ABSTRACT
Great historical changes have often been associated with changes in religion. Whether one thinks of the emergence of patriarchal religion, or the replacement of the Olympian religion by Christianity, the spread of Islam in Arabia and the Near East, the conversion of the Mongols from Islam to Buddhism, the Protestant Reformation and subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, or in this age, the reforms of the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council and the encouragement which that inadvertently gave to liberation theology, the resilience or ennervation of specific religious forms has had direct consequences for people’s attitudes about authority, social roles, social mores and concepts of liberation and progress. Moreover, as social behaviours and political roles have changed, religious organizations have often adapted themselves to the changing environment, even as new religions appear in response to new demands.
