Peter Baldwin, Command and Persuade: Crime, Law, and the State across History

Wuthnow closes by formalizing his concept of agonistic religious practice. Summarizing the evidence presented, this form of practice is manifest among religious populations who promote socio-religious praxis involving diverse values, theologies, traditions, and people groups. It embraces these differences being in conflict, in contrast to models of tolerance and coexistence that attempt to smooth over differences and represent diverse religious expressions as essentially similar. Agonistic religious practice shares some common ground with reconciliation efforts, by aiming to collectively reach solutions to social problems, but ultimately differs by promoting spirited advocacy among diverse populations. This has come to characterize much of US religious practice, reshaping public controversies into healthy democratic practices. Wuthnow’s latest book should inspire sociologists to return to the study of democracy. Wuthnow makes a strong case for religion’s unique contributions to the health of US democracy with a fair, integrative treatment of counterevidence. He provides careful challenges to assumptions sociologists may have on the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of government, sacralization ideology, and other controversies. As a final nod to his central argument, this makes the book a useful contributor to thoughtful and important debates. This book is also well written. It can be enjoyed by scholars and laypeople alike. It is worth citing in peer-reviewed publications, and it would make a great teaching resource for undergraduate and graduate courses.