ly desirable goals now seemed to be
within the reach of a society single-mindedly focused on their pursuit.

Throughout that part of the world where the vast majority of the earth's
population live, facile announcements that "God is Dead" had passed
largely unnoticed. The experience of the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Pacific had long confirmed them in the view not only that
human nature is deeply influenced by spiritual forces, but that its very
identity is spiritual. Consequently, religion continued, as had always
been the case, to function as the ultimate authority in life. These
convictions, while not directly confronted by the ideological revolution
taking place in the West, were effectively marginalized by it, insofar as
interaction among peoples and nations was concerned. Having penetrated and
captured all significant centres of power and information at the global
level, dogmatic materialism ensured that no competing voices would retain
the ability to challenge projects of world wide economic exploitation. To
the cultural damage already inflicted by two centuries of colonial rule
was added an agonizing disjunction between the inner and outer experience
of the masses affected, a condition invading virtually all aspects of
life. Helpless to exercise any real influence over the shaping of their
futures or even to preserve the moral well-being of their children, these
populations were plunged into a crisis different from but in many ways
even more devastating than the one gathering momentum in Europe and North
America. Although retaining its central role in consciousness, faith
appeared impotent to influence the course of events.

As the twentieth century approached its close, therefore, nothing seemed
less likely than a sudden resurgence of religion as a subject of consuming
global importance. Yet that is precisely what has now occurred in the form
of a groundswell of anxiety and discontent, much of it still only dimly
conscious of the sense of spiritual emptiness that is producing it.
Ancient sectarian conflicts, apparently unresponsive to the patient arts
of diplomacy, have re-emerged with a virulence as great as anything known
before. Scriptural themes, miraculous phenomena and theological dogmas
that, until recently, had been dismissed as relics of an age of ignorance
find themselves solemnly, if indiscriminately, explored in influential
media. In many lands, religious credentials take on new an