Return to Religion

GOD: VOICE OF HUMAN NATURE revival of religious concern. The article in Span, Dec 1984, p. 26, is reproduced here. A Return to Religion “There’s no doubt about it,” says Harvey R. Cox, Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, “There’s a tremendous resurgence of religious interest here. “It is not uncommon to see students wearing crosses or yarmulkes on campuses across the United States, and few hide that they go to a church or a synagogue. Not just students but the academic community, long a haven for sceptics, is now giving religion a second look. Cox’s bestselling 1965 book, ‘The Secular City,’ suggested people lost interest in the sacred. His new book, ‘Religion in the Secular City’ describes the current revival in religious concern. A century that has seen the Gulag, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and the spread of nuclear arms has caused some who used to champion rationalism and science to humble themselves. Since their secular gods have failed, they are beginning to view more traditional gods with a new curiosity. “There is a reaction against extreme individualism and self, a preoccupation with and a search for roots with a capital R, which takes people back to religion,” says Robert N. Bellah, Ford Professor of Sociology and Comparative Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. “Tradition is back on the agenda with a positive force.” It would have been hard to imagine a similar revival 20 years ago. On April 8, 1966, Time magazine asked