Is the natural and best state of Christianity, : Christianity

as a personal faith
obviously temporal theocracy has been a complete disaster

>>3256950
operating as a philosophical conduit for the majority of society, but not as a state religion, or, at least only de facto as a state religion. secularism in the renaissance era combined with continued reverence for religious ideology among the population and among intellectuals led to beautiful artwork and advancements in many fields. its a difficult balance to uphold, but important.

>>3256950
Those two go hand-in-hand. The more theocratic a Christian group is, the more likely it is that they'll be persecuted as a threat. And vice versa. For instance, Spain.

>>3257070
Persecution is a core belief woven into the fabric of the religion itself. Christians will view themselves as persecuted no matter how much power they hold.

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>>3256950
obviously under persecution more people have been seen to be faithful with attending the liturgy and trying to practice the faith seriously as most of the unfaithful members were seen to apostatize. under a time of tolerance or where the church was a protected and privileged institution of the state more people probably took it for granted and its unfaithful and lukewarm members stay within the church while not really practicing it seriously however thats not always the case it depends on the devotion and strength of the clergy to inspire the laymen such as what happened with the reforms of the council of trent.