By the eighteenth century, established churches in both Catholic and Protestant lands had evolved into extensions of state bureaucracies. Closely tied to the interests of ruling political elites, their purpose was more the preservation of the social and political status quo than it was a true engagement with the spiritual needs of ordinary people. To many Europeans, Christianity promoted by such churches was comprised of empty gestures and routines with no real substance. For some Enlightenment thinkers, the ossification of established churches was an indictment of organized religion as a whole, and deism, a rational theology that rejected divine intervention in everyday life, gained popularity in certain circles. Perhaps more important, however, was the challenge to established religion from sincere believers eager for the emergence of a new, more emotionally satisfying form of Christianity. If the eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment, it was also an age of popular religious revival, and our understanding of the religious life of the period is incomplete if we do not incorporate both developments.