In this essay I will be discussing four of the major themes in this course in terms of progress, they will be religion, humanism, individualism and secularism. I will discuss these concepts within the countries of England, France, and Russia, and show my point of view on each. Religion was very dominant throughout the early history in England, especially during the 16th and 17th centuries. This started to change during the late 17th century, when people started focusing more on human reason rather than religion. One of the reasons that people started losing their faith in the church is because of how the bishops were picked, and how the church itself was generally deteriorating; they weren’t changing at all with the times. This allowed more religions to come forth, such as Calvinism. Most people turned to their country or state for their dominant influence in their lives. In the early 19th century to the early 20th century, Britain removed religious and political restrictions from Dissenters and Catholics accepting them as citizens with equal rights. And as well, over this period of time, the influence of religion decreased even more so, especially with the governments. In the last 50 years, most churches are now voluntarily kept up rather than by the government. The churches no longer have to support the education or charitable functions they used to do. The practice of religion has become more of a personal idea rather than something dictated by the government or tradition.The religion in France was almost the same as England but yet quite different. The only thing that was significantly different during the late 17th century, in France, was that the French revolution established freedom of religion and the Roman Catholic Church lost its special privileges. The influence of religion intensified hostility in France in the 19th and early 20th century. When Napoleon III was looking to maintain Catholic support in France, decided ...
