500 years ago, western history was changed.
For the better, or for the worse? Christopher Dawson, a British historian, argues that the Reformation was responsible for secularization of Western civilization. The leaders of the Reformation were certainly no secularists. Neither were their Catholic opponents.
The problem was that the Reformation caused European culture to divide into two parts. The culture of Protestant countries was very different from that of Catholic countries because at that time culture was very strongly influenced by religious practice.
At that time, it seemed that the differences between Catholic culture and Protestant culture would constantly grow and become almost as big as the differences between Christian culture and Muslim culture.
At the level of common people the division was complete. At the level of the educated elite there was one thing the Catholics and the Protestants had in common - the heritage of Hellenism. The European cultural elites continued to be able to talk to each other, but they chose to concentrate on topics they had in common, i.e. non-religious ones. Gradually, the culture of the elites was losing its Christian character. According to Dawson, this change (secularization) happened approximately from 1650 to 1800.
The culture of common people remained Christian much longer, but in the 20th century it largely lost its Christian character too.
Was secularization of Western civilization worth it?
So do you think the change has been for the better or the worse?