by Ted Stewart
Another scholar who has devoted much of his career to writing on this subject, Rodney Stark,4 explains in a number of his works how Christianity affected the development of the West. He argues that it was Christianity’s devotion to reason that distinguished it from other religious faiths and allowed its adherents to progress as they did:
While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth. . . . [F]rom early days, the church fathers taught that reason was the supreme gift from God and the means to progressively increase their understanding of scripture and revelation. . . . Encouraged by the Scholastics and embodied in the great medieval universities founded by the church, faith in the power of reason infused Western culture, stimulating the pursuit of science and the evolution of democratic theory and practice.5
Another author, David Brog, argues that the early Christian Jews were the first champions of human rights. For example, even among the most civilized cultures, they were the first—and many times the only—defenders of infants and children.
The Romans were proud practitioners of infanticide. So were the Greeks before them. Both Plato and Aristotle recommended that the state adopt a policy of killing deformed infants. The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote approvingly of the common practice of drowning abnormal or weak children at birth. The earliest known Roman legal code, written in 450 BCE, permitted fathers to kill any “deformed or weak” male infant or any female infant, no matter how healthy. Indeed, female babies were the primary victims of Roman infanticide.6
Brog goes on to show that the Judeo-Christian values were instrumental in compelling individuals to respect and even to fight for the rights of others, even those outside of their own family, group, or people.7
Early Christians campaigned against the totalitarian powers of Roman emperors and European kings. Later Christians would act as emissaries for peace, fighting against the horrors of slavery and for the rights of the “Indians” found in the New World. Women’s suffrage found a home in Christian churches. Many of the civil rights movements of our modern time were supported by Christian organizations, and, for generations, Christians have worked to alleviate hunger and disease. Even today, hundreds of millions of dollars are raised and dispensed by Christian charities.
It seems clear, when evaluating Christianity’s overall influence on the world, that it has been good. And in very specific ways, particularly its advancing the rule of reason, its influence has been irreplaceable.
Guns, Reason, and the Local Candle Store?
When the European explorers and conquerors began their journeys to the Americas, Asia, and Africa, why did they possess the technological superiority that they did?
Many have argued that the early Western advancements in steel, guns, sailing ships, and agriculture that allowed the early explorers to conquer so many parts of the world were nothing but a lucky draw in the game of human progress. Others argue that the West’s main advantage lay in its superior geography or natural resources. Stark responds by pointing out that other civilizations had even greater advantages in natural resources than did Europe. He then asks: Without any natural, geographical, or otherwise environmental advantage, why did the Europeans excel in the making of steel, guns, ships, and agriculture?
The answer is this: because the Europeans were more steeped in logic and reason, the critical seedbeds of technological advancement.
How is it that Christianity created a culture that was committed to reason and logic? Part of the answer is found in the fact that “Christian theologians have devoted centuries to reasoning about what God may have really meant by various passages in scripture.”8 This wrestling with scripture, applying logic and reasoning, involved large numbers of Christians over a long period of time and resulted in occasional shifts in doctrine based upon that strenuous exercise of the mind. Regardless of the correctness of the result (that is, the authenticity of the doctrine), it is impossible to deny the impact that this active and incessant reliance on logic and reasoning had inside the Christian faith.9
From its inception, it has been accepted within Christianity that it is not necessary to rely upon faith alone in accepting Christian doctrine. For the first time in history, it was allowed that faith in conjunction with reason was an acceptable tenet.10 For example, Clement of Alexandria, a theologian of Christianity’s second century, explained:
Do not think that we say that these things are only to be received by faith, but also that they are to be asserted by reason. For indeed it is not safe to commit these things to bare faith without reason, since assuredly truth cannot be without reason.11
Part of the answer for why the West advanced technologically as rapidly as it did lies in the emergence of capitalism in Europe, the system whereby industry and commerce are controlled not by the government but by the people who operate them to make a profit. Even critics of capitalism must admit that it has resulted in the creation of more productivity and wealth than any other political or economic system in the world.
Capitalism was a system that evolved distinctly and uniquely in the West, its beginnings traced to the large Christian monasteries that sprang up throughout much of Europe. There is no reason that it could not have been the product of the peoples of China, India, or Islam, but for the fact that they did not adopt the Christian beliefs that placed such high value on individual choice and agency.
Christianity led to capitalism. Capitalism emphasized individualism, hard work, personal reward and failure.12 This allowed for the creation of wealth and economic opportunity, which then led to technological advancements in the West.
Two other things to consider: First, capitalism could emerge only in cultures where individual freedom existed. Such places only existed in the Christian West. The importance of this cannot be overstated.
Second, it was Christianity’s devotion to reason and logic that resulted in the pursuit of science and technological advances. Some cultures may have dabbled in scientific discovery in very narrow fields, but it was only in Europe that science truly developed. For example, while other civilizations may have taken baby steps into alchemy and astrology, it was only in Europe that these musings evolved into chemistry and astronomy. The fundamental belief structures of other faiths and cultures, with their focus on mysticism or polytheism, simply did not motivate their followers to develop scientific knowledge, as did Christianity.13
Christianity was devoted to an attempt to understand the purpose of God’s creations. If God created the world, the Christian asks, for what purpose? If God is bound by certain natural laws, what are they?
Stark explains:
The rise of science was not an extension of classical learning. It was the natural outgrowth of Christian doctrine: nature exists because it was created by God. In order to love and honor God, it is necessary to fully appreciate the wonders of his handiwork. Because God is perfect, his handiwork functions in accord with immutable principles. By the full use of our God-given powers of reason and observation, it ought to be possible to discover these principles.14
As a result, the university system that was developed by the Catholic church during the Middle Ages was the place where scientific inquiry was nurtured and reached significant high points:
Historians have marveled at the extent to which intellectual debate in those universities was free and unfettered. The exaltation of human reason and its capabilities, a commitment to rigorous and rational debate, a promotion of intellectual inquiry and scholarly exchange—all sponsored by the Church—provided the framework for the Scientific Revolution, which was unique to Western civilization.15
Freedom Was the Fruit
What about the concepts of individual freedom, liberty, equality, self-government, and rule of law? Where did these concepts come from?
“This too was a victory of reason.”16
The ancients believed that the gods alone determined their lives and personal conduct. It was all fate.
Christians taught that there was such a thing as agency, or free will; that we are responsible for our own conduct; that God rewards and punishes based upon the exercise of our free will, not on fate or luck or whim. This distinctive belief—extraordinarily rare in other world religions—is one of the most fundamental of all Christian beliefs.
It was this belief that led Christians to contend that all should have the right to exercise free will, and that depriving one of the right to exercise free will through slavery was wrong. That is why, by about the tenth century, slavery was almost obliterated in Europe, then eventually throughout the New World colonies as well. This is important to recognize, especially in light of the fact that moral opposition to slavery is not universally the teaching of other faiths.17
Belief in the equality of the individual is also a uniquely Christian concept. The message of Jesus Christ was simple: whether male or female, bond or free, Jew, Greek, or Roman, all were equal before God. Christian theologians, following the end of written scripture, also expressed this teaching. For example, one third-century Christian theologian, L. Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, wrote, “‘The second constituent of Justice is equality. I mean this . . . in the sense of treating others as one’s equal. . . . For God who gives being and life to me wished us all to be equal.’”18
Another of the most important foundations for Western political thought is the belief that certain rights are derived from God, not from man. This principle of “natural rights” is most eloquently expressed in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Some contend that this idea was the product of the brilliant political thinkers of the seventeenth century, John Locke being the most masterful and eloquent of them all. But the concept of natural rights dates much further back than that, deriving almost exclusively from original Christian theology.19 Long before the European philosophers and the Founding Fathers, early Christian philosophers contemplated and wrote about these concepts, exploring agency and the rights of the individual versus the role of government.
Locke’s own views on equality and freedom were so thoroughly the result of his Christian beliefs that one commentator suggests that Locke’s Two Treatises of Government is “saturated with Christian assumptions” and that “Jesus Christ (and Saint Paul) may not appear in person in the text of the Two Treatises but their presence can hardly be missed.”20
The teachings of Christian scripture supported other concepts that became essential foundations of Western political thought, including the recognition of private property rights and limitations on the power of kings. Limiting the power of the monarch results in the ascendancy of the rule of law—that is to say, when the king himself must abide by the rules, everyone else must, and the rule of law is established as supreme.
The most enduring example of the implementation of these religious teachings was the imposition of the Magna Carta on England’s King John in 1215. It was the combination of church officials and royalty that forced this document upon the English king. This magnificent document became the foundation for the protection of individual rights, private property, capitalism and free trade, the separation of the church from the government, prohibitions and limitations on the power of kings, and the establishment of the House of Lords, a small but highly significant step toward the creation of a parliament and emergence of self-government and democracy.21
Another scholar explains that the nature of the covenant relationship between God and His people is the foundation for the covenant relationship that is known as constitutionalism, making possible the idea that “We the People of the United States” could unite to create a constitution to protect our God-given rights.
This same scholar shows that Christianity is the foundation of the Western legal system that is designed to protect our freedom.22
Not Without Sin
In discussing the impacts of Christianity upon the emergence of Western culture, it would be foolish—and painfully obvious—were we not to acknowledge a disappointing historical fact:
Those who professed belief in Christianity were far from perfect. For ages, Christian churches have been the home of many corrupt men and women, and, far too often, sinful conduct has been displayed in the name of Christianity. Too many governments, church officials, and individuals have, in the name of Christianity, been responsible for historical episodes that cannot be called anything but evil. Some professing Christianity have displayed grievous examples of extravagance, lust, gluttony, greed, and every other of the seven deadly sins.
For too long, the Christian church attempted to keep the people under its control by withholding the holy scriptures from them. In the name of Christianity, some scientific and technological advances have been blocked.
The evil to be found in those chapters of history where the church attempted to purify itself through inquisition is well-known. Far too many wars have been waged in the name of Christianity, or a favored sect of Christianity, and millions of innocents have died as a result of those wars.
The mixed history of Christianity has been summarized as follows:
Christianity, like other faiths, produced double-sided effects, its community often having been made up of healers who killed and killers who healed. In the name of Jesus, believers have engaged in humble acts of mercy and justice. Also in the name of their exalted Lord, Christians have engaged in often violent acts of power and dominion.23
Yet while it is true that the professed followers of Christianity have not always been a source of advancing the common good, we should not let this tragic fact blind us to the overwhelmingly positive impact that Christianity has had upon the world.
The Christian Church Was Not the Only Source of Good
It is also true that Christianity is not the only explanation for the rise of Western civilization. The examples of the Greek city-states and the Roman Republic, with their various experiments in democracy, were vitally important to those European political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who pronounced the philosophical foundations for self-government. Many of the ideas and institutions of these classical giants were adopted by the Europeans, giving them a significant jump start toward modern civilization.
It is also important to acknowledge that Judaism and Islam impacted the development of the West in significant and positive ways:
Religion defines the foundations of the West. Christianity, meeting at specific times and places with Judaism and Islam, from ancient times to the present day, has formed the basis for Western civilization. The confrontation between Islam and Christianity brought centuries of strife, the conflict between Judaism and Christianity precipitated an unending debate, full of recrimination. But the three religions that, in unequal proportions to be sure, defined for the West the human situation and determined the goals of the social order also engaged with one another in religious, not only in political, terms.24
Those caveats notwithstanding, the irrefutable fact is that Christianity and its biblical teachings created the foundation that led to the establishment of Western civilization and all of the good that has flowed from that civilization.
How, then, did a tiny religion, born in a backwater Asian town in the bowels of the immense Roman Empire, its first members being nothing but a group of humble Jews, become the dominant religion of Europe, then the most influential religion in the world?
To answer this question, we have to talk about the miracle at the bridge.
Rome, Italy AD 312
Her name was Ruth. She had been christened after one of the most powerful (and one of the few) women whose presence wa
s made known in ancient scriptures.
Whither thou goest, I will go; . . . thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
It was the untold story of her life. She was literally an outcast in her own land.
She had never been told the explanation behind her name. She didn’t know—and she would never be told—that she had been rescued from the garbage dump outside the city walls. She didn’t know that her birth parents had abandoned her to death. She didn’t know how the boy had rescued her that day.
Josephus wasn’t unaware of the bitter irony, and sometimes he couldn’t help but smile. As a Christian, he had been cast out from the prosperous and tightly knit Jewish community. His wife’s family had cast her out on the day that she had been baptized, her new religion anathema to their pagan beliefs. Now they had a child who had been cast away, thrown out with the Roman trash.
Josephus and his family were vagabonds and outcasts, that was sure, and the slums of Rome were most unfriendly to their kind. And though they lived in a neighborhood with some Christians, there were only a few thousand of them, against a city of a million people. The odds were not on their side.
His adopted daughter stood beside the wooden table and watched him work. His writing was small but nearly perfect, and he seemed to recall the words entirely from memory as he wrote them down. She knew enough not to interrupt him, and though more than an hour passed, she stood without moving or saying anything. Finally, Josephus raised his head from the papers, lifted his arms to stretch, then placed his writing tool upon the table. The ink needed time to dry now. He had a few moments to talk.
Ruth looked at him, then down at his work. She could read as well as he could, and she quickly scanned the contract that he was working on. “Is this one complicated, Father?” she asked.