Dr. Eric P. Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
   e.kaufmann@bbk.ac.uk
                                                                                         

Summary

This project argues that the population of the developed world will become increasingly religious and conservative in the long-term, reversing decades - even centuries - of liberal secularisation. There will be no mass conversions or sudden shifts in the cultural mood. Instead, religiosity will spread largely through demographic advantage in a world where secular religions and sources of secular enchantment have exhausted themselves.

Books

Findings will be forthcoming in a new book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (London: Profile Books, March 2010)

Upcoming edited book: Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions, edited by J. A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft. (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010), forthcoming

(with V. Skirbekk), "'Go Forth and Multiply': the Politics of Religious Demography" in Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions, edited by J. A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft. (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010), forthcoming

Upcoming/Recent:

4 March 2010, 7pm Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London: Appearance at Jewish Book Week, on panel with Dominique Moisi and John Kampfner on panel on 'Threats to our Democracy'. Details at: http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2010/democracy-at-risk.php

17 October 2009: 'Only an atheist can be a good Christian; only a Christian can be a good atheist', Debate on Ernst Bloch's Atheism in Christianity, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, London (podcasted event)

Working Papers, Media & Articles

Previous Events/Presentations

Media (Own Articles and Others' Coverage of My Research):

'A Nightmare for Richard Dawkins: statistics show that atheists are a dying breed', Ed West, Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 September 2009

'The Changing Face of Israel' (co-authored with R. Cincotta), Foreign Policy (web exclusive), June 2009

'The Global War for Souls', a review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, 'God is Back', Prospect, June 2009

Anthony Gottlieb, 'Faith Equals Fertility', Intelligent Life (Economist), Winter 2008

Commentary on my November 2006 Prospect/Newsweek article, 'Breeding for God' at Richard Dawkins.net (2008)

Review of Philip Jenkins' God's Continent, Prospect, November 2007

'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth', Jewish Quarterly, Autumn 2007

Ross Douthat, 'The Crisis of Faith', Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2007

'Faith's Comeback', Newsweek, 7-13 November 2006

'Breeding for God', Prospect, November 2006 issue  

'Shifting Demography', BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed', 4 October 2006

Project Notes

Former ESRC-Funded Project within Understanding Population Trends and Processes: A Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (UPTAP) Programme, 2005-6. Link to Original UPTAP programme specification

Read full summary     Read/ Download Full Proposal

Formerly a component of the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs , Belfer Center for Science in International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2008-9

Resources:

Eric Kaufmann's Political Demography Resource

Reading List of Relevant Articles

Channel 4 film: The Battle for Israel's Soul

Links:

Michael Blume's website on religion and reproduction

Evolutionary Religious Studies (David Sloan Wilson's site)

Evolution of Religion (Richard Sosis' site)

Sci-Log: the Biology of Religion

Philip Longman's website

Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) at Baylor University

Richard Dawkins.net

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