4.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 14/09/2009

I am half way through this book. It is, so far anyway, excellent. It is a mix of political history, examining power and its use, sociology, and economics in the old sense of seeing where the money goes and how that influences decision making.

The book is by no means 'religious', but it is I think profoundly important for any clergyperson to read... for if the book is right, the climate of opinion in society at large and within which churches operate is changing.

The concept of a 'religion' operating in a free market for religious experience is not one likely to appeal to many religious people... but that does not prevent it being a very poweful idea, with implications important for the future of any religious organisations. That includes churches.

Kit Bunker

3.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 27/07/2009

This book looks at the rising importance and 'return' to religion as a key feature in the social and political landscape. There was an excellent review of it in The Weekend Australian in June 2009, which analysed it critically and in some depth. It raises some interesting issues, but there is a strong anglo-centric appraoch, and a tendency to extrapolate one example into a general observation.