/lit/ - Literature

If any Anons are interested in religion in Western European / North American society, this book is a great place to start. Really walked through the history of Latin Christendom from the medieval ages to now.

How Christianity borrowed heavily from Pagan ideas, rituals, etc., how a series of reforms begun by the Catholic Church starting all the way bag in 1200 slowly began to increase in severity, culminating in the fateful Protestant Reformation.

How the attempt to "disenchant" the cosmos, inculcate people in a disciplined society, and restrict identity inward, led to severe changes in how we view the social order: monarchies fell, modern sciences spring up, and, of course, viewing the natural world as a distant creation designed by a (not necessarily Christian) God.

I think you know the rest. Taylor really delves into modern belief (and unbelief), how it allows for such a wide range of possible beliefs, and why people can so comfortable switch from one religion to another, or leave their own, which would have been not only unthinkable in the year 1500, but also impossible.

Highly recommend for both the edgy Atheists -who think that simply "science" showed that God doesn't exist, and unbelief followed - and TradCaths (or Trads in general) who think a simple "return" to some pre-conceived order would solve all sociological problems.

>>17497371
If you are for real looking for a book about the decline of Christianity in the west, this is far and away the best book on the subject, told from the perspective of a Catholic.