"The Dialectic of Christianity" first appeared in Culture in History, edited by Stanley Diamond, which was published by Columbia University Press in 1961, and is reprinted with their permission. "The Symbols of Folk Culture" is reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder, The Con- ference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Incorpo- rated, and was written for its thirteenth symposium volume, Symbols and Values: An Initial Study, pub- lished in New York City, in 1954. Acknowledgment is made to the American Folk- lore Society, Inc.
Early in the twentieth century, rapid economic and technological change, increasing competition among powerful states, and resistance to European domination worked together to destabilize the world system. Underlying tensions and weaknesses led to a series of crises that altered the world in several important ways.
