{"id":37119,"date":"2024-04-01T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T22:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37119"},"modified":"2024-04-01T15:30:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T22:30:34","slug":"the-church-still-has-a-pulse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-church-still-has-a-pulse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church Still has a Pulse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Holland&#8217;s book <em>Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em> is a compelling work that traces the most enduring influences of Christianity from ancient Rome to the present day. It is an ambitious work that attempts to argue about who we are and how we came to be who we are.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> According to Holland, Christianity has formed the Western mind. As a historian, Holland has tackled voluminous projects in classical antiquity, such as <em>the Rubicon, The Persia Fire, and the Millennium, <\/em>and it was in his research of these ancient histories and pagan cultures that Holland recognized the overarching impact Christianity had on the world. What is unique about Holland&#8217;s work is that he attempts to convey how Christianity formed the Western mind, &#8220;not just in its moral and intellectual conventions but in their opposites, such as atheism or the natural sciences.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> One has to keep in mind that <em>Dominion<\/em> is a historical narrative, and as a result, Biblical narratives are merely there to strengthen the timeline of Christianity&#8217;s expansion.<\/p>\n<p>One Christian apologetics teacher thought the book was fresh and an affirmation of Christianity&#8217;s influence on Western culture.<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> In his review, Edgar states on page 209 that Holland&#8217;s &#8220;thesis is that the gospel reverses the usual way in which power works by introducing love rather than conquest.&#8221; Conversely, one critic writes that Holland tells a &#8220;long and complicated story to explain how the &#8220;dominion&#8221; of Christian values came about but does not attempt to explain why these values succeeded as they did.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a> I agree with both of these reviews, but three insights that impressed me the most were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The death of Holland&#8217;s faith.<\/li>\n<li>The historical demise or death of Christianity.<\/li>\n<li>The poignant realization that God is dead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ll briefly explain in the following few paragraphs.<\/p>\n<p>Holland is open about his relationship with Christianity, and he describes his loss of faith and eventual disbelief in God throughout the book. His childhood recollections concerning his beliefs are sprinkled throughout the book, which often compete with his love for pre-historic dinosaurs. His relationship with his God-fearing god-mother had a tremendous influence on him because of her faith, and during his visits with her, he was able to explore nearby cliffs where, in &#8220;1811, a complete skull of an ichthyosaur had been found.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> Her death in 2009 affected him as one would expect to lose a loved one. It also seemed symbolic of the final death of his beliefs. He writes of the experience of leaving the hospital and his thoughts on whether he would ever see her again. He knows that he won&#8217;t, and for a fleeting moment, he thinks that her atoms and energy will remain, but at the same time, he tells himself that it is just a story that is untrue and not based on reality.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a> According to the article by Beckett, Holland is now an agnostic.<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The second insight is that Holland&#8217;s <em>Dominion<\/em> makes a compelling argument that can lead one to believe that Christianity is on its deathbed. It still has a pulse. However, he quickly points out that the rise of science and a less superstitious spirituality have replaced outdated Christian beliefs. Because Holland is fascinated with pre-historic dinosaurs, he continues to weave a thread of extinction and evolution juxtaposed with his historical account of Christianity&#8217;s influence on the West. He writes that Latin Christendom has been on a course of evolution and that the &#8216;West&#8217; is &#8220;less its heir than its continuation.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a> It didn&#8217;t die; it evolved. According to Holland, on page xxvi, he asserts that Christianity is still the most dominant force in the U.S.; however, a growing number view it as a relic. Holland writes that &#8220;time itself has been Christianized.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a> His point is that Christian morals and values are ingrained in us. However, the most telling indictment of Christianity&#8217;s demise is his assertion that Christians are not needed for Christian values to flourish and that one does not need to believe that Jesus rose from the dead to be shaped by Christian values.<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> In his article, Jonathan Sumption writes, &#8220;it would be truer to say that the Western mind made Christianity\u2026And the Western mind is in the process of discarding it, now that its practical utility as a foundation of social existence is no longer obvious.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The last point that God is dead became clear as I read the last chapter of <em>Dominion<\/em>. Holland states on page 524 that both Europe and America have left God dead, and the point is reiterated on page 525 when he describes the image of a god dead on the cross, but this time, it seems different. There is a sense of finality to his statement. In reading this last chapter, I thought of Walter Wink&#8217;s point in his work, <em>The Powers That Be<\/em>. In it, Wink describes Christianity as conflicting with the dominant system, the Roman Empire. Christ as Victor (or the atonement theory) freed the captives. However, with the conversion of Constantine, the Roman Empire took over the church&#8217;s role as God&#8217;s providential agent in the world. As a result, the empire&#8217;s success became the criterion for ethical behavior. Hence, according to Wink, Christ as Victor was no longer emphasized because it contradicted the Roman Empire&#8217;s desire to rule its subjects.<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Consequently, the church no longer saw the demonic lodged in the empire but in the empire&#8217;s enemies.<a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a> The point is, historically, did the church symbolically die based on Wink&#8217;s version of how the church downplayed an essential tenet of the faith, or if one believes Holland&#8217;s account that Christianity no longer needs its beliefs to survive, on the surface, both paint a dismal future. However, Wink&#8217;s book is a theological discourse, so his exploration of how we got here is more hopeful. The church is still redeemable. Perhaps they would agree that God draws people through His magnificent love throughout church history until the present, when the church preaches the God that Paul passionately describes to the Galatians and Corinthians. A love that has no borders. A love that sees everyone as equal. A love that never dies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Tom Holland, <em>Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em>, (London: Little, Brown Book Group, 2019), xxiv.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Jonathan Sumption, \u2018Dominion<em>: The Making of the Western Mind<\/em>.\u2019 By Tom Holland \u2013 review: As Christianity Became More Organised and Hierarchical, it Grew Increasingly Hostile to both Mysticism and Empirical Science, &#8221; <em>The Spectator<\/em>, (Aug 31, 2019): 2, https:\/\/georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/login?url=https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/magazines\/dominion-making-western-mind-tom-holland-review\/docview\/2281764789\/se-2.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> William Edgar, Tom Holland. <em>Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World<\/em>. Source: Unio cum Christo, 7 no 1 (Apr 2021), 209, Review https:\/\/web-p-ebscohost-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/ehost\/results<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Beckett, Lucy. &#8220;Sacred and the profane: How Christianity conquered the world.&#8221; <em>TLS. Times Literary Supplement<\/em>, no. 6089 (2019): 5, <a href=\"https:\/\/link-gale-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/apps\/doc\/A632138430\/AONE?u=newb64238&amp;sid=bookmark-AONE&amp;xid=91253ca0\">https:\/\/link-gale-com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/apps\/doc\/A632138430\/AONE?u=newb64238&amp;sid=bookmark-AONE&amp;xid=91253ca0<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Holland, <em>Dominion<\/em>, 520.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> Ibid., 521.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Beckett, \u201cSacred and the profane: How Christianity conquered the world,\u201d 5.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> Holland, <em>Dominion<\/em>, xx.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Ibid, xxiv.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> Ibid., 517.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Sumption, \u201cAs Christianity Became More Organised and Hierarchical, it Grew Increasingly Hostile to both Mysticism and Empirical Science,\u201d 2.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> Walter Wink, <em>The Powers That Be: A Theology for a New Millennium<\/em> (New York: Ranom House, Inc. 1998), 89-90.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> Ibid., 90.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Holland&#8217;s book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind is a compelling work that traces the most enduring influences of Christianity from ancient Rome to the present day. It is an ambitious work that attempts to argue about who we are and how we came to be who we are.[1] According to Holland, Christianity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"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":[2309],"tags":[2007,2627],"class_list":["post-37119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership","tag-dlgp","tag-holland","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37119","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\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37120,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37119\/revisions\/37120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}