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Rod Stark rejoins our podcast to discuss the second portion of his book, “The Triumph of Christianity.” We survey the epoch from the Edict of Milan up until the start of the Protestant Reformation, covering topics such as the relationship between Christianity and economic growth, the Church’s role in promoting science, religious opposition to slavery, the supposed demise of paganism, the religiosity of the common folk, and the various “reformations” that were taking place within the Christian Church throughout this era, eventually leading to Luther’s Reformation.

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Is the global resurgence in public religiosity over the past 40 years linked in any way to the increase in democratic governance over the same period of time? Prof. Dan Philpott (Notre Dame) covers the historical trends of church-state relations and discusses how changes in political theologies and the increasing independence of religious organizations have provided a fertile ground for political democratization in some corners of the world. We examine how and why some religious traditions have been involved in promoting democracy under authoritarian conditions. Our discussion turns toward some speculation about the future of the “Arab Spring” at the end of our interview. This is the first part of a discussion of the book “God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics.”

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