by Matthew Kaemingk (Author), Shadi Hamid (Author)

What Secularism Got Wrong--and How Religion Can Help Set Things Right

"This book is original and profound."--David Brooks, New York Times bestselling author

"Keep religion and politics separate!" For decades, scholars and public intellectuals assumed that less religion would lead to a more peaceful and unified form of politics. The evidence suggests otherwise. As religion has receded from public life, our politics have grown more polarized, anxious, and unstable.

In Can Religion Save Democracy?, two friends and colleagues--a Christian theologian and a Muslim political scientist--make a bold case: If American democracy is going to survive, it will require more religion, not less. Drawing on wisdom from their respective religious traditions, they explore

● why secularism has only deepened our divides,
● what ancient insights from Christianity and Islam can strengthen our common life,
● how spiritual practices contribute critical virtues to democratic life, and
● how citizens can navigate a new world of deep polarization and mistrust.

This is not a call for theocracy or religious authoritarianism. It's a hopeful, clear-eyed vision showing how religious faith offers vital tools to renew the soul of democracy in a divided nation.

Back Jacket

What Secularism Got Wrong--and How Religion Can Help Set Things Right

As religion has receded from public life in recent decades, our politics have grown more polarized, anxious, and unstable. Two friends and colleagues--a Christian theologian and a Muslim political scientist--argue that this is no coincidence. In Can Religion Save Democracy?, Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid draw on the deep wells of their respective faith traditions to make a bold case: If American democracy is going to survive, it will need more religion, not less.

"This book is original and profound. Kaemingk and Hamid take the wisdom from two great religious traditions and use it to bend your mind--especially if you happen to be secular."
--David Brooks, author of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

"One of the most insightful diagnoses of our cultural moment that I've read in years. What makes this book particularly compelling is that it is not written from abstraction. You can feel the lived experience behind every chapter."
--Dalia Mogahed, coauthor of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think

"In this brilliant book, two men of faith from different traditions illuminate a truth that some Europeans painfully discovered nearly a century ago: A post-religious society is not necessarily more rational, reasonable, or tolerant than a religious one. They ask how traditional religion might help heal the clash of tribalisms in which we now find ourselves. In a deeply troubling moment, they offer a profoundly religious remedy: hope."
--Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow on Islam and modernity, Cato Institute; author of Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance

"At the same time that America has seen a precipitous drop in religious affiliation, our politics have grown increasingly contentious and volatile. Kaemingk and Hamid argue that these trends are related phenomena, a striking alternative to the presumption that religion is a major source of political conflict rather than a solution to it. Can Religion Save Democracy? is an insightful and carefully considered book that will give secular and religious readers alike a new lens for viewing a political period that may otherwise seem hopeless."
--Elizabeth Bruenig, staff writer for The Atlantic

Author Biography

Matthew Kaemingk (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and professor of public theology at Theological University Utrecht. He is the author of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear and lives in Ballwin, Missouri.

Shadi Hamid (PhD, Oxford University) is a columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is the author of The Problem of Democracy and Islamic Exceptionalism.