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60348a9 For most people reform meant relief from ecclesiastical extortions. Barbara Tuchman
2ff6bb2 Business, like a jackal, trotted on the heels of war. Barbara Tuchman
647bf78 delineations of Washington Irving
5fef74a To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup. Barbara Tuchman
b8eb906 In the midst of events there is no perspective. Barbara Tuchman
30b1f18 What is government but an arrangement by which the many accept the authority of the few? Barbara Tuchman
404bd90 To admit error and cut losses is rare among individuals, unknown among states. Barbara Tuchman
9799e30 Whatever solace the Christian faith could give was balanced by the anxiety it generated. Barbara Tuchman
2e4a2c1 Voluntary self-directed religion was more dangerous to the Church than any number of infidels. Barbara Tuchman
9a6da9b loll over Washington Irving
cde99e8 Governments do not like to face radical remedies; it is easier to let politics predominate. Barbara Tuchman
83fcc03 If you want to engage your audience, if you really want to grab their attention, you have to know the world they live in, the music they listen to, the movies they watch, Adam M. Grant
8595e64 Chroniclers habitually matched numbers to the awesomeness of the event. Barbara Tuchman
be4a374 Seeking advice is a subtle way to invite someone to make a commitment to us. Adam M. Grant
a579724 I am the cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me. Lawrence Block
1b3d58b When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule. Barbara Tuchman
919b48b They've transformed the weather into some sort of celestial crap game. Lawrence Block
0cfd2e1 My crime seemed destined to remain a secret forever. Lawrence Block
5a3ebde But in the darkness of her room he was reminded that helplessness was often a portal to God, because rarely did the fragile, self-serving human pray for things in his complete control. Rene Gutteridge
dbb80bc If all else fails, pillage the fridge. Rene Gutteridge
4ec912d The selfish thing to do was to play to everyone's needs to feel accepted. The unselfish thing to do was to be the person God created me to be, to serve him and people, to speak the truth, even when the truth wasn't going to make me popular. Rene Gutteridge
6d435ee We need people, Juliet, to show us our selfishness, to extract the ugliness that reveals itself in our hearts. Rene Gutteridge
541b653 I'd like to look like a wife with two kids who's been married for ten years and been in love every single day of it. - from Boo rene-gutteridge Rene Gutteridge
c9179a9 remember that God uses conflict to stretch and mold us, and oftentimes he won't deliver us out of the fire. Instead, he wants us to walk through it. You can pray all you want, but sometimes, conflict is just going to happen. Rene Gutteridge
5c40c12 Sweden's Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs was Alva Myrdal, wife of the famous economist Gunnar Myrdal, and herself a famous leftist economist and non-believer. Rodney Stark
0633831 However, as in Scandinavia, the Church of England clergy are unionized and recently forced the Church to rescind a rule defrocking clergy convicted of felonies, on grounds that such convictions might have been miscarriages of justice. Rodney Stark
e08824d Merton was given an unusual amount of space in the American Journal of Sociology to argue on behalf of his thesis that to reject it on the basis of the evidence against it would be to commit what he called the 'Fallacy of the Latest Word'. This 'fallacy' involves abandoning a theory 'as soon as it appears to have been empirically falsified'. He then asked, 'When are we to retain a hypothesis or theoretical conception in the face of facts th.. Rodney Stark
1c2bcef that there was no scientific revolution, only the culmination of normal scientific progress over several centuries and, moreover, that science arose only in Christian Europe because only medieval Europeans believed that science was possible and desirable. Rodney Stark
d683b6c As for Islam, the orthodox conception of Allah is hostile to the scientific quest. There is no suggestion in the Qur'an that Allah set his creation in motion and then let it run. Rather, it is assumed that he often intrudes in the world and changes things as it pleases him. Thus, through the centuries many of the most influential Muslim scholars have held that all efforts to formulate natural laws are blasphemy in that they would seem to de.. Rodney Stark
606d00e My explanation is that England led the way in science for the same reasons that it led the way in the Industrial Revolution31 - its substantially greater political and economic liberty had produced a relatively open class system that enabled the emergence of an ambitious and creative upper middle class, sometimes called the bourgeoisie. While the rise of the bourgeoisie occurred all across western Europe, it did so earlier and to a far grea.. Rodney Stark
863c985 As is obvious, the English scientific stars were overwhelmingly from the bourgeois, while more than half of the European stars were from the 'leisure class', gentry and the nobility - only 16 per cent were from the bourgeois. Rodney Stark
e987a80 What is a peasant society? It can be defined many ways, such as when most people live in rural areas and farm for a living. But that's not what Marx, Weber and the others had in mind. For them, peasant society referred to family structure. Rodney Stark
ffe2ed7 Nevertheless, this too is a myth. The Catholic Church actually thrives on Protestant competition and is far more successful and effective when forced to confront it. Rodney Stark
edb661a Although for several centuries the Roman Catholic Church was the only legal religion in Latin America, its popular support was neither wide nor deep.5 Many huge rural areas were without churches or priests, a vacuum in which indigenous faiths persisted.6 Even in the large cities with their splendid cathedrals, mass attendance was very low - as recently as the 1950s perhaps only 10 to, at most, 20 per cent of Latin Americans were active part.. Rodney Stark
2492fa4 In fact, when the Egyptians would not export papyrus, parchment (made from treated animal skins) was invented in Pergamum. The word parchment derives from the Latin "Pergamena charta," or "paper of Pergamum." Rodney Stark
deeeb81 Until well into the twentieth century there even were legal bans on the sale of Bibles in most nations of Latin America, which led to the widespread belief that only Protestants accepted the Bible. Rodney Stark
8b2d9eb In 2004 there were only 5,116.19 Why? Because they have been replaced by Latin Americans! In many Latin American nations today, native-born evangelical Protestant clergy far outnumber both foreign missionaries as well as local Catholic priests. Rodney Stark
4218b63 By the same token, Martin Luther's efforts to provide religious education for the German peasants and urban lower classes failed completely because the lessons were conceived by a university professor far more concerned with intricate nuances than with the ABCs of Christian belief - not with simply making people familiar with the Lord's Prayer, for example, but with revealing its subtle implications. Rodney Stark
7e1bdfc Belief in the virtues of work and of simple living did accompany the rise of capitalism, but this was centuries before Martin Luther was born. Rodney Stark
9882c75 Although there are no reliable statistics on CCR membership broken down by nations, other statistics indirectly reveal the energizing effect of the CCR. In 1960, in the whole of Latin America there were only 4,093 men enrolled in Catholic seminaries; by 2015 this had risen to 21,520.40 Mass attendance has enjoyed a similarly huge increase, as can be seen in Table 8.2 overleaf, which shows the percentage of Catholics in each Latin American n.. Rodney Stark
01ad796 That the Catholic Church finally thrives in Latin America could be considered as partly a gift from Martin Luther. Rodney Stark
cdb31e9 repressive bigotry was a hallmark of the various Reformations, and the relative silence on these matters by generations of historians is shameful. Of course, there has been full coverage of the many religious wars stemming from the Reformations, and of the savagery these involved - but these were wars, not matters of domestic policy. Rodney Stark
fb9becb Nevertheless, it didn't happen! The masses in Germany remained as unchurched as ever. We can be sure of this because teams of inspectors visited the Lutheran churches in many local communities, beginning in 1525 and extending over the next century. These inspectors submitted a huge number of written reports of what they observed - reports that still exist. These documents have been organized and an extensive number of them published by the .. Rodney Stark
b1037c6 Thus, by no later than the thirteenth century, the leading Christian theologians had fully debated the primary aspects of emerging capitalism - profits, property rights, credit, lending and the like. As Lester K. Little summed up: 'In each case they came up with generally favorable, approving views, in sharp contrast to the attitudes that had prevailed for six or seven centuries right up to the previous generation.'60 Capitalism was fully a.. Rodney Stark