It was a time of religious upheaval. Newspapers and social media bristled with angry conflict. Out in the streets, atheists and religionists jostling with one another on every corner. History was lurching forward in its usual way. The cultural wars went in cycles. An eternal tug-of-war, back and forth, up and down, swinging left to right, with one side winning and the other side losing, every few years. There were lulls in the religious conflict when life settled down into something resembling peace. Church choirs sang hymns while police cars chased criminals—all the usual business of metropolitan life. At some…