Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics

347 Pages·2012·2.73 MB·English

by  Ross Douthat

AS THE YOUNGEST-EVER op-ed columnist for the New York Times, Ross Douthat has
emerged as one of the most provocative and influential voices of his generation. In
Bad Religion he offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American
Christianity has gone off the rails—and why it threatens to take American society
with it.
Writing for an era dominated by recession, grid-lock, and fears of American
decline, Douthat exposes the spiritual roots of the nation’s political and economic
crises. He argues that America’s problem isn’t too much religion, as a growing
chorus of atheists have argued; nor is it an intolerant secularism, as many on the
Christian right believe. Rather, it’s bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of
traditional faith and the rise of a variety of pseudo-Christianities that stroke our
egos, indulge our follies, and encourage our worst impulses.
These faiths speak from many pulpits—conservative and liberal, political and
pop cultural, traditionally religious and fashionably “spiritual”—and many of their
preachers claim a Christian warrant. But they are increasingly offering distortions of
traditional Christianity—not the real thing. Christianity’s place in American life has
increasingly been taken over, not by atheism, Douthat argues, but by heresy:
debased versions of Christian faith that breed hubris, greed, and self-absorption.
In a story that moves from the 1950s to the age of Obama, he brilliantly charts
institutional Christianity’s decline from a vigorous, mainstream, and bipartisan faith
—which acted as a “vital center” and the moral force behind the civil rights
movement—through the culture wars of the 1960s and 1970s to the polarizing
debates of the present day. Ranging from Glenn Beck to Barack Obama, Eat Pray
Love to Joel Osteen, and Oprah Winfrey to The Da Vinci Code, Douthat explores
how the prosperity gospel’s mantra of “pray and grow rich,” a cult of self-esteem
that reduces God to a life coach, and the warring political religions of left and right
have crippled the country’s ability to confront our most pressing challenges and
accelerated American decline.
His urgent call for a revival of traditional Christianity is sure to generate
controversy, and it will be vital reading for all those concerned about the imperiled
American future.
PRAISE FOR BAD RELIGION
“Not only is Ross Douthat’s account of orthodox Christianity’s decline provocative,
but his critique of today’s ascendant heresies is compelling. This volume is a
sustained proof of Chesterton’s thesis that when people turn from God, ‘they don’t
believe in nothing—they believe in anything.’ Everyone who is interested in why
the church is faring as it is in U.S. culture today needs to get this book.”
—Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City
“Bad Religion is superb: sharply critical of the amazing variety of American religious
pathologies, but fair; blunt in diagnosis, but just; telling a dark tale, but telling it
hopefully. For those trying to understand the last half-century or more of American
religion, and to strive for a better future, it is an indispensable book.”
—Alan Jacobs, author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis
“Ross Douthat’s thoughtful, articulate, wide-ranging, sometimes contrarian, and
always provocative new book asks a tough question: Why has Christianity been so
misunderstood, and so misused, in the past few decades? From those who (foolishly)
watered down the most basic Christian beliefs to those who (falsely) promised
worldly success to the followers of Jesus, the values of orthodoxy (literally, ‘right
belief’) have often been blithely set aside. With an impressive command of both
history and contemporary social trends, Douthat shows not only how we ended up
with a Christianity of our own making, but also how we can reclaim an adherence
to the teachings of the real Jesus—not just the convenient one.”
—James Martin, SJ, author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
“Bad Religion is nothing short of prophetic. In a time of religious, political, and
cultural upheaval, Ross Douthat tells the American faithful—liberals, conservatives,
and everybody in between—not what we want to hear, but what we desperately
need to hear. With this provocative and challenging work that no thoughtful
Christian can afford to ignore, Douthat assures his place in the first rank of his
generation’s public intellectuals.”
—Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons and senior editor of The American
Conservative
ROSS DOUTHAT
is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He is
the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class and coauthor
of Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the
American Dream. Before joining the Times he was a senior editor for The Atlantic.
He is the film critic for National Review, and he has appeared regularly on
television, including on Charlie Rose, PBS Newshour, Real Time, and The Colbert
Report.
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ALSO BY ROSS DOUTHAT
Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class
Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the
American Dream (with Reihan Salam)
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Designed by Akasha Archer Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Douthat, Ross Gregory.
Bad religion : how we became a nation of heretics / by Ross Douthat.—1st
Free Press hardcover ed.
p. cm.
1. Christianity—United States. 2. Catholic Church—United States. 3.
Theology, Doctrinal—United States. 4. United States—Religious life and customs.
I. Title.
BR526.D68 2012
277.3'083—dc23
2011043081
ISBN 978–1–4391–7830–0
ISBN 978–1–4391–7834–8 (ebook)
For Abby