Customer Reviews

Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've found that this book, in its description of the history of religious tolerance and intolerance in early modern Europe, provides a better insight into our own era's challenges than almost any editorial I've read. The fascinating insight that Kaplan provides is that the turn toward religious tolerance in this period was driven, not by the high ideals of leading philosophers, but rather by common society's pragmatism and "everyday" moral values. The writing is more than clear and compelling; the book is forceful and riveting.

Divided By Faith is well written and explains the deeper aspects of religious divisions I formerly knew little about. As a former high school history teacher, the topic was right up my alley.

The author was detailed and specific in relation to the alliances created, and divisions caused by faith, politics, economics, and desire for power. This book has given me a more realistic, and understandable context for the information learned previously. I wish it had been part of my required reading in university (grad or undergrad.)

Kaplan's thesis is that in post-Reformation western Europe, various modes of modi vivendi more or less naturally arose, and then only later, as with Locke and the rest of the enlighteners, did the theory of toleration become articulated. He describes several ways that the denominations (barely) lived with each other, especially after the 30 years war, among them sharing churches, services in embassies and court chapels for minorities, occasional conformity, don't ask, don't tell private dissenting services, as long as they had no public manifestation, etc.

The only reason i gave this book 4, not 5 stars, is that I was looking for the Holy Grail, so to speak, what or who or why Catholic and Protestant belief slid into the so-called enlightenment, secularization, tolerance which became religious relativism, leading to the agnosticism and atheism which in my view led to their logical conclusion with Hitler and Stalin. This book contains many hints and pointers, but perhaps i'm asking for too much. My personal bogeyman, if one can point to one person as the key, is Spinoza, but he could not have flipped the world of belief to the world of skepticism all by himself.