Apocalypse Now?

How may people of faith respond wisely, constructively, and courageously to the challenges of a time of terror? How might religious reasons in public debate be a force for reconciliation rather than violence and hatred? In a world in which religious arguments and religious motivations play such a huge public role, there is an urgent responsibility for interpreting what is happening, and engaging with religious views which are commonly regarded as alien, threatening or dangerous. In Apocalypse Now?, Duncan Forrester argues that disorders and atrocities which include the Gulag, the Holocaust, 9/11, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and the Tsunami disaster have shown us that we stand not at the end of history but in the midst of an apocalyptic age of terror which has striking similarities to the time in which Christianity was born. Moving between two times of terror - the early Centuries of Christianity, and today - Forrester asks how religious motivations can play a positive role in the midst of conflicts and disasters. Reading the 'signs of the times' to try to understand what is happening in today's age of terror, Forrester argues that there are huge resources in the Christian tradition that can be productively deployed for a more constructive and faithful response. We are at a turning point - this is a book which should be read. Contents: Foreword; Prologue: Two 'terrible manifestos'?; Vexed by a rocking cradle; Things fall apart: the long, bloody 20th century; After the Cold War: the end of ideology?; The public voice of resurgent religion; The rebirth of apocalyptic; Conflicting virtues: saints or heroes?; Virtues in conflict; Just war and just peacemaking; Epilogue: forgiveness and reconciliation; Postscript: Tsunami now?; Bibliography; Index.