Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

Extract

Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. By Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 348p. $70.00 cloth, $24.99 paper.

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart tackle two pressing empirical and theoretical questions about religion and politics: Why have most wealthy countries become less religious, and why have most poor countries become more religious? Their answer will be no surprise to those who have followed Inglehart's research over the years: The socioeconomic and external security conditions in which people grow up strongly affect their propensity to be religious. Those who were socialized during conditions of “existential security” have less need for religion; those whose formative years were marked by conditions of insecurity (to themselves, their families, or their communities) have much more need for religion. As with Inglehart's earlier work on postindustrial values (The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics, 1977), the main variable is socioeconomic well-being and security when young.