What About Notorious Blemishes in Christian History? Pt 3 The Inquisition

In my experience, it is the mention of the “Inquisition” that most often accompanies or elicits most people’s view of the middle ages as the “Dark Ages” – as a time of cruel injustice, and sinister torture chambers employed by Christianity. As such, it can seem like adequate justification for dismissing Christianity as harmful to human flourishing.

But an accurate history of the Inquisitions has been substantially unknown until the archives of both the relevant European governments and the Catholic Church had been made available to scholars which only happened in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Rather than relying on exaggerated accounts from both 16th century Protestants and later Enlightenment atheists, researchers now have the careful records from all of the 44,674 cases heard by the Inquisitions between 1540 - 1700. And as Sociologist Rodney Stark says, “the results are solidly undeniable.” And these records paint a different picture than the one we have been fed for over three hundred years. It is time to Set the Record Straight on the Inquisition!