Probably you're right about the lack of ending of religious strife; certainly it's the case with religious division in the Middle East, but the thing is, we always read about the bits that tear us apart, and rarely about the things that pull us together. People have managed it, for periods in the past, as you note, and it'd be nice to see that in the accounts as well as all the horror.

However, hope springs eternal, and all that. ;-)