Is ‘God back’ or is ‘God brought back’? Why and for whom is God back? Or is God always presence?

Time magazine named Pope Francis its Person of the Year (2013).  How is this to be interpreted? Does it mean religion is still significant to society? Does it express the western as well as international community’s expectation of what an authentic religion should be? Does it reflect the western media has a better vantage as well as a greater impact on global society?

In this talk, I am going to use both the paradigm of secularization theory of private and public, and that of value rationality vs instrumental rationality to explore how ‘God is back’  is responding to the issues of justice and peace, and to discover an aura of hope.