Western History

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Western History

Introduction

The Western world or rather , Europe has a rich history which is documented from very early years . The Catholic Church started to play a big role at about the 3rd century . Its influence grew so much that the whole of civilized Europe had its political , social and economic affairs controlled by the church . It was not until the later years of the medieval ages that its authority was challenged and secularism set in this paper discuses the advent of

secularism and resultant persecutions meted out by the church . Art and historical context is also discussed

Secularization of the Western World

After the fall of the Roman Empire , the Roman Catholic Church whose followers had been persecuted for long in Rome gained root and became the dominant religion in Europe . The church grew to become very powerful and controlled political and social aspects of society . The early middle ages were characterized by very religious lives . However , developments in later years led to the decline of church control and secularism set in . indeed , secularism , which denotes decline of religious authority and reduced social significance of religion , serves as the best paradigm to understanding the modern western society (De Vriese and Gabor ,

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In the later middle Ages , the changes in society that defined the renaissance age together with the scientific revolution marked a period of conflict and social change where people were weary of the churches controlling authority but still needed it . The...