Read Hanne’s The Herland Report.
Tom Holland’s remarkable book “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World” gives a comprehensive account of the vast importance of Christianity for the development of Western civilization. Philanthropy, rational science, secularism, freedom of expression, universal human rights – they are all Christian inventions. The idea that each human life has a profound value and the concept of equality regardless of race, status and gender are derived from the belief in the sanctity of each human life, which is central to Christian philosophy.
While atheists represent only a few percent of world population, Christianity has 2.4 billion followers. In the U.S., Pew Research Center surveys show that 80% believe in God. In Europe, the number is about 75%; as many as 70% in the U.K. and Germany call themselves Christian, according to Pew Research.
Yet, the small minority of Western elite atheists that have controlled Western public discourse the past century has implemented a totalitarian atheist secularization and a chronic demonization of our Christian heritage. This has produced a lack of public understanding of the groundbreaking position of Christianity.
“In ‘Why I was wrong about Christianity,’ the renowned historian Tom Holland made an honest confession that, for years, he also had failed to acknowledge the defining role of Christianity in the West. The Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul, Holland says, are the most impactful writings in human history. Secularism is a Catholic invention, scientific rationalism and universal human rights comes from medieval theologians, and modern philanthropy is founded on Christian concerns for the poor. He argues that Christianity was the most revolutionary movement in history because it universalized an unprecedented ethical standard rooted in the belief that all human beings have intrinsic, sacred worth as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. So valuable is the human being in Christian dogmatics that the Son of God Himself came to earth incarnated in human nature to redeem it. Upon this radical belief, the Western civilization came forth. The principles of Christianity were so triumphantly penetrating, Holland argues, that they can now be traced in virtually every ideology or movement that has since emerged from the West: from communism to feminism to the world of science,” author Simon Vincent points out.
Holland’s core thesis is that Christianity is the cultural background and worldview – “the soup we swim in” – as pointed out in a recent interview. This Christianity-infused mindset profoundly differentiates Western Christian civilization from its pre-Christian predecessors.
Holland also emphasizes the distinctiveness of Christianity compared to Islam, particularly focusing on Christianity’s concept of the secular – a separation between religious and civil life, exemplified in Augustine’s writings and Jesus’ words, “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God, what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21). Christianity also allows followers to criticize leaders, attack corruption and judge evil within their culture, a framework Islam completely lacks. Holland addresses the vast challenges Islam poses to secular liberal modernity and views Western ignorance of Islam’s origins, its principles and vastly different value system as deeply problematic. Islam’s non-negotiability of the Quran as the literal and final word of God effectively puts an end to any reformation.
Christianity’s emergence is placed in a complex historical matrix involving Jewish, Greek, Persian and Roman influences. Holland contrasts the Greek divine cruelty with Jesus’ message of forgiveness: “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Paul’s radical assertions in Galatians dissolve social divisions – Jew/Greek, male/female, slave/free – projecting a universal brotherhood in Christ that inspired movements such as abolishing of slavery and egalitarian revolutions. Both ancient Greek and Roman culture embraced slavery and were strictly hierarchical in structure, while Christianity preached equality before God regardless of status. It was the Christian abolitionist movement led to legal action against slavery and slave trading. Until this day, Islamic nations have not taken any similar abolitionist approach, and in many Islamic and African countries, slavery is still prevalent.
“There is nothing ‘self-evident’ about Christian ethics, Holland argues in ‘Dominion.’ Take, for instance, our contemporary belief in universal, human equity. In the ancient world, it was preposterous to claim that there was anything ‘equal’ between free men and slaves, men and women. Humans had no intrinsic worth – their value was measured only by their social utility. The weak were deplored as people who weakened the tribe, and so ought to be marginalized, exploited, discarded. This was a common Greek and Roman attitude, both cultures practiced slavery without ethical reflection,” Simon Vincent writes: “So, if you are a Westerner, you belong to Christendom. That is a fact of history, regardless of your personal convictions.”
