In one swoop, the word of God, as that which intelligently interprets reality, and the God of the word, who is the source of reality, were eliminated from the chessboard. It was thence left to the individual players on the board to vie for the right or power to impose meaning on life and the universe. The Age of Romanticism completed the rejection of the objective in favor of the subjective. Unity was henceforth to be discovered in common experience, not in common adherence to objective truth. Everyone's entitled to his opinions.
Religion thus becomes a matter of mere personal preference.
As the teeth of Christianity were being extracted by Western society, the church assisted in the procedure. Evolutionism was opposed in the most meager manner before gaining wholesale acceptance, and egalitarianism was adopted as if it was what we've always believed. This notion, that there is one true church, has too often been interpreted to mean one true denomination. Yes, indeed, there is, and it is necessary that we begin working toward that end by thinking in terms of covenant. The covenant idea in Scripture sweeps us into the realm of the manageable and the objective, in terms of which the subjective then has value and meaning.