A couple weeks ago I stood in the pulpit and made a confession: I absolutely hate playing board games.<\/p>\n
I’d rather have my teeth cleaned and drilled into, which I should know because I just had that done recently, for two hours straight, all because I hadn’t been to the dentist in over 4 years!<\/p>\n
I hate board games that much.<\/strong><\/p>\n But I love my wife.<\/strong><\/p>\n And my wife loves playing games. All games. Board. Card. Puzzles. Multi-player. Role-playing. You name it, she’ll play it. And I love her<\/strong>, so I’m learning to love games too. My journey begins with some simple card games such as Hand and Foot<\/em>, Black Queen<\/em> and SkipBo<\/em>. It’s slowly morphing into playing Cribbage<\/em> with her, which is tough for me because, well, “me not good at counting and things.”<\/p>\n However, the bridge (pun intended) I’m not willing to cross involves those crazy board games like Catan<\/em>, Splendor<\/em>, and Dominion<\/em>. They are absolutely bonkers with their hundreds of pieces, and huge game play boards that take hours to construct, let alone play. I give up before I even start when I see a rule book that is the size of War and Peace, <\/em>or, dare I say, Dominion<\/em> by Tom Holland.<\/p>\n How is that for a segue?<\/strong><\/p>\n If you’ve ever found yourself lost in Dominion<\/em>\u2014the board game, that is\u2014you know the feeling of trying to navigate a tangled web of strategy, luck, and confusion.\u00a0Much like these head-spinning board games, Tom Holland\u2019s Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World<\/em> is an exercise in navigating complexity. But unlike the board games, which thrive on chaos and competition, Holland\u2019s Dominion<\/em> explores the seemingly paradoxical ways Christianity has shaped, subverted, and ultimately transformed Western culture.<\/p>\n Holland’s Dominion<\/em> may not involve drawing cards or rolling dice, but it does take us through a labyrinth of history, power struggles, and ideological shifts. Just as figuring out how to build a deck or plot global domination in Risk<\/em>\u00a0can leave you scratching your head, understanding the profound and paradoxical influence of Christianity can feel equally complex. Yet, Holland guides us with precision, showing that behind the apparent confusion lies an enduring and transformative force that has shaped our world in ways we might not even realize.<\/p>\n Much like the disorienting moment in the boardgame Catan<\/em> when your carefully planned strategy is blown apart by an unexpected alliance or competitor’s move, the early Christian movement upended the established order of the Roman world. In Rome, power was synonymous with domination and control, held by emperors, generals, and the wealthy elite. But Christianity introduced a radically different view: one in which power was demonstrated not through might, but through sacrifice and service. As Holland writes, “The cross, which in Roman times had served as the ultimate symbol of failure, was transformed into a symbol of hope and redemption.”[1]<\/p>\n This was a game-changer<\/strong>\u2014literally. Suddenly, the weak, the marginalized, and the oppressed were no longer merely pawns in the grand strategies of emperors. They had dignity and worth, a revolutionary idea in a world that valued strength above all else. If the rules of Dominion<\/em> the game sometimes feel convoluted, this radical shift in power dynamics is Christianity\u2019s version of flipping the board\u2014and changing the game entirely.<\/p>\n But just like how Dominion<\/em>(the game) can make frenemies out of allies, Christianity\u2019s influence is deeply paradoxical. Terry Eagleton, in his review for The Guardian<\/em>, describes Holland’s work as “an absorbing survey of Christianity’s subversive origins and enduring influence.”[2] Holland shows that while Christianity has at times aligned itself with power\u2014becoming entangled with empires, colonialism, and warfare\u2014it has also been the very force that critiques and condemns these abuses. As Tim Keller notes, \u201cChristianity has such an enduring, pervasive influence that we cannot condemn the church for its failures without invoking Christian teaching and beliefs in order to do so.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n This is where Holland\u2019s Dominion<\/em> starts to feel like one of those multi-layered strategies in a game of Dominion<\/em>, where every move seems to contradict the next. Christianity preaches humility and the love of neighbor, yet the church has been at the center of many historical power struggles. Holland documents the many times the faith has failed to live up to its ideals. But even in these failures, Christianity provides the moral framework through which those failures are judged. It\u2019s as if the game itself sets the rules for how to critique the players.<\/p>\n Holland goes even further to show how Christianity\u2019s influence is as pervasive as the invisible strategy behind a winning Dominion<\/em> deck. Even when people today reject religion or view it as outdated, they are often operating within a moral framework shaped by Christian values. Holland contends that Christianity is \u201cthe most influential framework for making sense of human existence that has ever existed.” It\u2019s not just that the faith has shaped our laws and institutions\u2014it has shaped how we think about concepts like human dignity, equality, and justice.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a little like trying to play Dominion<\/em> without realizing that the entire deck-building process is what makes the game work. You might be focused on gathering cards, but the framework is what drives the action. In the same way, Holland argues that many secular moral values\u2014like compassion for the poor or the belief in universal human rights\u2014are deeply rooted in Christian thought, whether people realize it or not. Tim Keller echoes this point, suggesting that \u201cthe central values and priorities of modern, Western, secular culture have actually come from Christianity.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n Holland\u2019s analysis of Christianity\u2019s cultural influence reads like an intricate board game strategy\u2014every move, every historical turn has a ripple effect that continues to shape modern society. Phil Mitchell in a review of Tom Holland’s Dominion <\/em>says, “No society is contemplating how much Islamic culture to incorporate. Or how much Buddhism or Hinduism to adopt. Or how much Shintoism or Animism. But every nation is wrestling with what to incorporate of the culture created by Jesus Christ.”[5]<\/p>\n Unlike board games, where the end goal is victory, Christianity\u2019s influence isn\u2019t about winning or losing. It\u2019s about transformation<\/strong>. Holland suggests that even as the world becomes more secular, the moral and ethical frameworks underpinning our society remain inextricably tied to Christian teachings. It\u2019s a long game, and Christianity\u2019s impact is far from over.<\/p>\n Kind of like my long journey to enjoy boardgames, and to even better love my wife!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]. Tom Holland,\u00a0Dominion<\/em>, page 3.<\/p>\n [2]. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dominion_(Holland_book)<\/p>\n [3]. https:\/\/gospelinlife.com\/article\/tom-hollands-dominion-a-review\/<\/p>\n [4]. https:\/\/gospelinlife.com\/article\/tom-hollands-dominion-a-review\/<\/p>\n [5]. https:\/\/www.the401stprophet.com\/a-synopsis-of-dominion-by-tom-holland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A couple weeks ago I stood in the pulpit and made a confession: I absolutely hate playing board games. I’d rather have my teeth cleaned and drilled into, which I should know because I just had that done recently, for two hours straight, all because I hadn’t been to the dentist in over 4 years! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[2310],"tags":[3290,2630,2627,3291],"class_list":["post-38556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-christian","tag-dominion","tag-holland","tag-revolution","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38556","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\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39721,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38556\/revisions\/39721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Speaking of LOVE: \u00a0I love each of you and am so grateful for your partnership in these last few years of our graduate studies. I could not have asked for a better cohort and peer group.<\/h4>\n
Grace & Peace to you all.<\/h4>\n