Why would the church and religious life have had such great appeal at this point in history

Assuming you're talking about the Middle Ages in Europe, the church and religious life had such great appeal at this point in history because there had been a receding interest in the sciences and rational thought ever since the days of the Ancient Greeks, which led people to rely on faith in order to understand the world. 

Opposition to the nra came to a head in 1935, when the conservative supreme court declared the agency unconstitutional, claiming the nra gave the executive branch regulatory powers that belonged exclusively to congress. this decision began a series of court decisions that overturned key elements of the new deal.