Today, at a time of seismic geopolitical realignment, when our values are proving to be not nearly as universal as some of us had assumed them to be, the need to recognize just how culturally contingent they are is more pressing than ever. To live in a Western country is to live in a society still utterly saturated by Christian concepts and assumptions. This is no less true for Jews or Muslims than it is for Catholics or Protestants. Two thousand years on from the birth of Christ, it does not require a belief that He rose from the dead to be stamped by the formidable – indeed the inescapable – influence of Christianity. Whether it be the conviction that the workings of conscience are the surest determinants of good law, or that Church and state exist as distinct entities, or that polygamy is unacceptable, its trace elements are to be found everywhere in the West. Even to write about it in a Western language is to use words shot through with Christian connotations. “Religion,” “secular,” “atheist”: none of these are neutral. All, though they derive from the classical past, come freighted with the legacy of Christendom. Fail to appreciate this, and the risk is always of anachronism. The West, increasingly empty though the pews may be, remains firmly moored to its Christian past.
–Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (New York, NY: BasicBooks, 2019)
(1/2) Bill is extra excited that we’re hosting bestselling author @holland_tom for a conversation on his book DOMINION: HOW THE CHRISTIAN REVOLUTION REMADE THE WORLD @regentcollege @BasicBooks @HachetteUS pic.twitter.com/8pjGLyiPYD
— Regent College Bookstore (@RegentBks) March 9, 2021