{"id":909,"date":"2003-08-20T13:06:01","date_gmt":"2003-08-20T21:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/08\/20\/the-christian-foundations-of-western-civilization\/"},"modified":"2003-08-20T13:06:01","modified_gmt":"2003-08-20T21:06:01","slug":"the-christian-foundations-of-western-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2003\/08\/20\/the-christian-foundations-of-western-civilization","title":{"rendered":"The Christian Foundations of Western Civilization"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impor\u00adtance of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty to the his\u00adto\u00adry of West\u00adern civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion is being increas\u00ading\u00adly over\u00adlooked, which is why I was so delight\u00aded to come across a rather lengthy sum\u00adma\u00adry<\/a> of a new book: For the Glo\u00adry of God: How Monothe\u00adism Led to Refor\u00adma\u00adtions, Sci\u00adence, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slav\u00adery<\/i> by Rod\u00adney Stark (Prince\u00adton Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty Press) [see the Ama\u00adzon page<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Dr. Stark is a sol\u00adid aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic writ\u00ading with\u00adin his field, so this book is extreme\u00adly cred\u00adi\u00adble.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an excerpt from the sum\u00adma\u00adry: Stark does\u00adn\u2019t argue so much the virtues of West\u00adern civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion as the fact (yes, fact, not the\u00ado\u00adry) that you can\u00adnot under\u00adstand West\u00adern civ with\u00adout ref\u00ader\u00adence to Chris\u00adt\u00adian the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy and the way that it fer\u00adtil\u00adized the soil in which those \u201cextra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary episodes\u201d grew. The book focus\u00ades on four episodes: (1) the efforts at church reform that cul\u00admi\u00adnat\u00aded in the Protes\u00adtant Ref\u00ador\u00adma\u00adtion and the Catholic Counter-Ref\u00ador\u00adma\u00adtion, (2) the rise of mod\u00adern sci\u00adence, (3) the fabled witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th cen\u00adturies, and (4) the abo\u00adli\u00adtion of slav\u00adery and the slave trade.<\/i><\/p>\n

In each case, Stark shows that a belief in a great God who makes moral demands and who rewards and pun\u00adish\u00ades in the after\u00adlife is an essen\u00adtial com\u00adpo\u00adnent of what hap\u00adpened. <\/p>\n

This is infor\u00adma\u00adtion Chris\u00adtians on cam\u00adpus des\u00adper\u00adate\u00adly need! Read the whole sum\u00adma\u00adry<\/a> (or read a slight\u00adly less char\u00adi\u00adta\u00adble review<\/a>, although if you read that you should also read this unre\u00adlat\u00aded review<\/a> with the last para\u00adgraph of the Post review in mind).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The impor\u00adtance of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty to the his\u00adto\u00adry of West\u00adern civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion is being increas\u00ading\u00adly over\u00adlooked, which is why I was so delight\u00aded to come across a rather lengthy sum\u00adma\u00adry of a new book: For the Glo\u00adry of God: How Monothe\u00adism Led to Refor\u00adma\u00adtions, Sci\u00adence, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slav\u00adery by Rod\u00adney Stark (Prince\u00adton Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty Press) \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cThe Chris\u00adt\u00adian Foun\u00adda\u00adtions of West\u00adern Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-answers-to-honest-questions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-eF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}