2000 Years of Christ's Power volume 4

The Renaissance and Reformation were exciting times of learning and discovery - they pushed the boundaries of accepted throught. They left in their wake, however, a period of universal uncertainty. The centuries-old status quo had been turned on its head. Nothing was stable anymore. Conflict ensued.

The fourth volume of 2,000 Years of Christ's Power spans from the 16th to the 18th century. It paints a picture of a time unprecedented conflict - not only between, but within religious factions. But it also presents a time from which English Protestantism, Scottish Presbyterianism, and French Catholicism, to name only a few, were birthed and refined. The author states in his introduction that he was 'struck forcibly several times that no other period had been so profoundly marked by sheer intensity of conflict:  conflict between traditions, conflict within traditions. For instance, when Roman Catholics were not fighting Protestants or Eastern Orthodox, they were fighing each other, and just as fiercely. The epic of the Jansenist controversy must be one of the most explosive and convulsive in Catholic history, and it was fought out within the precincts of the Catholic Church, leaving huge and ugly bloodstains.'