Well, this caught me off guard. And maybe it will surprise you, too.
In his new book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, British author and historian Tom Holland, who is not a Christian, claims the morals of the western world would not exist without Christianity.
For many people, this claim might seem heretical, deluded and just plain wrong. But Holland makes a strong case.
Writing for stream.org, reviewer Jonathon Van Maren notes this:
While studying the ancient world, Holland writes, he realized something. Simply, the ancients were cruel, and their values utterly foreign to him. The Spartans routinely murdered “imperfect” children. The bodies of slaves were treated like outlets for the physical pleasure of those with power. Infanticide was common. The poor and the weak had no rights.
So how did we get from that horrific past to the much better (yet still very imperfect) present? Van Maren picks this up from Holland’s book:
It was Christianity, Holland writes. Christianity revolutionized sex and marriage, demanding that men control themselves and prohibiting all forms of rape. Christianity confined sexuality within monogamy. (It is ironic, Holland notes, that these are now the very standards for which Christianity is derided.) Christianity elevated women. In short, Christianity utterly transformed the world.
This is stunning – until you realize it’s part of a trend. Richard Dawkins, the celebrity atheist who wrote The God Delusion (considered by many to be a modern-day bible of atheism) has recently warned that if Christianity is wiped off the map in the western world, it could be replaced by something far, far worse.
That’s not a glowing endorsement for following Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is the divine Son of God), until you remember it’s coming from a very public, articulate and strident critic of Christianity.
If you’ve gotten this far, perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, that’s nice. Glad Christianity did some good stuff. But what does that have to do with me?”
Well, since you’re open to spirituality, this is a good time to ask yourself what other faiths have contributed to western civilization. And I include atheism here, because it takes faith to believe there’s nothing behind all we see and experience.
If you’re partial to the self-help approach to spirituality, then my pastor friend Ross Carkner has a few questions:
Does self-help make the world a better place? Or does it just help me? And if it’s just about me, isn’t that narcissistic? To be worth anything, self-help must eventually be turned outwards — and when it does, what guides it?
Given the viewpoints of Tom Holland and Richard Dawkins, and given Ross’s thoughts about a self-help approach to life, let me ask you this: is it time you seriously investigated the claims of Jesus?
I believe if you do this with open-minded honesty, you’ll be drawn to this extraordinary man and place Him at the centre your world now and in the life to come.
Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
Frank's Cottage 
Frank, this is something I’ve been turning over in my mind lately, especially with all the mess that’s going on in my country, the United States, and in the world.
The U.S. would not be the country it is without being founded on Judeo-Christian values, which too many non-believers would like to ignore.
Christianity IS the basis for all of Western civilization. What a shame it took a non-Christian to point it out.
This book does sound like an interesting read.
Blessings!
Trust me, Martha, my country (Canada) was also founded on Christian values and today, it’s no better off than your country. Canada just doesn’t get the same attention, in part because most of our media supports the ideology of our federal government.
The rather obvious flaw here is that Christians were also cruel. Christians also murdered children. Christians also mistreated slaves. Christians also trampled on the poor and weak.
So to the extent that society still exhibits cruelty and indifference, I suppose we can thank Christianity for that.
But to the extent that we have risen above those behaviors, we can thank Humanism.
Furthermore, Christianity is not the only worldview that prohibits rape (if it does at all), or confined sexuality within monogamy (if it does at all).
Meanwhile, it is still a fact that the Bible promotes genocide, slavery, infanticide, rape, racism, and the killing of homosexuals as well as brides that are not virgins. Thankfully, western morality has risen above Christian morality.
Christians need to stop arrogantly claiming to have invented morality and face that fact the Humanism is the standard they use when cherry-picking which parts of the Bible to accept and which parts to ignore. within monogamy (if it does at all).
Thanks for your comment.
If anyone believes there are “obvious flaws” in the viewpoint of this blog, then they should take them up with Tom Holland, who is a respected historian and author of many books. As I pointed out, Holland is also NOT a Christian, so any assertion that Christians are claiming to invent morality is absolutely missing the point of this blog.
Yes, Jesus followers were – and are and always will be – a long, long way from perfect. In fact, I’m a textbook example of a Jesus follower who is a work in progress. God is doing that work (it’s a full-time job; just ask my wife) and it won’t be complete until this life is finished.
In the meantime, I eagerly await your evidence that Jesus of Nazareth spoke even one sentence in favour of racism or rape or infanticide or killing gay people. Just one sentence….
In my humble opinion, I think we need to be conscious that Jesus was a devout Jew and all of his disciples were Jewish. The Bible verses that speak against Jews are really speaking about a religious attitude, of letter of the law, not the Holy Spirit in the law.
There needs to be a better term for Judeo-Christian values and individual Liberty. This is necessary because of the acrid relationship of many denominations, who blame each other, rather than the common enemy of communistic atheism. This adversarial relationship must be transformed into a unified body with many different parts, but function in unison.