The Birth of Modern Belief: Faith and Judgment from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

(Hardback)

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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 focuses not on what people believed, whic

Reviews

"Shagan . . . traces the surprisingly complicated evolving meaning of belief in this engrossing intellectual history. . . . This impressive unpacking of the now-common-sense understanding of knowledge glides smoothly through its arguments and provides useful insights for scholars in religion and beyond." * Publishers Weekly *
"If we care about [the] history [of belief] . . . this book is a terrific place to begin."---Alec Ryrie, Church Times
"The Birth of Modern Belief is an eminently important book that also happens to be excellently written. It is a highly valuable contribution to religious studies ongoing debates over the concept of belief, and it should be read by not only anyone interested in the conceptalthough they especially should read itbut by just about anyone working in the study of religion."---Jason Blum, Reading Religion
"This game-changing book will alter the way you understand the history and nature of belief in the West from the Middle Ages to our own time." * Paradigm Explorer *
"A fine and important book."---Dominic Erdozain, Modern Believing

Author Bio

Ethan H. Shagan is professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Rule of Moderation: Violence, Religion, and the Politics of Restraint in Early Modern England and Popular Politics and the English Reformation. He lives in Orinda, California.