The Birth of Modern Belief
Book description
An illuminating history of how religious belief lost its uncontested status in the West
This landmark book traces the history of belief in the Christian West from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, revealing for the first time how a distinctively modern category of belief came into being. Ethan Shagan…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Birth of Modern Belief as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This book’s idea hooks you from the start. Why, he wonders, when people say, "Do you believe in God?" do we never reply, "…what do you mean, believe?" It turns out that ‘believing’ has, down the centuries, meant some pretty radically different things. Is ‘belief’ the same as ‘knowledge’ or ‘opinion,’ or is it the opposite of them? Ethan Shagan’s disarmingly simple idea is to track how the notion of belief shifted from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. If we do believe in God nowadays, we don’t do it the way our forebears did. And if we don’t,…
From Alec's list on atheism and religion.
If you love The Birth of Modern Belief...
Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS
When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more…
Want books like The Birth of Modern Belief?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Birth of Modern Belief.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,605
readers submitted
so far, will you?
