ABSTRACT
Religion is a prime component of the system of human life, that moves across all time and links the ancient past with the unimaginable future. Religion will undergo schism, innovation, and transformation, sending echoes throughout human society, unto the end of time. Other scholars have agreed that religion faces doom, and that science-driven secularization gnaws steadily at the roots of faith. Reports from Russia and Eastern Europe indicate substantial magical and religious revivals in progress. It is a fact that the most successful new religious movements do tend to exhibit continuity with the existing religious culture. When people think about religions of the future, they generally imagine something more solidly organized than the diffuse paganism. Additional hybrid religions, half Christian and half something else, are to be expected in the future. While far from popular, Sufism keeps resurfacing on the fringes of American religion, often attracting relatively well-educated recruits.
