Bearing False Witness

A must-read for followers of Church history, and anyone looking to better understand Christianity. This fervent and thought-through examination of how Catholicism has been represented over past centuries, is a powerfully written book which brings new light to dark corners of the past, by looking a the lies borne against Catholicism.

TRUE OR FALSE:

The Protestant Reformation broke the repressive Catholic grip on progress and ushered in capitalism, science, religious freedom and the modern world

The Spanish Inquisition tortured and murdered huge numbers of innocent people for 'imaginary' crimes, such as witchcraft and blasphemy

The Catholic hierarchy has always resisted efforts to establish liberal democracies and has often been eager to support dictators including Hitler

In this powerful and persuasive book Rodney Stark subjects a number of widely-held beliefs to a rigorous historical assessment. He gives a compelling account of how each of them became accepted as the conventional wisdom, how egotism and ideology often worked together to create false or highly distorted picture of people and events, and how we need to work hard to recover the truth if we're unable to undo the cultural damage that centuries of anti-Catholic history have done.

In this powerful and persuasive book Rodney Stark subjects these and other widely-held beliefs to a rigorous historical assessment. He gives a compelling account of how each of them became accepted as the conventional wisdom, how egotism and ideology often worked together to create false or highly distorted pictures of people and events, and how we need to work hard to recover the truth if we're to undo the cultural damage that centuries of anti-Catholic history has done.