<\/p>\n
From Robert Wright’s<\/a> New York Times review of Putnam and Campbell’s American Grace<\/a>:<\/p>\n gaining an evangelical friend leads to a warmer assessment of evangelicals \u2014 by seven degrees on a \u201cfeeling thermometer,\u201d to be exact \u2014 and gaining a non\u00adreligious friend brings four degrees of added warmth toward the nonreligious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This suggests that the best antidote to religious intolerance is more religious pluralism. As numbers of Buddhists, Mormons and Muslims grow in the US and proliferate around the country, negative perceptions will be reduced. I look forward to reading their book, particularly how they reconcile Putnam’s hunkering<\/em> theory that posits a negative relationship between neighborhood diversity and trust, with this finding about religious diversity. \u00a0Is race\/ethnic diversity qualitatively different than religious diversity in how it affects trust? \u00a0It would seem to be. \u00a0It is conceivable than in a generation, we see interfaith tension between Christians and Muslims are significantly reduced.<\/p>\n My sense is that what led Putnam down this road is the potential power of religion as a “bridge” between racial and ethnic difference. \u00a0Wright’s has an interesting insight about the emerging rift between the “religious” and “non-religious” in society being a rather new cultural chasm. \u00a0 More than the “clash of civilizations” the religious-non-religious divide \u00a0might be what defines the “culture war” for the next few decades. \u00a0It’s worth thinking about how the religious and self-identified non-religious talk with each other. \u00a0I’m proud to say that my campus seems to be on the forefront<\/a> of having conversations between these groups. \u00a0Can athiests see the value of faith in serving as a central organizing principle for vast numbers of people and can the religious recognize that individuals can construct legitimate \u00a0ethical systems without appeals to faith-based systems?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Robert Wright’s New York Times review of Putnam and Campbell’s American Grace: gaining an evangelical friend leads to a warmer assessment of evangelicals \u2014 by seven degrees on a \u201cfeeling thermometer,\u201d to be exact \u2014 and gaining a non\u00adreligious friend brings four degrees of added warmth toward the nonreligious. This suggests that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9082,9080,1492,42],"class_list":["post-3425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-grace","tag-atheism","tag-putnam","tag-religion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3426,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions\/3426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}