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Rating: 
Summary: Absurd Book Full of Excuses
Review: Christians persecuted Jews, witches, Albigensians, etc. all for the Glory of God; a Being whom they appear to think is as anxious for blood sacrifice as an Aztec god. If the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians were not busy with the human sacrifice of witches it is because they were too occupied burning Jews alive at the stake. Christians also spent a lot of time persecuting Islamics (the Crusades) and each other - Catholics vs. Protestants. Christianity has a lot of good points, but one of the supreme failures is its incredible hypocrasy. They say - love your neighbor, love your enemy - then they kill him.
Rating: 
Summary: well organized, thoughtful, interesting, systematic approach
Review: I got the book for the contents of chapter 4: "God's Justice: The Sin of Slavery", as a deliberate part of my directed self-study on the issue of the hermeneutics of slavery. After finishing the chapter i completed the rest of the book because of the author's persuasive and compelling writing and knowledge. Two important motifs stand out from the general arguments of the book. The first is the distinction of the "Church of Power" and the "Church of Piety", brought about by the unfortunate Constantinian synthesis that brought power, wealth, control and lots of conniving people into what had been a lowly, poor, unpowerful movement of aimed at righteous living, thus deforming everything it touched. This is the introduction, "Dimensions of the Supernatural". He has a well thought out, and interesting presentation of several related ideas: the level of commitment as indicative of not just what people are willing to put into an institution but what they expect to obtain from it, level of commitment as the psychological motor of reformation and sect-formation. This is the second great idea of the author's: The one true God of monotheism leads naturally to the idea of the one true faith as expressive of belief in this God, along with the level of commitment of individual's as determinative of where they lie on a continuum of interest/commitment. The more people demand of an institution that controls a monopoly on the belief system the more it either splits externally or reforms internally, depending on how the institution treats the rising commitment levels. This is chapter 1: "God's Truth: Inevitable Sects and Reformations", and apparently the author's first book, the One True God, which i ordered on the grounds of reading this one. His research and argumentation is top-notch, for instance, in the section on comparing Islamic and Western slavery(in the Americas) he notes that roughly equal numbers of Africans where taken to both areas(7 million, pg 304). But where there are millions of the descendents of these slaves throughout the Americas, there exists few to none in the Islamic crescent from the Sudan through the old Ottoman empire, to India and ending with Indonesia. Such a simple yet compelling observation, indicative of much of the reasoning in the book, straightforward, interesting, and very persuasive. I did not get what i came to read, that is an analysis of the arguments for and against slavery, but i got more than i expected, and interesting and awareness increasing book. If you are interested in getting a taste of the book before commiting to read it, i would start with the first dozen or so pages of chapter 2: "God's Handiwork: The Relgious Origins of Science." A very readable revisionist, debunking account of the rise of Western science and the relationship it had to Christian theology.
Rating:
Summary: well organized, thoughtful, interesting, systematic approach
Review: I got the book for the contents of chapter 4: "God's Justice: The Sin of Slavery", as a deliberate part of my directed self-study on the issue of the hermeneutics of slavery. After finishing the chapter i completed the rest of the book because of the author's persuasive and compelling writing and knowledge. Two important motifs stand out from the general arguments of the book. The first is the distinction of the "Church of Power" and the "Church of Piety", brought about by the unfortunate Constantinian synthesis that brought power, wealth, control and lots of conniving people into what had been a lowly, poor, unpowerful movement of aimed at righteous living, thus deforming everything it touched. This is the introduction, "Dimensions of the Supernatural". He has a well thought out, and interesting presentation of several related ideas: the level of commitment as indicative of not just what people are willing to put into an institution but what they expect to obtain from it, level of commitment as the psychological motor of reformation and sect-formation. This is the second great idea of the author's: The one true God of monotheism leads naturally to the idea of the one true faith as expressive of belief in this God, along with the level of commitment of individual's as determinative of where they lie on a continuum of interest/commitment. The more people demand of an institution that controls a monopoly on the belief system the more it either splits externally or reforms internally, depending on how the institution treats the rising commitment levels. This is chapter 1: "God's Truth: Inevitable Sects and Reformations", and apparently the author's first book, <u> the One True God</u>, which i ordered on the grounds of reading this one. His research and argumentation is top-notch, for instance, in the section on comparing Islamic and Western slavery(in the Americas) he notes that roughly equal numbers of Africans where taken to both areas(7 million, pg 304). But where there are millions of the descendents of these slaves throughout the Americas, there exists few to none in the Islamic crescent from the Sudan through the old Ottoman empire, to India and ending with Indonesia. Such a simple yet compelling observation, indicative of much of the reasoning in the book, straightforward, interesting, and very persuasive. I did not get what i came to read, that is an analysis of the arguments for and against slavery, but i got more than i expected, and interesting and awareness increasing book. If you are interested in getting a taste of the book before commiting to read it, i would start with the first dozen or so pages of chapter 2: "God's Handiwork: The Relgious Origins of Science." A very readable revisionist, debunking account of the rise of Western science and the relationship it had to Christian theology.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant and well documented work of not only sociology b
Review: I just finished this book and I have to say its the best book I have read this year. I initially bought it to read Stark's view on religion and science. Being and avid student of the history and philosophy of science I found this section very interesting. But I also learned a great deal about areas I had a passing interest in but no real knowledge - Church history, The Inquisition, Witch Hunts and slavery. Excellent source for an interesting and well supported theory of society and religion. Also just a good read for any student of history as well. The high quality of writing and documentation of this book has prompted me to purchase and read his first book (which For the Glory of God is a sequel to) - One True God.
Rating:
Summary: Must reading for all science students and teachers
Review: Stark shows why Western Civilization really is God-given in important areas. And along the way he manages to uncover how much Secular Historians and Sociologists have distorted, downplayed and dismissed the deep and fundamental positive Christian influence on History. Its astonishing to read how much nonsense and dishonesty there's been - and still are. Stark manages to tackle an enormous amounts of anti-Christian myths head on, not the least by actual checking the Historical sources. The main point is to examine possible correlations between a belief in god/gods and sociological/cultural developments, and he succeeds admirably in this - against old theories like Durkheim and others who insisted that religion was about rituals only and that the actual content of the faith was irrelevant and silly anyway. Stark is able to show - by using actual historical data - how the kind of God/gods one believe in - and the intensity of this belief - are significant variables in at least four areas: First: When, where and what kind of reformations occur. Even if he insists (quite rightly) that any religious body which establishes a monopoly will lead to strife, that reformations are unavoidable, and never is blind to atrocities or negative aspect of neither Protestants nor Catholics, he shows in every chapter the necessity of Christianity for the modern world. Second: The rise of Moderne Science (Stark shows a high correlation between belief in a rational God and a rational Creation on the emergence of science from about the fourteenth century, while other beliefs had a negative effect) is a direct outcome of a Christian view of the Universe. Even if that view was not a sufficient cause, it was a neccessary cause. And there's a lot of stuff on the antireligious rhetoric about the "war between Science and Religion" - there never was any such war, however many Christians, Atheists or others who do believe there was, or is trying to set up a war these days. Without a passionate belief in God (and Jesus) there would be no Modern Science or (and this is his third point) Abolition of Slavery. Stark's fourth conclusion is that the Church - contrary to a popular myth - even hindered and stopped Witch-hunts. That does not mean that the church not also was part of the reason that courts in the late fifteenth century (more than a thousand years after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire) started taking up such cases when realising that Non-Christian "magic" (herbs, hexes, wise women) in fact worked, and worked even better than Christian "magic" (prayers, relics etc), in an age of religious strife which reduced former tolerance of religious noncomformity. What Stark does here is in fact to make some kind of sense of the craze, and to show that any country with a strong, central government (like in Spain, Portugal and Italy) managed to stop almost all cases before they went to court or to executions. While perhaps three quarters of the total number of withces executed (about 30 000 of 40 000) died in the autononymous German "Borderlands" along the Rhine river. This book will become a classic of Modern Sociology of Religion, even if of course some of his findings may and should be questioned, as with all science. And no doubt it will lead to a lot of aggressive debate (and I guess, even more distortions, downplayings and dismissals, perhaps even in this review section), as it goes so directly against Political Correct History.
Rating:
Summary: Must reading for all science students and teachers
Review: This book is a goldmine of information that is critical to understand both science and religion. Written by University of Washington professor Rodney Stark and published by Princeton University Press, the book covers the effect of monotheism on science and society. It is a balanced discussion of both the positive and negative effects of theism in our world, a topic of critical importance in America today in view of the public school battles over religion heating up almost everywhere in America today. A few quotes will illustrate one of the topics it covers, science and religion. Stark correctly notes on page 176 that the historic "battle over evolution is not an example of how 'heroic' scientists have withstood the relentless persecution of religious 'fanatics.' Rather, from the very start it has been primarily an attack on religion by militant atheists who wrap themselves in the mantle of science in an effort to refute all religious claims concerning a Creator - an effort that has also often attempted to suppress all scientific criticism of Darwin's work" and "based on my experience ... nothing causes greater panic among many of my colleagues than any criticism of evolution" On page 177 Dr. Stark concludes that "Darwin's theory, even with all of the subsequent revisions, falls short of explaining the origin of species" He than supports these and other conclusions in the text and with almost 100 pages of notes. As a lover of fine books, I noted that his book is bound in real cloth! Unusual today. It is must reading for both critic and supporter!!!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and easy to digest
Review: This was a fascinating book. It is my first Sociology book, and while I hear Marxism still has a strong hold among Sociology professors, Stark does not present his data and theories filtered through that lens. In fact, he is rather critical of other sociological writings covering this period and topic, which may explain the negative reviews that say he is "way out of the sociological mainstream" - and more power to Stark as far as I am concerned.
"Monotheism" presents a riveting analysis of the sources of some of the odder behavior that our western civilization has produced, both our desired behaviors such as the abolition of slavery and advancement of true science as well as the embarrassing behavior of witch-hunts. He presents a well-supported theory of historical religion and its patterns that respects both religious details and religious believers (monotheist, polytheist, and atheist), which apparently sets him apart from colleagues who dismiss all things religious as irrelevant and seek the underlying economic factors for everything (which is the common Marxist pattern of analysis).
This book is easy to read, not too long, and I found it very enjoyable and very worth recommending. It also serves as a good reminder of the debt we owe previous generations and institutions for the freedoms we take for granted, and makes a strong case for the importance of freedom of religion and lawful religious expression as opposed to the removal of most or all religious expression through the elevation of any one "preferred" religion - be it a flavor of Protestant Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Atheism, or any of the other variety of beliefs present in our society.
Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag really : to be read with extreme caution
Review: Though I would tend to agree with many of the reviewers on the basic achievements of this book (mainly the fact that it succeeds in weakening the legitimacy of well entrenched ideas concerning the Christian church), Mr Stark's project proves to be both too ambitious in scope and mired with inaccuracies. Professor Stark's task is indeed daunting : to engage in a broad multi-disciplinary study of the impact of Christianity on human thought is perhaps too demanding for a single scholar, even the best of them, let alone one who is not an historian. In fact, beyond his enthusiasm for the subject lies a quite shallow treatment of the numerous problems one encounters when treating with religion and history. In short, Professor Stark always seems ready to give a bold answer without really entering into the "meat" of the problem. He seems only too ready to disregard dents in his implacable demonstration. At the beginnig of the book, his mishandling of Antiquity, for example -while clearly an afterthought for him- reeks of amateurism and doesn't bode well for the rest. Who could call the rhetor and sophist Libanios (fourth century AD) a poet, while all his works were written in prose and are in fact set speeches ? Who could in his right mind dismiss the Manicheans as another christian sect, while it is clearly a lot more complex than that ? As a Classicist by trade, I could see easily where Professor Stark had erred. But could I trust him on periods that I knew less about ? I didn't think so. Yet the most glaring flaw of Rodney Stark's argument lies in his most bewildering silence concerning the other, eastern variants of Christianity. If Christianity is the catalyst the author thinks it is, then why didn't scinece blossom in the Byzantine empire or in Russia, in Coptic Egypt, in the Syrian plateau or in Ethiopia where Christian communities existed since the very beginning ? Certainly reformations, science, with-hunts and abolitionism have a more cultural core that that author thinks.
Being a fierce Church-critic myself and somewhat of a militant secularist, Rodney's Stark "For the Glory of God" did manage to make me think and consider revising some of my thinking concerning the role of monotheism in history, yet, taken as a whole, his book falls short. All in all, this is the work of a dilettante whose scholarship is too shaky to be relied on.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Whether you wish to attack Christianity or support it, you have to read this book. It provides detailed evidence leading to conclusions that will be surprise anyone raised and educated in the secular Western world.
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