Rodney Stark Many books have been written about the success of the West analyzing why Europe was able to pull ahead of the rest of the world by the end of the Middle Ages The most common explanations cite the West s superior geography commerce and technology Completely overlooked is the fact that faith in reason rooted in Christianity s commitment to rational theology made all these developments possible Simply put the conventional wisdom that Western success depended upon overcoming religious barriers to progress is utter nonsense In The Victory of Reason Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary controversial and long overdue idea that Christianity and its related institutions are in fact directly responsible for the most significant intellectual political scientific and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium In Stark s view what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society nor the pitting of science and the humanities aga