Religion & Law

Ross Douthat has a column in yesterday's New York Times, "A Tough Season for Believers," in which he offers good news and bad news for Christians in American society. You can read the whole piece here.

On the sunny side, Douthat refers to ?American Grace,? co-written by Harvard?s Robert Putnam and Notre Dame?s David Campbell, which concludes, in Douthat's words, "[w]idespread churchgoing seems to make Americans more altruistic and more engaged with their communities, more likely to volunteer and more inclined to give to secular and religious charities."

On the "dark side," Douthat draws on James Davison Hunter?s ?To Change the World,? which argues that the "culture war" has led Christians toward a "bunker mentality" and a "weak culture" ? "one that mobilizes but doesn?t convert, alienates rather than seduces, and looks backward toward a lost past instead of forward to a vibrant future."

From this, Douthat concludes by suggesting that, "Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom ? and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week."  Back to the catacombs, anyone?