I can't praise Gray highly enough. 'Modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion', the book begins. And from there Gray shows how modern political movements are by-products of (eschatological and apocalyptic) Christian thought. Liberal secular faith in progress by piecemeal reform (with occasional violence and torture) is merely a belief in salvation by another name.
'If anything defines 'the West' it is the pursuit of salvation in history. It is historical teleology - the belief that history has a built-in purpose or goal - rather than traditions of democracy or tolerance, that sets western civilization apart from all others. By itself this not produce mass terror - other conditions including large-scale social dislocation are required before that can come about. The crimes of the twentieth century were not inevitable. [...] there is nothing peculiarly western about mass murder. What is unique to the modern West is the formative role of the faith that violence can save the world.' (103)
An important critique of the faith/science dichotomy; of evangelicalism and new atheism; and of liberalism. And a plea to accept the irreducible reality of religion in our time and, therefore, to critique and dismantle its violent legacies in both secular and religious guises.
All in all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon. Or twenty.
