a horror story

Last year I read "Sin And Fear: The Emergence of a Western
Guilt Culture; 13th-18th Centuries", by Jean Delumeau. Stephen
King has nothing over this book. It's over 600 pages of small
print, and its bottom line is the results of Augustine's
theology on Western Christianity- Rome and Protestanism. My
observation includes the subsequent history and development of
its civilization: Atheism, Darwinian Evolution, Freudian psychology,
Fascism, Communism and two world wars. For over 500 years- in
particular- Western Europe lived with a nightmare theology. Because
Augustine, whose Greek was virtually non-existent, misinterpreted
Romans 5:12 to say that we are all GUILTY of Adam's sin and hence
damned to hell, even before birth, millions of people have lived in
dread and depression. Compounding this further, Luther and Calvin-
and their followers- insisted on perpetuating Augustine's doctrine
that God selected only a few (the "elect") to be saved; and no one
could be certain he was among the "elect". It was- to say the least-
a scary world. And with wars, bubonic plague, famines, droughts, a
terrible infant mortality, dropping temperatures resulting in the
"little ice-age" with its devastation, who needed an "angry God"?
Some of the results of this bad religion are: 1). A continuing
emphasis on sin and guilt and all kinds of psychological problems.
2). A fear of God- not of Satan. God is seen as the perpetrator of
evil- not the deliverer from it. We must be resigned to God's "will".
3). A cultural and theological reaction against and within Christianity:
the atheism of the Renaissance and the rise of Enlightenment Rationalism.
This reaction is largely because of the perceived absurdity of the
Protestant principle of the Bible-alone which was felt to be largely
responsible for the religious/sectarian wars. Thinking people got sick
of it all. "Sin And Fear" is an extremely important book for our
understanding of how we- as a civilization- got where we are and why.
It will help answer and put in perspective some vitally important church
history and theology questions, as well.