{"title":"Ross Douthat","description":"Ross Douthat is a columnist for The New York Times op-ed page. He is the author of To Change the Church, Bad Religion, and Privilege, and coauthor of Grand New Party. Before joining The New York Times, he was a senior editor for The Atlantic. He is the film critic for National Review, and he cohosts The New York Times's weekly op-ed podcast The Argument. He lives in New Haven with his wife and four children.","products":[{"product_id":"the-decadent-society-america-before-and-after-the-pandemic-paperback","title":"The Decadent Society: America Before and After the Pandemic - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion, a powerful portrait of how our wealthy, successful society has passed into an age of gridlock, stalemate, public failure and private despair. The era of the coronavirus has tested America, and our leaders and institutions have conspicuously failed. That failure shouldn't be surprising: Beneath social-media frenzy and reality-television politics, our era's deep truths are elite incompetence, cultural exhaustion, and the flight from reality into fantasy. Casting a cold eye on these trends, The Decadent Society explains what happens when a powerful society ceases advancing--how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemate, and demographic decline creates a unique civilizational crisis. Ranging from the futility of our ideological debates to the repetitions of our pop culture, from the decline of sex and childbearing to the escapism of drug use, Ross Douthat argues that our age is defined by disappointment--by the feeling that all the frontiers are closed, that the paths forward lead only to the grave. Correcting both optimism and despair, Douthat provides an enlightening explanation of how we got here, how long our frustrations might last, and how, in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367956447455,"sku":"9781476785257","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Hf0uiapBRO9781476785257.webp?v=1789116964"},{"product_id":"believe-why-everyone-should-be-religious-hardcover","title":"Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn Instant \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Bestseller\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Truly a \u003cem\u003eMere Christianity\u003c\/em\u003e for the 21st century\"--\u003cem\u003eWorld\u003c\/em\u003e magazine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the host of the \u003cem\u003eInteresting Times \u003c\/em\u003epodcast\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo you ever wish you had more faith? Here is a blueprint for thinking your way from doubt to belief.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a columnist for the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e who writes often about spiritual topics for a skeptical audience, Ross Douthat understands that many of us want to have more faith than we do. Douthat argues that in light of what we know today it should be harder to \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e have faith than to have it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith empathy, clarity, and rigor, Douthat explores: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy nonbelief requires ignoring what our reasoning faculties tell us about the world\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow modern scientific developments make a religious worldview more credible, not less\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy it's entirely reasonable to believe in mystical and supernatural realities\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow an open-minded religious quest should proceed amid the diversity of religious faiths\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow Douthat's own Christianity is informed by his blueprint for belief\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith clear and straightforward arguments, \u003cem\u003eBelieve\u003c\/em\u003e shows how religious belief makes sense of the order of the cosmos and our place within it, illuminates the mystery of consciousness, and explains the persistent reality of encounters with the supernatural. Highly relevant for our current moment, \u003cem\u003eBelieve\u003c\/em\u003e offers a pathway for thinking your way from doubt into belief, from uncertainty about our place in the universe into a confidence that we are here for a reason.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51377632084191,"sku":"9780310367581","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/SCR-vxkEau9780310367581.webp?v=1789236240"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/ross-douthat.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}