Bearing False Witness, Rodney Stark
Bearing False Witness, Rodney Stark
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Bearing False Witness
Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History

Author: Rodney Stark

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 8 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/13/2016


Synopsis

As we all know and as many of our well-established textbooks have argued for decades, the Inquisition was one of the most frightening and bloody chapters in Western history, Pope Pius XII was anti-Semitic and rightfully called "Hitler's Pope," the Dark Ages were a stunting of the progress of knowledge to be redeemed only by the secular spirit of the Enlightenment, and the religious Crusades were an early example of the rapacious Western thirst for riches and power. But what if these long-held beliefs were all wrong?

In this stunning, powerful, and ultimately persuasive book, Rodney Stark, one of the most highly regarded sociologists of religion and the bestselling author of The Rise of Christianity, argues that some of our most firmly held ideas about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least positive light are, in fact, fiction. Why have we held these wrongheaded ideas so strongly and for so long? And if our beliefs are wrong, what, in fact, is the truth?

In each chapter, Stark takes on a well-established anti-Catholic myth, gives a fascinating history of how each myth became the conventional wisdom, and presents a startling picture of the real truth.

About Rodney Stark

Rodney Stark is the award-winning author of How the West Won, The Victory of Reason, The Rise of Christianity, God's Battalions, and many other books. He serves as Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University, where he is codirector of the Institute for Studies of Religion. The recipient of several awards for distinguished scholarship, he is past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie on August 16, 2023

Rereading for the podcast. Original review below. ======= I have long been aware of Rodney Stark's excellent work using facts and statistics to set the historical record straight. This might be the best part of the book, at the end of the introduction:Finally, I am not a Roman Catholic, and I did not w......more

Goodreads review by Peter on June 01, 2016

As always, please give me a helpful vote on Amazon - [URL not allowed] Bearing False Witness by Rodney Stark I’ve been addressing anti-Catholic tropes on the internet for the last twenty years. When I started, I honestly believed that these accusations were supported by fact, or......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on March 27, 2018

This is a book that had one job. It describes it in the subtitle and Dr Stark makes it clear in the last sentence of his prologue "...I did not write this book in defense of the church. I wrote it in defense of history." (7) That job is done well. Dr Stark takes apart many instances of anti-Catholic......more

Goodreads review by Joe on April 23, 2017

If you are an anti-Catholic or anti-Christian bigot, this is a book you should read. If you are just someone with a low opinion of religion, this is also for you. If you are Catholic and take the charge to defend the faith seriously, again read this book. Did you know that less than four thousand peo......more

Goodreads review by Manuel on February 14, 2020

ENGLISH: A very comprehensive review of anti-catholic myths in history and the popular mind, by a non-catholic, which gives the book further credibility. Although a few references could have been improved and a few data are debatable, in general the book is very good. ESPAÑOL: Una revisión muy comple......more