Download or read book The New Inquisitions written by Arthur Versluis and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2006-07-27 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In The New Inquisitions, Arthur Versluis conducts an investigation into the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. He traces totalitarianism's beginnings to the early and medieval Christian idea of heresy - the idea that there is one correct set of doctrines, and that dissent from them is a dangerous evil to be severely punished and eradicated by the Church. This idea would receive its fullest expression in the Catholic Inquisition. The organization and criminal proceedings of the Inquisition, Versluis believes, laid the foundation for later totalitarianism."--BOOK JACKET.