The unintended Reformation
The Unintended Reformation Brad Gregory talks about his book titled, The Unintended Reformation: How Religion Secularized Society. He explains how his book ranges over six centuries and grasps almost everything that is wrong in our world today, points from “moral relativism to climate change and political strife”. Gregory continues with his speech on how Western Europe on the eve of the Reformation which was around 1500, is how far back in time we need to go in order to explain how and why the world in which we live in today. He goes on to criticize our inability to explain our modern world historically dating back to the 18th century. Gregory states in the video, “I think this common conception of historical change is mistaken in crucial respects in my entire book is directed against it, I don't dispute the enormity of the transition from pre-modern to modern in the ways that I just mention”. I thought his most interesting matter, which made a lot of sense to me and got me thinking was when he talked about some parts are more convincing than others. The relationship between science and religion undoubtedly suffer from the bitter hostility of the 16th century that removed the debate about God and nature and put everyone on the defensive side. The Reformation's contributions to moral relativism are hard to deny and the “proliferation” of conflicting truth claims did nobody any favors, and the antagonisms within Christianity left states backing away from churches and universities. Whether consumerism then flourished because there was nothing else to hold society together is not very clear. This goes back to Gregory’s point that academics should be taught in a different way to understand the past for the present and how the Reformation clarifies the identify of the present