Politics in a Religious World

Reviews / Votes

"The U.S. foreign policy establishment continues to assume, against decades of evidence to the contrary, that religion operates according to the same logic as secular forms of power. Eric Patterson is the rare observer who combines a sophisticated understanding of religion's complex and contradictory roles in international politics with an insider's knowledge of U.S. diplomatic and military thinking. His balanced but blunt critique of the so-called "realism" that keeps many of our policymakers comfortable in their ignorance of religion could not be more timely." - R.Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame, Co-Chair, Chicago Council on Global Affairs Task Force on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy. "Everyone who wishes to influence or conduct America's foreign policy in the 21st Century should be required to read Eric Patterson's Politics in a Religious World. In a real tour de force, Patterson calls on America's foreign policy practitioners to remove their 'secularist blinders' and recognize religion's central importance in billions of peoples lives in determining the behavior of diverse societies across the globe." -Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission "Eric Patterson's insightful book represents a welcome addition to the case that is building daily for including religious factors in the calculus of American foreign policy. Addressing the staunch secular bias in Western foreign policies head-on, he exposes the perils of continuing as before in the education and practice of our international relations professionals. His analysis and proposed remedies for our "religiously illiterate foreign policy" are sound and deserve serious attention." -Dr. Douglas M. Johnston, President and Founder, International Center for Religion & Diplomacy.