• Introduction


• 1. Perilous Times


• 2. The Nuclear-Haunted Era


• 3. What to Mobilize Against


• 4. Waging War on Terror


• 5. Weapons of Mass Destruction


• 6. Panics and Pandemics


• 7. Environmental Catastrophe


• 8. Setting a New Agenda


• 9. The Call for Action


• Notes


• Selected Bibliography


• Index

Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University.

Robert Wuthnow has been praised as one of "the country's best social scientists" by columnist David Brooks, who hails his writing as "tremendously valuable." The New York Times calls him "temperate, balanced, compassionate," adding, "one can't but admire Mr. Wuthnow's views." A leading authority on religion, he now addresses one of the most profound subjects: the end of the world. In Be Very Afraid, Wuthnow examines the human response to existential threats--once a matter for theology, but now looming before us in multiple forms.