church

The spiritual crisis of the orthodox Eastern Churches and the Roman Catholic Church in the west had its root in a overall moral corruption. Both churches persecuted any other Christian movement as "cult" or "sect". They brutally hunted and killed their members in most cases. Numerable leaders were burned on the stake in the name of the dominating churches. That way the big churches could protect their monopoly. Consequently this corruption distorted not only their political motivations but also their theology.

The biblical understanding of guilt that can only be atoned for by the sacrifice of the legitimate person of the Messiah Jesus was step by step undermined by a commercialised practice of paying the church to receive forgiveness in turn. The average High Middle Age person understood forgiveness as a deal between church and layman. Jesus as Savior and the concept of grace was mostly unknown.

This derailed theology and practice served as breeding bed for the Renaissance and early Liberalism of Europe in the upcoming Modern Times. In fact, with the rejection of the Church not only her wrong theology but everything Biblical about guilt and atonement was categorically turned down. The Reformation did only in part repair the damage. Since then Europe's educated people walk along humanistic values where man is the center of the universe. He defines what is good and what is evil.