Dominion How the Christian revolution remade the world

Tom Holland

Book - 2019

"Christianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence is the single most transformative development in Western history. [This book] explores what it was that made Christianity so revolutionary and why, in a West that has become increasingly doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain irredeemably Christian. 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 h...ow Christianity transformed the world" -- inside front jacket flap.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Basic Books [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Tom Holland (author)
Edition
First US edition
Item Description
"Originally published in 2019 by Little, Brown in the United Kingdom"--Title page verso
Physical Description
x, 612 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 575-591) and index.
ISBN
9780465093502
  • Preface
  • Part I. Antiquity
  • 1. Athens 479 BC: The Hellespont
  • 2. Jerusalem 63 BC: Jerusalem
  • 3. Mission ad 19: Galatia
  • 4. Belief AD 177: Lyon
  • 5. Charity ad 362: Pessinus
  • 6. Heaven 492: Mount Gargano
  • 7. Exodus 632: Carthage
  • Part II. Christendom
  • 8. Conversion 754: Frisia
  • 9. Revolution 1076: Cambrai
  • 10. Persecution 1229: Marburg
  • 11. Flesh 1300: Milan
  • 12. Apocalypse 1420: Tabor
  • 13. Reformation 1520: Wittenberg
  • 14. Cosmos 1620: Leiden
  • Part III. Modernitas
  • 15. Spirit 1649: St George's Hill
  • 16. Enlightenment 1762: Toulouse
  • 17. Religion 1825: Baroda
  • 18. Science 1876: The Judith River
  • 19. Shadow 1916: The Somme
  • 20. Love 1967: Abbey Road
  • 21. Woke 2015: Rostock
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Christianity is said to draw about equally on classical Greece (Plato, Aristotle) and the Hebrew Bible for its philosophical foundations, so it's unsurprising that broadcaster and author Holland (In The Shadow of the Sword, 2012) starts this slices-of-history book in Athens, then continues in Jerusalem, centuries and decades, respectively, before Christ. The events in those chapters, as in their 19 successors, attest to Christian ideas and principles in ferment among historical actors. Notions such as the creation of the universe by a single creator, the absolute integrity of the individual, the distinct though overlapping authorities of church and state, constant improvement of persons and institutions, among others, affected, to the point of determining, the tendencies and outcomes of historical developments as the ages rolled by. How these ideas affected the practices of slavery, freedom of expression, and political and social rights, and altered the tenor of the times as recently as the 1960s are the meat of Holland's flowing expository style, which resembles the narration of a very engaging broadcast documentary.--Ray Olson Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Novelist, playwright, and historian Holland (Rubicon), whose scholarly pursuits include Greek, Islamic, and Roman history, brings all of that to bear in this cultural history of how "a cult inspired by the execution of an obscure criminal in a long-vanquished empire came to exercise such a transformative and enduring influence on the world." In the period stretching from pre-Christian Athens in 479 BCE, when the Persian Artayctes lost his battle with the Athenians, to Germany in 2015, when Angela Merkel had an emotional encounter with a teenage Palestinian girl, Holland traces Christendom's philosophical, ethical, political, and even linguistic legacies in the West. Sophocles and Aristotle appear, as do Solomon and Moses, who "brought something without parallel: legislation directly authored by a god." Luke writes, so does Muhammad, and Luther publishes his 95 theses; later Holland weaves in Voltaire, Darwin, and even de Sade. He does not lose sight of political events--Charlemagne reigns, Columbus sails, the West fights WWI, and Hitler rises to power. He also wrestles with the theological disputes, inconsistencies, and recurring questions within Christianity, and the faith's intertwined but often hostile relationship with Judaism and Jews. Entertaining is too light a term and instructive is too heavy a term for a rich work that is enjoyably both. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Independent scholar and award-winning author Holland (Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic) asserts in this engaging work that most of Western morals and ethics find their origin in Christianity, even where the influence is unacknowledged. Rather than offer a continuous narrative, Holland takes key moments in history and illuminates the role Christianity played in these epochal periods, both for good and for ill. Connecting topics and time periods--e.g., "Belief: AD 177: Lyon," about the struggle to define Christian doctrine; and "Love: 1967: Abbey Road," which speaks of the Christian origins of the love and peace movement of the 1960s, even as many of those promoting the movement rejected religious belief--Holland exhibits a wide and deep historical knowledge, placing each of these periods in the context of Christian and Western history. Each chapter begins with a telling vignette that illustrates the topic, as Holland then shows how this event mirrored those in other places. VERDICT Even readers who might not agree with Holland's thesis will enjoy his take on key periods of Western history.--Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Christianity may not be on the march, but its principles continue to dominate in much of the world; this thoughtful, astute account describes how and why.This is not a biography of Jesus or a history of the church, writes Holland (Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar, 2015, etc.), an award-winning historian of the ancient world. His aim is to "study Christianity for what it can reveal, not about God, but about the affairs of humanity. No less than any other aspect of culture and society, beliefs are presumed to be of mortal origin, and shaped by the passage of time." He accomplishes this with 21 isolated chapters (in three parts: "Antiquity," "Christendom," and "Modernitas") that proceed chronologically, beginning when the ancient world, which featured a live-and-let-live attitude toward the gods of every nation, became aware of the Jewish God, who insisted that He reigned alone. Leaping forward centuries and then decades at a time, Holland delivers penetrating, often jolting discussions on great controversies of Western civilization in which war, politics, and culture have formed a background to changes in values. Thus, Christ taught that slavery was offensive in God's eyes. Christians accepted this idea until they became the establishment, when practicalities took priority. Radical Christians fumed and skeptics sneered, but the author points out that when abolition finally became a political force in the 18th century, it was almost entirely Christian based, and no other world religion participated. So it has been with issues from women's rights to genocide to evolution, and Holland looks at the work of Julian the Apostate, Mohammad, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Hitler, and countless other relevant historical figures. Readers may squirm, but even a humane concept such as human rights "was far likelier to be signed up to if its origin among the canon lawyers of medieval Europe could be kept concealed."An insightful argument that Christian ethics, even when ignored, are the norm worldwide. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.