Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
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Average rating4.1
A historian of antiquity shows how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable. It was this that rendered it so suitable a punishment for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-had been a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. Our morals and ethics are not universal. Instead, they are the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the world.
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We are often sculpted by our rivals, perhaps more so even than our allies. I would say this is the idea that Holland explores as he presents a view of Christian history that often takes the time to look to the peripherals of burgeoning Christianity and point out its influence on its opponents. Any pop history book covering such an extensive time range will have large gaps, so it would be easy to quibble about what was left out, but I personally felt that Holland's selection of people and events contributed well to this sub-theme.
Tom Holland has written a very big and bold book on the entire history of Christianity to show how it relates to every facet of our modern culture, both good and bad. I have to wonder how cherry picked his events are, but even so it is a great read from a reputable historian who knows his stuff. Turns out I didn't know a lot, like what came before the Old Testament, or how much the Greeks influenced Christianity, or how Christian England is.
The core ideas of his thesis, that Christianity is genuinely unique for its focus on the weak and the downtrodden being worthy of praise, symbolised perfectly by the idea of venerating Christ for dying on the cross, and that Christianity is a movement/religion that has revolution built into it, are very convincing.
And I just love the boldness. The way Tom writes it, if you can think of a concept, Christianity created it. Atheism? Christian. Religion? Christian. The Enlightenment? So Christian. Homosexuality? Literally invented by Saint Paul.
A fun part of reading a sweeping tome like this is when it starts self-referencing, you get these satisfying little callbacks to councils/events/places from centuries or millennia before and how they are reinterpreted or referenced at later dates.
Can't wait to explain to everyone for the rest of my life how Christianity shaped everything in the modern world. And since it turns out Christianity is way more Greek than I ever realised, Greeks really did invent everything.
This book has made me at least 12% more annoying.
An enjoyable, light read for those interested in the thorough unpacking of the ancient foundations of western civilization, have 3 years of studying antiquity, and approximately 3 - 4 hours of reading time a day.
