The revenge of God - Gilles Kepel

The Revenge of God is a compelling account of the resurgence of religious belief in the modern world, and of the conflict and strife to which it has given rise. Gilles Kepel examines this development by comparing three major world religions - Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. He shows that there are striking similarities between all three religions: despite the individual character of each religious doctrine and the revival of conflicts between them, all violently resist the spirit of the Enlightenment and the secular values which it has produced - liberalism, democracy, individualism and the privatization of morality. Kepel argues that all three religions have benefited from a growing disenchantment with political ideologies and secular utopias. Each of them includes a 'militant' membership of young, educated and modern people; each pursues both a strategy 'from above', seizing state power and using state legislation to promote its ends, and a strategy 'from below', by evangelizing the masses and taking control of their daily lives. Carefully and convincingly documented, Kepel's highly topical account ranges from Europe to America and the Middle East, from Protestant 'televangelis;Now available in English, The Revenge of God has sold 60,000 copies in France and thousands more throughout the world. It addresses one of the most important issues of our times and deserves to be widely read.