Heretics: How Religious Conflicts Shaped the World We Live In

In this wide-ranging history of Christianity, Sergey Khodnev traces the major spiritual and social turning points that have shaped the Christian world from its origins to the present day. The first part of the book examines the most influential heresies and schisms in church history, explaining both the theological substance of these disputes and the historical and cultural contexts in which they emerged.
Far from being a history of doctrine alone, the book explores the development of human thought, the individual and collective search for truth, and the often unexpected ways in which religious disagreements became catalysts for profound political and social change.
The second part focuses on the defining conflict in the history of Western Christianity: the division between Catholics and Protestants. Through the lives of historical figures from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, Khodnev demonstrates how the Protestant Reformation helped shape many features of the modern world—from scientific inquiry and legal institutions to political culture, aesthetics, social values, and even economic life.
Combining intellectual history with engaging storytelling, Heretics shows that debates once confined to theology transformed societies far beyond the walls of the Church, leaving a lasting imprint on the institutions, ideas, and everyday realities of the contemporary world.

Sergey Khodnev. Heretics: How Religious Conflicts Shaped the World We Live In. — Moscow: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2026.
Publisher's page