Irreligion by Country - Anti-Clericalism, Irreligion in Mexico, Irreligion in Australia, Irreligion in the United States, Atheism in India (Paperback)

Chapters: Anti-Clericalism, Irreligion in Mexico, Irreligion in Australia, Irreligion in the United States, Atheism in India, Irreligion in Canada, Irreligion in New Zealand. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 61. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Anti-clericalism is an historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen. It suggests a more active and partisan role than mere la cit, and has at times been violent, leading to attacks and seizure of church property. Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history, and is considered to be one of the major popular forces underlying the 16th Century Reformation. Some philosophers of the Enlightenment, including Voltaire, attacked the Catholic Church, its leadership and priests claiming moral corruption of many of its clergy. The French Revolution, particularly in its Jacobin period, initiated one of the most violent episodes of anti-clericalism in pre-modern Europe. The church was outlawed, all monasteries destroyed, 30,000 priests were exiled and hundreds more were killed. As part of a campaign to de-Christianize France in October 1793 the Christian calendar was outlawed, replaced with one reckoning from the date of the Revolution, and then an atheist Cult of Reason was inaugurated, all churches not devoted to that cult being closed. In 1794, the atheistic cult was replaced with a deistic Cult of the Supreme Being. When anticlericalism became a clear goal of French revolutionaries, counter-revolutionaries seeking to restore tradition and the Ancien Regime took up arms, particularly in the War in the Vend e. When Pope Pius VI took sides against the ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=571440