authors:
- Siedentop, Larry
content: 'This is the most provocative and inspiring book I have read in a long time.
  It challenges the idea that Western liberalism was born during the Renaissance and
  the Enlightenment. Instead, Larry Siedentop maintains that the crucial ingredients
  are found in St Pauls invention of Christianity, in particular the idea that all
  humans are equal before God, combined with a modified rationalism from Greece and
  Rome. The struggle between and within church and state in the context of the dissolution
  of the Roman empire, and the interaction between ideas and society during the Middle
  Ages laid the essential groundwork for the idea of secularity, among other things.
  The main intellectual inventions required for liberalism were already in place before
  the Renaissance. Please note that the author does not maintain that liberalism requires
  faith in Christianity, only that it grew out of it. The writing is clear and straightforward.
  The only criticism I have is that the author hammers home his thesis a little too
  often. '
date: '2016-08-13'
edition:
  published: '2014'
  publisher: Allen Lane
goodreads: '18740986'
html: '<p>This is the most provocative and inspiring book I have read in a long time.
  It challenges the idea that Western liberalism was born during the Renaissance and
  the Enlightenment. Instead, Larry Siedentop maintains that the crucial ingredients
  are found in St Pauls invention of Christianity, in particular the idea that all
  humans are equal before God, combined with a modified rationalism from Greece and
  Rome. The struggle between and within church and state in the context of the dissolution
  of the Roman empire, and the interaction between ideas and society during the Middle
  Ages laid the essential groundwork for the idea of secularity, among other things.
  The main intellectual inventions required for liberalism were already in place before
  the Renaissance. Please note that the author does not maintain that liberalism requires
  faith in Christianity, only that it grew out of it. The writing is clear and straightforward.
  The only criticism I have is that the author hammers home his thesis a little too
  often. </p>

  '
isbn: '9780713996449'
language: en
lastmod: '2016-08-13'
path: /library/siedentop-2014.html
published: '2014'
rating: 5
reference: Siedentop 2014
reviewed: '2016-08-13'
subjects:
- history
- liberalism
- morality
- political-philosophy
- religion
title: 'Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism'
type: book
year: 2014