God-botherers and Other True-believers

F. G. Bailey is an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught from 1972-1994. He was formerly the founding professor of anthropology at the University of Sussex, UK and has published fifteen books (two of them edited volumes).

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPART I: FAITH AND POLITICSChapter 1. Faith, Reason and ConsequencesThree kinds of faithOnly believe!HumanismOnenessA Point of ViewChapter 2. Religion and Persuasion in PoliticsReligion and Political InvolvementThe Problem of OrderWhat should go on and what does go onDefining SituationsInformation Costs: Political ClairvoyanceCreating TrustPersuading Reality-testingPART II ANTAGONISTIC RELIGIONSChapter 3. Desert, Marketplace, and ForumThe Religious Right (and Left) HypocrisyRender therefore unto CaesarModes of Clerical Involvement in PoliticsAntagonismParaclerics: Repenting Religion as a Weapon: Mrs. SchiavoThe Religious Mode of Political PersuasionChapter 4. The Need for EnemiesPol Pot and Secular Religion“Ardent and Even Hysterical Passions”Manufacturing EnemiesGroup Sentiment and ViolenceHitler’s FaithFascism and Christian FascismPART III: A RELIGION OF LOVEChapter 5. Gandhi: The Freedom FightThe Freedom-FightPeacemaking FailuresChapter 6. Gandhi's CharismaCalculation Charisma: the Mass AudienceCharisma: Elite and EntourageSingle-MindednessChapter 7. Gandhi's Religion and Political RealityGandhi and HitlerFaith and ResponsibilitySecular Disciplines in the Freedom FightGandhian Morality and “Sectarian” religionsGandhi’s Universalism and Political ActionChapter 8. The First Cause and the Last WordPropagating the FaithWalk GentlyMorality and EvolutionOneness and its consequences: diseducationOneness and its consequences: strife ~Diseducation and AuthorityOnly Think!ReferencesIndex

“In this book, which is carefully reasoned, engagingly written, and resolutely grounded in systematic thinking – as well as seething with incredulity towards the politics of faith – one can sense the passion of Bailey’s academic conviction: that questions are the only true formulations of knowledge worth fighting for.”  ·  JRAI