Reply #9: I think this thesis is wrong.

[kwassa]

The premise is false

It has become painfully, lethally obvious in the age of George W. Bush and authoritarian groupthink that our major religious systems and foundations don't know how to move. They don't learn, adjust, evolve, see things anew. They don't know how to dance.

This isn't true in the most superficial observation of religious expression in this country. All of the major mainline religious communities have been in motion throughout history, adapting their faiths to their time and locale. It is still happening today.

The throwback position is in the conservative backlash of fundamentalist Christianity, and other faiths. It is a rejection of modernity, which brings about a literalist reading of religious texts that is actually modern in it's own history. This is the type of religious expression the author is referring to, but represents only a small part of religious observance on this planet of ours.