The entry of bourgeois society onto Europe’s stage brought major unrest; Christianity aimed to be a cure for the impositions of modernity. Yet the spectre of secularisation could no longer be exorcised. Confessions, churches, even the state with its vicinity to religion faced previously unknown challenges, some of which are still in place. Up until then all-powerful, Christianity itself was now seen as transient; it had to adapt to new legal systems and a new society of strong-minded individuals. The renowned modern historian Rudolf Schlögl has written a pan-European history of this fundamental upheaval. An epochal work full of surprising insights.
