This is about how we write religious history, and also about a dimension of that history that we need to think through.
When we study the history of religions, we usually focus on significant moments of change â?? great revivals, conflicts, persecutions, awakenings, and reformations. In my next few columns, I am going to suggest why such events need to be placed firmly in a wider context, and seen in a comparative dimension. Often, when we look at (say) a revival or crisis in one country, it coincides neatly with similar upsurges in other regions and even other faiths, although there is no sign of direct influence from one to the other. What these moments had in common was that they coincided with larger trends that did not necessarily have anything directly to do with religion at all â?? with crop failures or famines, plagues or natural disasters, and (often) with climatic changes.
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