The victory of reason : how Christianity led to freedom, capitalism, and Western success
Many books have been written about the success of the West, analyzing why Europe was able to pull ahead of the rest of the world by the end of the Middle Ages. Here, sociologist Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium. In Stark's view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason: While the world's other great belief systems emphasized mystery, obedience, or introspection, Christianity alone embraced logic and reason as the path toward enlightenment, freedom, and progress.--From publisher description
History
1 online resource (xvi, 281 pages) : maps
9781588365002, 158836500X
191928078
Introduction : Reason and progress
pt. I. Foundations. Blessings of rational theology
Medieval progress : technical, cultural, and religious
Tyranny and the "rebirth" of freedom
pt. II. Fulfillment. Perfecting Italian capitalism
Capitalism moves North
"Catholic" anticapitalism : Spanish and French despotism
Feudalism and capitalism in the new world
Globalization and modernity