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| Studies on the western history of church and religion ignore the evaluation of the role played by the church in the destruction of the humanistic principle of morality and freedom of conscience and intellectual inquiry. This freedom was recovered in part after the Enlightenment. This book is intended to fill the gap and trace back the development of modern thought in history to its turning point. It traces first the establishment of the morally bankrupt ideology of the post-Nicaean Christianity and its implementation in societies. Against this historical background then is shown the figure of Michael Servetus, his program, his struggle to express his ideas, their repression, and the impact of his ideas on the intellectual spheres of the epoch. Servetus' sacrifice induced another humanist of the epoch, Sebastian Castellio, to rethink the issue of heresy and its repression and was a crucial step in forcing some thinking people to evaluate the morality of the prevailing church ideology. Servetus' theological inquiry initiated the study of the Bible and an attempt to uncover the real religious doctrines contained in it. Both these aspects of Servetus' role led to a chain reaction -- development of the Antitrinitarian movement -- Socinianism -- the Enlightenment -- American Democracy -- French Revolution.
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