How Societies Find Religion

History is full of rulers who convert to Christianity, seemingly for political reasons, and yet find themselves growing truly devout, sometimes fanatically so. There’s Boris I of Bulgaria, Æthelberht of Kent, Clovis I of the Franks, and, of course, Constantine the Great. These stories are the stuff of reactionary dreams and progressive nightmares. Funnily enough, both sides take it for granted that this is how Christendom got its start. Left-wing historians have long argued that Christianity was spread principally by cynical tyrants who used the church as a tool of religious terror to cow their subjects. In the last few years, more and more conservatives seem to believe that the masses will never choose Christendom (or Western civilization, or “Judeo-Christian values,” or whatever you want to call it) freely. It must be imposed upon them by a political elite—for their own good, of course. This is the basic assumption that underlies ideologies like Catholic integralism and Christian nationalism.