Arno Tausch – Visiting Professor of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Series: Religion and Society
BISAC: REL000000; REL004000; POL000000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/RQSL0853

“The world is increasing polarized. This is especially evident at the level of faith and value systems. The political turmoil in Europe and the United States is fundamentally a clash of values: “Who are we and what makes us different from the proverbial other?”. These values are increasingly expressed by political parties and expressed in our toxic identity and populist politics. Often faith is manipulated to suit political agendas. Going beyond journalistic and superficial academic accounts, Arno Tausch’s latest book is erudite and comprehensive in scope. Moreover, he combines solid empirical analysis (Gallup polls and World Values Survey) with deep theoretical reflections from Ibn Khaldun to Karl Polanyi. This is further anchored on concrete case studies which provide depth to the breadth of his analysis. This is a must-read book for every scholar and policy maker concerned about our polarized polities.” – Professor Hussein Solomon, Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa

These are difficult times for every inhabitant of this planet, and for a committed Christian and social scientist. Considering the mass murder by atheist regimes in the People’s Republic of China, Kampuchea (under Communist rule), North Korea, Poland (under Communist rule), the Soviet Union, Vietnam (under Communist rule) and Communist Yugoslavia, it is time to re-examine the question of the relationship between atheism and political extremism.

In this book, a left-leaning Roman Catholic scholar who has been at the forefront of liberation theology and the movement of solidarity with the Global South for many decades (Müller, Tausch, Zulehner, 1999) looks at the values of the global community of people who do not believe in a Deity and critically evaluates some of the major claims of the so-called “new atheism” literature. The author argues that one or perhaps the central problem with the rise of right-wing populism in the leading Western democracies is that it is the secularist anti-egalitarianism of the upper classes which is now at the forefront of the current Western mainstream societal model, rather than a social liberal and social democratic agenda open to the values of the world’s religions.

This book analyzes how the “cultural Christianity” of non-believers, divorced from the actual teachings of the major Christian denominations, plays an increasing role in today’s right-wing populist and xenophobic political parties in the West. The presented research results are compounded by multiple regression analyses.