The 19th century was an age of upheaval, in which technology reshaped the course of human events, and scientific revelations imperiled an old consensus. Yet in the century Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, religiosity flowered.
So writes Dominic Green, the British historian and critic, in his new book The Religious Revolution: The Birth of Modern Spirituality, 1848-1898. The birth of secularism, far from ending belief in the supernatural, coincided with a fervent search for transcendence, as disparate writers, scientists, and artists helped fashion faith into new forms. They were the beneficiaries of the period's innovations, "when mass communications, mass politics, and global markets converged" to create a new democratic world order. As the title alludes, the revolutions against monarchical powers that swept across Europe in 1848 were just a prelude to a more lasting religious transformation.
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