Sentence: They also seemed to want to find as stark and unforgiving a theology...

[Xan]

Hello
I read this sentence somewhere please help me to understand its meaning and grammar.

[Mister Micawber]

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I think they were looking for a strict religion to follow.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Xan]

Thank you
But I am still confused . I think the standard order of words is changed. Is it grammartically correct?
If so could you make an example like it?
How does it sound to you? wordy? beutiful? awkward? ridiculous?
Thank you in advance

[Mister Micawber]

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It sounds fine. It is a rather standard, literate sentence.
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_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Beowulf]

"They also seemed to want to find as stark and unforgiving a theology to identify themselves with as possible."
=
"It seemed like they wanted to find a theology that was as stark and unforgiving as possible"
=
"they wanted to find the most stark and unforgiving theology" (=the most strict religion)

I don't think the word order is wrong, but it is a bit clumsy. This sentence is hard for the reader to understand simply because of the dense word order.