{"id":31276,"date":"2023-02-23T12:07:17","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T20:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31276"},"modified":"2023-02-23T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T20:07:17","slug":"the-unmistakable-christian-influence-on-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-unmistakable-christian-influence-on-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unmistakable Christian Influence on the West"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his 2019 book, Dominion<\/em>, author Tom Holland attempts to explain how Christianity became \u201cthe most powerful hegemonic cultural force in the history of the word\u201d (p. xxv). It is not a history of Christianity per se, but rather he seeks \u201cto explore how we in the West came to be what we are, and to think the way that we do\u201d (xxiv). This is an ambitious undertaking: Holland wants to analyze the historical influences flowing into the emergence of Christianity and then to explain the varying consequences resulting from Christianity. He does so successfully\u2014with easy, fast-paced prose sprinkled with wit.<\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s presupposition is that Christianity \u201cis the most enduring legacy of classical antiquity, and the index of utter transformation\u201d (xxii). Fittingly, he begins his tome with two ancient cities that lead to the time of Christ: Athens and Jerusalem. Contrary to Bertrand Russell, who begins his, A History of Western Philosophy<\/em> with the observation, \u201cIn all history, nothing is so surprising or so difficult to account for as the sudden rise of civilization in Greece\u201d[1]<\/a>, Tom Holland manages to explain exactly how the development came about. The rise of philosophy and the flourishing that followed is sketched out succinctly but expertly. Then he does the same for the influence of the Jewish nation and their Torah in chapter two. Both chapters lay the ground work for describing the melding of these two cultures, to coin a phrase, in the fullness of time<\/em>. Says Holland, \u201cThe Jewish conception of the Divine was indeed well suited to an age that had seen distances shrink and frontiers melt as never before\u201d (p. 59). When Jesus and the movement he commenced enters the stage, the world is uniquely prepared to receive and transmit its message across the known world. The next logical step is to describe the Apostle Paul and his contribution. Instead of simply retracing these historical developments, Holland explains how the culture is being affected by Christianity\u2014and how those affects are still seen in today\u2019s world. It makes for a compelling approach to study history because the reader can better understand the relevancy of the past on the present.<\/p>\n

The book is organized into three main sections and the rest of Hollands first section, Antiquity<\/em>, describes the development of the faith and the influences on different cultures. Here we meet familiar names: Polycarp, Ignatius, Origen, Cyprian, Constantine, Augustine. But more than just a list of famous individuals, he outlines how the church starts effecting culture. The most interesting consequence to me is the charity and giving of tithes that Christians shared to help the poor and discarded people from society. This type of generosity was a revolutionary idea and there was a \u201csolemn charge upon new churches to always to \u2018remember the poor.\u2019 Generation after generation, Christians held true to this injunction\u201d (p. 121).<\/p>\n

The second section, Christendom<\/em>, starts with Charlemagne and his accomplishments and ends with Galileo and the fiery debate between faith and science. Each step of the way, Holland deals with the historical realties that still resonate today. The decadence of the Papacy that existed during the Middle-Ages brought forth issues of church and state that sound modern. Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas shaped the growing sophistication in the field of education\u2014issues that are pertinent today. The subject of women priests Catholicism is discussed and the arguments for and against also sound contemporary. So too with the discussion on the institution of marriage. All of these issues persist in Western cultures and that is Holland\u2019s point: what we are today is a result of the Christian faith of the past. This second section ends with a longer discussion into faith -vs- science debates. Galileo has the starring role but Holland quotes from Thomas Aquinas, \u201cHoly Scripture naturally leads men to contemplate the celestial bodies.\u201d Still today, Christians and non-Christians argue the exact relationship between faith and science, mystery and reason. Holland seems to implore: don\u2019t be a simpleton, but understand that both are true and have their role to play.<\/p>\n

The third section, Modernitas<\/em>, starts with Oliver Cromwell and the religious tensions in England during the seventeenth century. The section ends with the irony that the woke movement cannot recognize in themselves that their own thinking and set of values\u2014both infused by Christian thinking and doctrine\u2014is what enables them to criticize the perceived faults in society. Holland observes, \u201cElements of Christianity continued to infuse people\u2019s morals and presumptions so utterly that many failed even to detect their presence\u201d (p. 517).<\/p>\n

In between the two bookends of this section, Holland covers the Enlightenment (Voltaire), evolution (Darwin), communism (Marx). Then things get really going with a turn towards the Beatles and J.R.R. Tolkien. His point is that all of Western culture has been infused, injected, enlightened, and influenced by Christianity.<\/p>\n

Although Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em> also traces the history of the Christian faith, Bebbington covers the influence in Great Britain and is concerned with the time period of the 1730s to the 1980\u2019s. Its focus is narrower than Holland\u2019s broad sketch of the West.<\/p>\n

The book falls within the general categories of Western Civilization-History-Christianity. Despite these academic disciplines being adequately uncovered by respected scholars before him, Holland\u2019s unique approach enables him to achieve fresh, insightful conclusions that are still relevant today. His message is a reminder that needs to be heard.<\/p>\n

I also have a hunch Dr. Clark strategically placed this book in the line-up to follow our previous week\u2019s reading, Cynical Theories,<\/em> by Pluckrose and Lindsay. Whereas postmodernist\u2019s proclivity is to undermine the very foundations of society, Holland wants to shore them up, explain how important they are, and to demonstrate that to discard them is madness. The Christian influence on the West is worth more than just saving\u2014it is worth celebrating the accomplishments and preserving them into the future, for they will surely continue to ground and guide us.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Bertrand Russell. A History of Western Philosophy<\/em> (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his 2019 book, Dominion, author Tom Holland attempts to explain how Christianity became \u201cthe most powerful hegemonic cultural force in the history of the word\u201d (p. xxv). It is not a history of Christianity per se, but rather he seeks \u201cto explore how we in the West came to be what we are, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2627],"class_list":["post-31276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holland","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31277,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31276\/revisions\/31277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}