The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism
Arthur Versluis
Abstract
This book provides an investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. The book unveils the connections between heretic-hunting in early and medieval Christianity, and the emergence of totalitarianism in the 20th century. It shows how secular political thinkers in the 19th century inaugurated a tradition of defending the Inquisition, and how Inquisition-style heretic-hunting later manifested across the spectrum of 20th-century totalitarianism. This book begins with early Christianity, and traces heretic-hunting as a phenomenon through the middle ages and right into the 20th cent ... More
Keywords: totalitarianism, heretic-hunting, early Christianity, Inquisition, middle ages, politics, medieval Christianity, 20th century
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2006 | Print ISBN-13: 9780195306378 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306378.001.0001 |
