Morality, Dignity, and Progress
In a recent review in the New Yorker on Marilynn Robinson’s recent book Reading Genesis[1], James Wood held back few punches.[2] Though a respecter of Robinson as a writer, Wood holds her religion in contempt. Wood entertains his readers with plentiful depictions of the Christian (particularly Calvinist) tradition that, though occasionally fair and meriting robust dialogue, are predictable and unimaginative strawman rhetoric. Wood attests “Far from obviously being good, the God of the Hebrew Bible come up short, morally.” He continues a few paragraphs later, “if the Bible is properly thought of as a human text, then all of its moral discussion is human, and one can quite easily ground oneself in a morality that is both perfectly Biblical and perfectly God-less-since God, in the Bible at least, is a literary creation.” [3]
This argument begs the question of the location of morality’s inception. According to Wood, it comes not from God, but from human writings. Morality is a human invention. But then this leaves the question “Where did humans come up with morality?” unanswered. I personally do not believe that apart from God us humans are that clever. Apart from God, morality comes down to a social Darwinian “Survival of the fittest tribe over the other.” And yet, in Western culture, there is a bent toward a morality that seeks the care of the most vulnerable. Ironically, the moral basis from which Wood judges the God of the Hebrew Bible would not be possible without the intellectual tradition of the Hebrew people. Historian Thomas Cahill wrote about the influence of the Jewish tradition in Western culture and the overall progress of human history in his book The Gift of the Jews.[4] Cahill contends in this brilliant work “Most of our best words, in fact—new, adventure, surprise; unique, individual, person, vocation; time, history, future; freedom, progress, spirit; faith, hope, justice are the gifts of the Jews.”[5] Cahill later writes, “All who share this outrageous dream of universal brotherhood, peace, and justice, who dream the dreams and see the visions of the great prophets, must bring themselves to contemplate the possibility that without God there is no justice.”[6] The basis of morality to which Wood holds God is, in itself, a Judeo-Christian concept.
As Cahill revealed the entangled web of Jewish influence in our modern world, so Tom Holland continues the thread with Christianity. In a time when Western culture in general, with Christianity in particular, has long since fallen out of favor with the cultural left, Holland ambitiously attempts, and masterfully executes, a seeming impossibility: tracing through two thousand years the influence of Christianity on Western culture. He convincingly argues that it is the very air we breathe.
Even in Europe — a continent with churches far emptier than those in the United States — the trace elements of Christianity continued to infuse people’s morals and presumptions so utterly that many failed even to detect their presence. Like dust particles so fine as to be invisible to the naked eye, they were breathed in equally by everyone: believers, atheists, and those who never paused so much as to think about religion.[7]
Throughout his over 500-page excursion through Western history, Holland highlights the theme of innate dignity every individual possesses, merely based on the fact that one is made in the imago dei, and how it shapes our morality today. One example is the abolition of slavery via the unassuming Quaker Benjamin Lay.[8] Lay and his wife, Sarah, compelled by their faith and a catalytic moment seeing a physically abused African slave, committed their lives to abolishing slavery. In the words of Holland, “Benjamin Lay had succeeded, by the time of his death in 1759, in making the community in which he had lived just that little bit more like him— in making it just that little bit more progressive.”[9]
Progress, innate dignity, and morality. The intellectual foundation of these ideas was laid by the Jewish tradition. The Christian tradition took these concepts, reoriented around the truly righteous and faithful Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, and changed the world. The effects, and societal benefits of the change are taken for granted by us all – including Mr. Wood.
[1] Marilynne Robinson, Reading Genesis (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024).
[2] James Wood, “When Marilynne Robinson Reads Genesis,” The New Yorker, March 4, 2024, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/11/reading-genesis-marilynne-robinson-book-review.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Thomas Cahill, The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010).
[5] Ibid., 241.
[6] Ibid., 252.
[7] Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, First US edition (New York: Basic Books, 2019), 533.
[8] Ibid., 379-386.
[9] Ibid., 386.
About the Author
David Beavis
David is Australian by birth, was raised in Southern California, and is the Youth and Young Adults Pastor at B4 Church in Beaverton, Oregon. David and his wife, Laura, live in Hillsboro with their dog, Coava (named after their favorite coffee shop). M.A. Theology - Talbot School of Theology B.A. Psychology - Vanguard University of Southern California5 responses to “Morality, Dignity, and Progress”
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David, Wow, great post! I like the way you brought Robinson, Wood, and Cahill into your discussion. Great transition: “As Cahill revealed the entangled web of Jewish influence in our modern world, so Tom Holland continues the thread with Christianity.”
Did you enjoy Holland’s book? Is there anything in the book you will continue to ponder long-term?
Thanks, David!
I thoroughly enjoyed Dominion! It took some getting used to Holland’s writing style at first. But his story-telling way of guiding us through two thousand years of Christian history was so enjoyable. I think the chapter on Charity that highlighted Gregory of Nyssa will stick with me. The reason for this is Holland showed that the Christian ethic lays the foundation for our Western understanding of caring for those who are vulnerable.
David,
What an incredible post!
My favorite paragraph was this: “In a time when Western culture in general, with Christianity in particular, has long since fallen out of favor with the cultural left, Holland ambitiously attempts, and masterfully executes, a seeming impossibility: tracing through two thousand years the influence of Christianity on Western culture. He convincingly argues that it is the very air we breathe.”
You write so eloquently, David. Well done!
David, great post!
Your blog made me think about something my friend posted on Facebook recently. She shared a meme that reads:
“The Paradox of Tolerance disappears if you look at tolerance, not as a moral standard, but as a social contract. If someone does not abide by the terms of the contract, then they are not covered by it. In other words: The intolerant are not following the rules of the social contract of mutual tolerance. Since they have broken the terms of the contract, they are no longer covered by the contract, and their intolerance should NOT be tolerated.”
I think we have the entire concept of tolerance due to the influence of Christianity on Western culture – Jesus loving the outcast. How is tolerance a social contract? Where do we get the idea of a social contract in the first place? Not sure where I am going with this, just pondering. Thank you for making me think!
David, thanks for your insightful, well-read, and well written post!
I enjoyed Holland and found his take on Christianity’s permeation into all of Western society compelling, and for some reason, while I was reading your post, I couldn’t help but consider: is Western culture really bent toward caring for the vulnerable?
I think in word and idea we are, and I can’t quite shake the feeling that the layers of society and culture are just better suited to hide the ways in which it still oppresses and preys on the most vulnerable. This is not to disregard progress and the very real benefit of more open/public discourse on social issues and injustices either, just a thought!