Russell Kirk is widely regarded as the individual most responsible for the revival of conservative thought in the latter half of the twentieth century. Kirk's conservative philosophy was well-established with his magnum opus, The Conservative Mind, published in 1953, and remained constant until his death in 1994. His Christianity, though, grew from something seen as the foundation of Western Civilization to being also a personal faith. He became a Roman Catholic, drawn by its universality, its traditionalism, and his love for the woman he married. Although he believed in certain Catholic distinctives, such as purgatory, he generally seemed to be more of a generic Christian than a dogmatic follower of Rome.