge, 2014) which won Jacques Barzun Prize for Cultural History, and is currently completing its sequel: Socialism and Secularism in Germany 1890 to 1933: Two Cultures.

Hugh McLeod was Professor of Church History at the University of Birmingham 1994-2010 and was president of CIHEC, the international organisation of historians of Christianity 2005-10. He has held visiting posts at Amsterdam, Uppsala, Münster and Mainz, and is a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include Piety and Poverty: Working Class Religion in Berlin, London and New York, 1870-1914 (1996), Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848-1914 (2000), The Religious Crisis of the 1960s (2007). He edited the 20th century volume of The Cambridge History of Christianity (2006).