Download or read book The Penguin History of the Church written by Alec Vidler and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 1990-11-29 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The French Revolution dealt a fatal blow to the alliance of Church and State. The Christian church had to adapt to great changes - from the social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution to the philosophical speculations of Kant's 'Copernican revolution', to Darwin's evolutionary theories. Some Christians were driven to panic and blind reaction, others were inspired to re-interpret their faith; the results of this conflict within the fabric of the Church are still reverberating today. In this masterly appraisal of a doubt-ridden and turbulent period in Christianity Alec Vidler concludes with a discussion of the position of the Church in modern times and expertly answers the question: 'Has the Church stood up to the Age of Revolution?'