Religion in the Secular City: Toward a Postmodern Theology

Twenty years ago theologian Harvey Cox wrote The Secular City, which became the most influential book on religion of its generation. Now Religion in the Secular City, a daring, far-sighted assessment of religion and politics in the postmodern world, is speaking with equal force to its generation of readers. Dr. Cox, Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, examines the dramatic reappearance of traditional religion throughout the world, from the grassroots fervor of Christian communities in Latin America to the rise of fundamentalism on network television. He draws on his wide travels and personal experiences to articulate a new theology which will come, not from the existing intellectual centers of religious thought, but "from the bottom and the edges." Among the social and political consequences of this new theological synthesis are the Roman Catholic bishops' call for a nuclear freeze, the central role of religion in the political struggle in Poland, and in Latin America, the liberation theologists' advocacy of revolution. The reformation of Christian theology that has begun, Dr. Cox writes, comes from "base communities" analogous to the early Christian communities, and will have consequences as far-reaching as did the Reformation of the sixteenth century.