Everything You Know Seems Wrong

In today's world it seems that the only thing you can be sure of is that there is nothing you can be sure of! Things once taken for granted are now debatable and yesterday's "certainties" are today controversial. Cultural conflict, from "culture wars" to the global "clash of civilizations" and international terrorism, has intensified with the growing consciousness of global interdependence. But this is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last. A potent cause of the current conflicts, and of the periodic recurrence of such conflicts, is an effect of pluralism and globalization called the "relativizing of tradition," largely unexplored until now. Everything You Know Seems Wrong elucidates this process and discusses how it undermines established beliefs and traditions. The book examines the sense of threat and insecurity that "relativizing of tradition" produces and the range of reactions it generates, including conflict within individuals, movements, and cultures. Author George Van Pelt Campbell examines in depth the contemporary effects of the process in America's first faith, Evangelical Protestantism, and then looks at the likely effects of the process in the global future.