在西方历史上，欧洲民众长期积压的不公之感，源于教会神职体制的压迫统治，并于16世纪（公元）前后引发了教会的“宗教改革”。自那时起，宗教在主流生活中所扮演的角色便日益减少。

In the history of the West, deep-rooted feelings of injustice among the people of Europe against the oppressive rule of the clerical establishment led to the ‘Reformation’ of the Church around the 16th Century (CE). Since that time, religion has played an ever decreasing part in the mainstream of life.

最初,这一变化主要发生在政府和政治事务领域。在此之前,教会拥有人们居住和耕作的大部分土地,因此对土地的管理和民众事务的运作拥有发言权。它向民众征收高额税赋,同时许诺得救的回报,并对任何“持异议者”严加审视,无论是哥白尼和伽利略这样的科学家,还是路德和加尔文这样的宗教改革者。“宗教改革”之后,基督教与生活事务相分离,被降格为一套信仰和个人的道德行为准则。它在政治生活中的影响实际上已经终结。

Initially, the change involved mainly the arena of the government and political affairs. Before this time, the Church owned much of the land upon which people lived and worked, thereby having a say in how the land and the affairs of the people should be run. It levied high taxes upon the people while promising the reward of salvation, and looked severely upon any ‘dissenters’, whether in the form of scientists like Copernicus and Galileo or religious reformers, like Luther or Calvin. After the ‘Reformation’, the Christian religion became separated from the affairs of life, and was demoted to a set of beliefs and an individual code of moral conduct. Its effect in political life had effectively ended.