The victory of reason : how Christianity led to freedom, capitalism, and Western success / Rodney Stark.

The victory of reason : how Christianity led to freedom, capitalism, and Western success / Rodney Stark.

1st ed.

1400062284
9781400062287
9780812972337 (pbk.)
0812972333 (pbk.)

New York : Random House, ©2005.

English

xvi, 281 pages ; 25 cm

9781400062287

270 S795v 2005

(OCoLC)59011577
(OCoLC)59011577

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.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-270) and index.

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