Der Kulturkampf kehrt zurück
Cultural Wars Are Back

Summary/Abstract: The term “cultural war” (Kulturkampf ) became known at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries as the clash between Catholics and Protestants. However, cultural wars are taking on a new form today. In his book titled The Clash of Civilizations, Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington described the fateful struggle between the world’s civilizations. He claims that after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the most important role is not played by ideological, political or economic differences between nations but by cultural differences. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge argue in their book God is Back (2009), we have been experiencing unexpected global revival of faith in recent years. The current political clash on the national and international levels is of cultural origin. Religion can be useful because it supports social stability. However, it can also be abused to wage wars, which seemed long forgotten.

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