Abstract
Was the Reformation the mother of modernity? ‘Legacy’ looks at the long-term consequences of the Reformation. The Weberian idea of a link between Protestantism, progress and secularization is flawed due to the lack of necessary connection between them. Scientific progress took place in Catholic lands too, and Christian fundamentalism has its roots in the certainties of the Reformation. The legacy of the Reformation is in many ways the inverse of its goals. Pluralism was an unintended result of the attempt at uniformity, and the secular state emerged from the failure to create a single religious ideal. Religion became a discrete part of society, not its basic structure and grammar.
