That modern science, capitalism and the freedoms of pluralist representative democracy arose under Western Christianity is beyond dispute. What is debated is why this should be and what did other cultures contribute along the way. How much is based on the inheritances from Judaism, Islam and classical Greek and Roman cultures. Stark makes a good case that it was a rationalism open to new discoveries in a world made by a sovereign God that led to reasoned progress. If a God who reveals himself as reasonable has created a reasonable world, man made in his image can work to discover how the world works.
When it comes to capitalism the author rejects Weber's famous link with Calvinism. This is where I suspect the Roman Catholic bias but I am not qualified as an historian to be certain of my criticism. Not to deal with Calvin on usury seems a serious ommision. Stark gives no reason for the dissapearance of the prohibition other than Catholics ignoring it. Stark cites medieval Italian cities as the birthplace of modern representative democracy but for a whole country he should have told us more about this side of the English Channel. He does though credit it us with better progress in commerce because of the absence of despotic government. This is certainly a book to stimulate thought and debate.