Posts
(This is part of a series of posts comparing the contributions to the world made by Christianity and by Atheism. While the tool used for this comparison is the subject of environmentalism, it is not the purpose of this post to criticize the environmental movement and statements about Christianity's perceptions of environmentalism may or may not be justified. Further exploration of any justification will be addressed "someday.")
Among the many contributions of Christianity to be discussed it is appropriate to discuss claims of Christianity's failures. One of these areas is environmentalism. Historically speaking, the environment developed as an issue only recently. Throughout most of the past 2000 years, people lived in comparative harmony with the world, with localized environmental problems requiring localized solutions. It is only since the late 1800s that the the ability to harm the environment began to exceed the ability of the environment to recover on a wide-scale.
There are a number of reasons for Christianity's failure in this area. First, as was mentioned in the preface of this series, this is an area in which Christianity has allowed the world to take the lead. It's not only that Christianity accepted the world's cultural standards for the stewardship of the earth, but since our attention has been drawn to the problem, we have been slow to take leadership in addressing those problems. Secondly, while those who did take early leadership (e.g. John Muir and Gifford Pinchot) were Christians or from a Christian background, Christianity seems to have stood by while the movement as a whole became associated with pantheism and paganism, and with the worship of the creation rather than the transcendent Creator.
Fortunately, this failure is not as complete as some would suggest. Below are a number of websites and articles that reveal a growing Christian voice in the discussion of human responsibility and stewardship of the earth. These sites have not been thoroughly reviewed. They were chosen from among the first 60 sites listed in a search of "Christian Environmentalism." The criteria used for their inclusion in the list of links was that they had to profess a Christian world-view, promote a positive and active involvement with environmental stewardship and at least appear to represent the coordinated efforts of multiple individuals. Their inclusion in the list of links does not constitute an endorsement, but merely provides a place for someone interested in pursuing the matter further to do so.
A similar search was done using "Atheist Environmentalism," with parallel criteria. No parallel organizations were found within the first 60 hits. In fact, to the extent that the sites appeared to actually discuss environmentalism from the Atheist point of view at all, they were generally negative. It is interesting to note that while Christianity is criticized for its lack of involvement in environmental efforts, Atheism's more negative attitude seems to go unnoticed.
Christian Sites and Articles about Care of the Environment:
Tyndale Seminary http://www.tyndale.ca/sem/mtsmodular/viewpage.php?pid=73
Arocha.org http://www.arocha.org/gb-en/index.html
Creationism.org http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v10n3p24.htm
Creation Care http://www.creationcare.org/resources/scripture.php
Christian Ecology http://www.christianecology.org/Stewardship.html
Target Earth http://www.targetearth.org/
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
"Esau I Have Hated"?
This morning's reading was Deuteronomy 2:1-7, in which God tells the Israelites to treat the Edomite nation with respect, as a brother nation. Didn't God say "Esau I have hated"? In Romans 9:13, Paul quoted this line from Malachi 1:2 to illustrate the concept of election. God's hatred was demonstrated in His chosing Jacob, rather than Esau, as the son through whom all nations would be blessed.
How was God's hatred of Esau played out in history? While Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, then wandered in the wilderness for another 40, Edom grew as a nation, drove the Horites out of the hill country of Seir and settled in. By the time God told Israel to behave well with the Edomites, Edom may have been a nation for twice the time that the United States has been one.
Perhaps a thousand years later, Obadiah and Malachi prophesied against Edom and Malachi announced God's hatred. Edom would be destroyed because of its sin, not just because God hated them. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Edom in 586 BC and later the Nabateans drove them from their territory. Where did they go? They fled to to the protective arms of their "little brother," Israel and settled south of Judea at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in an area known as Idumea.
Where do we find Idumea next? "When they heard all [Jesus] was doing, many people came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan around Tyre and Sidon." (Mark 3:6) God's hatred of Esau led to Esau being among those who heard the gospel from Jesus, himself.
How was God's hatred of Esau played out in history? While Israel was in Egypt for 430 years, then wandered in the wilderness for another 40, Edom grew as a nation, drove the Horites out of the hill country of Seir and settled in. By the time God told Israel to behave well with the Edomites, Edom may have been a nation for twice the time that the United States has been one.
Perhaps a thousand years later, Obadiah and Malachi prophesied against Edom and Malachi announced God's hatred. Edom would be destroyed because of its sin, not just because God hated them. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Edom in 586 BC and later the Nabateans drove them from their territory. Where did they go? They fled to to the protective arms of their "little brother," Israel and settled south of Judea at the southern end of the Dead Sea, in an area known as Idumea.
Where do we find Idumea next? "When they heard all [Jesus] was doing, many people came from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan around Tyre and Sidon." (Mark 3:6) God's hatred of Esau led to Esau being among those who heard the gospel from Jesus, himself.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Contributions of Christianity: Cutural Preservation
It may seem odd to consider Christianity to be a leader in the area of cultural preservation. Aren't we told that Christian missionaries were guilty of cultural imperialism and imposed their own cultural biases and values on those they were supposed to serve? While it is unclear whether or not the claims of cultural imperialism are exaggerated, it certainly and regrettably did take place. This is an example of the world contaminating Christianity.
Place beside that claim the claims of history and of current efforts. Shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire, Benedicine monasteries placed great value on the literary treasures of antiquity and of Christianity and estalished libraries that were called the monastery's armory. (Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, p. 186)
About the same time, Patrick worked for the conversion of the Irish. It was during the early part of the "Dark Ages," during the Sixth Century, that Irish missionaries reconnected "barbarized Europe to the traditions of Christian literacy." They founded monasteries that would "become the cities of Lumieges, Auxerre, Laom, Luxeiul, Liege, Trier, Wurzburg, Regensburg, Rheinau, Reichenau, Salzburg, Vienna, Saint Gall, Bobbio, Fiesole, and Lucca, to name but a few." They were also influential in the cities of Berne, Milan, Verona, Rome, Naples, Glastonbury, and York. (Cahill, How The Irish Saved Civilization, pp 171 & 194.)
It was during this time that Ireland "stood in the position of becoming Europe's publisher." They copied everything they could get their hands on. The wrote stories in the vernacular. Mr. Cahill states that while Greek literature may have survived somewhere, but Latin literature would have been lost without them, and "illiterate Europe would hardly have developed its great national literatures without the example of Irish, the first vernacular literature to be written down." (Cahill, p 193.) He claims further that "when Islam began its medieval expansion, it would have encountered scan resistance to its plans..." without the influence of the Irish missionaries. (Cahill, p. 194.)
There is something of this same spirit in today's Wycliff Bible Translators. Their goal is to translate the Bible into every "heart language" on earth. The link below will take you to their website. In order to accomplish this goal, not only do they have to learn the languages involved, but in many cases, establish a written form of the language and teach those who speak the language how to read it. In doing so, they make it possible for the people to record and preserve their cultures.
http://www.wycliffe.org/About/Statistics.aspx
Another organization established in this same spirit began in 1935 when Frank Laubach, a missionary in the Philippines, developed a program called "Each One Teach One" to 60 million learn to read in their own languages. In 1955, he founded Laubach Literacy, which merged in 2002 with Literacy Volunteers of America to become ProLiteracy Worldwide. The links below will take you to their site.
http://www.proliteracy.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=191&srcid=-2
These examples are not intended to be exhaustive of Christianity's failurs and contributions to cultural preservation. Again, it is not suggested that Atheists can not and do not value cultural preservation or literacy, but whether they value these things because their are Atheists, or in spite of it. As for Atheism's cultural imperialism, one need only look as Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, and Kim John-il and the continuing repression of religion and persecution of the religious in those countries that remain under Atheist control. (see D'Souza, What's So Great About Christianity?, pp.213-221 and Day, Vox, The Irrational Atheist - page information to be added when I retrieve the book.)
Sources (in addition to the links provided above):
Cahill, Thomas, How The Irish Saved Civilization (New York: Anchor Books, 1995.)
Day, Vox, The Irrational Atheist (Dallas, TX: Benbella Books, Inc., 2008)
D'Souza, Dinesh, What's So Great About Christianity? (Washington, DC.: Regnery Publishing, Inc. 2007)
Place beside that claim the claims of history and of current efforts. Shortly after the fall of the Roman Empire, Benedicine monasteries placed great value on the literary treasures of antiquity and of Christianity and estalished libraries that were called the monastery's armory. (Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, p. 186)
About the same time, Patrick worked for the conversion of the Irish. It was during the early part of the "Dark Ages," during the Sixth Century, that Irish missionaries reconnected "barbarized Europe to the traditions of Christian literacy." They founded monasteries that would "become the cities of Lumieges, Auxerre, Laom, Luxeiul, Liege, Trier, Wurzburg, Regensburg, Rheinau, Reichenau, Salzburg, Vienna, Saint Gall, Bobbio, Fiesole, and Lucca, to name but a few." They were also influential in the cities of Berne, Milan, Verona, Rome, Naples, Glastonbury, and York. (Cahill, How The Irish Saved Civilization, pp 171 & 194.)
It was during this time that Ireland "stood in the position of becoming Europe's publisher." They copied everything they could get their hands on. The wrote stories in the vernacular. Mr. Cahill states that while Greek literature may have survived somewhere, but Latin literature would have been lost without them, and "illiterate Europe would hardly have developed its great national literatures without the example of Irish, the first vernacular literature to be written down." (Cahill, p 193.) He claims further that "when Islam began its medieval expansion, it would have encountered scan resistance to its plans..." without the influence of the Irish missionaries. (Cahill, p. 194.)
There is something of this same spirit in today's Wycliff Bible Translators. Their goal is to translate the Bible into every "heart language" on earth. The link below will take you to their website. In order to accomplish this goal, not only do they have to learn the languages involved, but in many cases, establish a written form of the language and teach those who speak the language how to read it. In doing so, they make it possible for the people to record and preserve their cultures.
http://www.wycliffe.org/About/Statistics.aspx
Another organization established in this same spirit began in 1935 when Frank Laubach, a missionary in the Philippines, developed a program called "Each One Teach One" to 60 million learn to read in their own languages. In 1955, he founded Laubach Literacy, which merged in 2002 with Literacy Volunteers of America to become ProLiteracy Worldwide. The links below will take you to their site.
http://www.proliteracy.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=191&srcid=-2
These examples are not intended to be exhaustive of Christianity's failurs and contributions to cultural preservation. Again, it is not suggested that Atheists can not and do not value cultural preservation or literacy, but whether they value these things because their are Atheists, or in spite of it. As for Atheism's cultural imperialism, one need only look as Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Enver Hoxha, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, and Kim John-il and the continuing repression of religion and persecution of the religious in those countries that remain under Atheist control. (see D'Souza, What's So Great About Christianity?, pp.213-221 and Day, Vox, The Irrational Atheist - page information to be added when I retrieve the book.)
Sources (in addition to the links provided above):
Cahill, Thomas, How The Irish Saved Civilization (New York: Anchor Books, 1995.)
Day, Vox, The Irrational Atheist (Dallas, TX: Benbella Books, Inc., 2008)
D'Souza, Dinesh, What's So Great About Christianity? (Washington, DC.: Regnery Publishing, Inc. 2007)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Contributions of Christianity: Education
Universal Public Education
There are 347 references to teaching in the NIV Bible, 48 of them in the writings of Paul. Many of the earliest converts to Christianity were Jewish, and they brough their value for education with them. More importantly, in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commanded his followers to teach.
At the end of the first Century or the beginning of the second, an "instruction manual" called the Didache appeared. About the same time, Ignatius, a bishop of Antioch, urged that children be taught the Holy Scriptures and a skilled trade. Soon, the Christian Church was setting up formal schools with a strong literary emphasis. While these schools focused on the teaching of Christian doctrine, they added some other subjects. These Christian schools were the first to teach both sexes in the same setting, in contrast to Roman schools, which tended to educate only boys from the privileged classes. This is not to say that boys and girls were treated equally. Ancient biases had not been overcome completely, but the Middle Ages did have well-educated women, including: Lioba (ca 700-782), Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (932-1002) Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Brigitta of Sweden (1303-73), Catherine of Siena (1347?-89), Christine of Pizan (14th Century) and Queen Isabella of Spain (1451-1504).
From the fourth to the tenth centuries, cathedral and episcopal schools were maintained by bishops. Students were not only taught Christian doctrine but also grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmatic, music, geometry and astronomy.
In 1549, Martin Luther wrote and published the Small Catechism in response to his discovery that the common people were no longer being given proper instruction by parish priests. Luther stressed that the cultivating of the human mind was essential "because people needed to understand both the word of Scripture and the nature of the world in which the word would take root." He advocated a state school system "to incude vernacular primary schools for both sexes, Latin secondary schools and universities, and that children be compelled to attend." (Schmidt, 178-179.) Luther introduced the idea of the public school.
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), a coworker of Luther's, persuaded the civic authorities to implement the first public school system in Germany. The organization of these schools was largely the accomplishment of Johannes Bugenhagen, pastor of St. Mary's Church. Fifty years later, JohnComenius (1592-1670), a bishop of the Moravian Brethren, opened a school at Fulneck in Moravia.
John Calvin also advocated a system of universal education. His plan included a "system of elementary eduation in the vernacular for all, including reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar and relgion, and the establishment of secondarl schools for the purpose of training citizens for civil and ecclesiastical leadership." (Schmidt, 177)
Jophann Sturm (1507-89), a Lutheran layman, introduced graded levels to education in order to motivate the students. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), the son of a Lutheran pastor, introduced the idea of Kindergarten.
Universities
Joseph Reither, former New York University historian, states that "Universities were the creatio of the Middle Ages." (Kenndey, 51). While the Greeks and Romans had what they called universities, and the Chinese and Muslims had institutions of higher learning, these did not fit Rashdall's generally accepted definition of university: a scholastic guild, whether of masters or students engaged in higher education and study. Because Greek and Roman scholars considered manual labor to be fit only for slaves, they did not test their theories. The empricial method spread because monks and nuns in the Middle Ages were used to work. They tested their theories and innovated. The universities of the Middle Ages were concerned more with innovation than they were with imparting received wisdom (Stark, 52-53).
History does not connect the modern university to the schools of the Greeks and Romans. History points to St. Benedict of Nursia (480-543?) who founded the Benedictine order's first monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy in 528. His chain of monasteries palced great value on the literary treaures both of antiquity and Christianity.
It is from this lineage that the first true universities arose in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The University of Bologna (Italy - 1158) became the mother of universities in Italy, Spain, Scotland, Sweden and Poland. The University of Paris (France - 1200) became the mother of universities in Portugal, Germany and Austria. Cambridge University became the mother of Harvard in America. All of these were staffed by members of holy orders, and it was in these same schools that science was born (Stark, 53 and Schmidt, 186-187).
According to Donald Tweksbury in The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War, 92% of the 182 colleges and unviersities were founded by Christian denominations, incuding Harvard, College of William and Mary, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Northwestern University at Evanston, IL; Columbia Univeristy (King's College), Univeristy of Kentucky, Univeristy of California (Berkeley), Univeristy of Tennessee, Dartmouth. Even the University of Pennsylvania, which was not started by a denomination, was greatly influenced by evanggelist George Whitefield (Kennedy, 52).
Christians were also closely involved in the development of education for groups who were (at best) ignored by others. Abbe Charles Michel de l'Eppe, Thaomas Gallaudet and Laurence Clerc developed an inaudible language in order to provide a means by which deaf people could hear the gospel of Christ. Gallaudet, a Congregational clergyman, opened the first school for the deaf in the United States in Hartford, CT. He also established a college, known today as Gallaudet University, in Washington, DC.
Louis Braille, who developed the system still used to allow the blind to read, attended mass regularly.
Frank Laubach was a missionary to the Philippines. He also developed a literacy training program that has been used around the world for more than 60 years to teach the illiterate how to read.
Christian missionaries have established schools in the remotest jungles, converted unwritten languages into writing and taught reading and writing to the natives (Kennedy 56).
Conclusion
While some might suggest that even without Christianity, education would have eventually developed anyway. That's an unlikely possibility and purely speculative. It could just as easily be argued that without Jesus Christ and the Church, education would still be reserved for wealthy sons. This evidence shows that education did develop in association with Christianity. The scholar who seeks to "kill" Christianity commits matricide.
Sources
Bloomfeld, Samuel L. Is Public Education Necessary? (Boise: The Paradigm Co., 1985), p. 10
Kennedy, D. James, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994) pp. 40-56.
Rashdall, H. , The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. 1, part 3, 1895, p. 82.
Schmidt, Alvin J., How Christianity Changed the World, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.) pp 170-193.
Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2005.) pp. 52-53.
There are 347 references to teaching in the NIV Bible, 48 of them in the writings of Paul. Many of the earliest converts to Christianity were Jewish, and they brough their value for education with them. More importantly, in Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commanded his followers to teach.
At the end of the first Century or the beginning of the second, an "instruction manual" called the Didache appeared. About the same time, Ignatius, a bishop of Antioch, urged that children be taught the Holy Scriptures and a skilled trade. Soon, the Christian Church was setting up formal schools with a strong literary emphasis. While these schools focused on the teaching of Christian doctrine, they added some other subjects. These Christian schools were the first to teach both sexes in the same setting, in contrast to Roman schools, which tended to educate only boys from the privileged classes. This is not to say that boys and girls were treated equally. Ancient biases had not been overcome completely, but the Middle Ages did have well-educated women, including: Lioba (ca 700-782), Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (932-1002) Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Brigitta of Sweden (1303-73), Catherine of Siena (1347?-89), Christine of Pizan (14th Century) and Queen Isabella of Spain (1451-1504).
From the fourth to the tenth centuries, cathedral and episcopal schools were maintained by bishops. Students were not only taught Christian doctrine but also grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmatic, music, geometry and astronomy.
In 1549, Martin Luther wrote and published the Small Catechism in response to his discovery that the common people were no longer being given proper instruction by parish priests. Luther stressed that the cultivating of the human mind was essential "because people needed to understand both the word of Scripture and the nature of the world in which the word would take root." He advocated a state school system "to incude vernacular primary schools for both sexes, Latin secondary schools and universities, and that children be compelled to attend." (Schmidt, 178-179.) Luther introduced the idea of the public school.
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), a coworker of Luther's, persuaded the civic authorities to implement the first public school system in Germany. The organization of these schools was largely the accomplishment of Johannes Bugenhagen, pastor of St. Mary's Church. Fifty years later, JohnComenius (1592-1670), a bishop of the Moravian Brethren, opened a school at Fulneck in Moravia.
John Calvin also advocated a system of universal education. His plan included a "system of elementary eduation in the vernacular for all, including reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar and relgion, and the establishment of secondarl schools for the purpose of training citizens for civil and ecclesiastical leadership." (Schmidt, 177)
Jophann Sturm (1507-89), a Lutheran layman, introduced graded levels to education in order to motivate the students. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), the son of a Lutheran pastor, introduced the idea of Kindergarten.
Universities
Joseph Reither, former New York University historian, states that "Universities were the creatio of the Middle Ages." (Kenndey, 51). While the Greeks and Romans had what they called universities, and the Chinese and Muslims had institutions of higher learning, these did not fit Rashdall's generally accepted definition of university: a scholastic guild, whether of masters or students engaged in higher education and study. Because Greek and Roman scholars considered manual labor to be fit only for slaves, they did not test their theories. The empricial method spread because monks and nuns in the Middle Ages were used to work. They tested their theories and innovated. The universities of the Middle Ages were concerned more with innovation than they were with imparting received wisdom (Stark, 52-53).
History does not connect the modern university to the schools of the Greeks and Romans. History points to St. Benedict of Nursia (480-543?) who founded the Benedictine order's first monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy in 528. His chain of monasteries palced great value on the literary treaures both of antiquity and Christianity.
It is from this lineage that the first true universities arose in the 12th and 13th Centuries. The University of Bologna (Italy - 1158) became the mother of universities in Italy, Spain, Scotland, Sweden and Poland. The University of Paris (France - 1200) became the mother of universities in Portugal, Germany and Austria. Cambridge University became the mother of Harvard in America. All of these were staffed by members of holy orders, and it was in these same schools that science was born (Stark, 53 and Schmidt, 186-187).
According to Donald Tweksbury in The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War, 92% of the 182 colleges and unviersities were founded by Christian denominations, incuding Harvard, College of William and Mary, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Northwestern University at Evanston, IL; Columbia Univeristy (King's College), Univeristy of Kentucky, Univeristy of California (Berkeley), Univeristy of Tennessee, Dartmouth. Even the University of Pennsylvania, which was not started by a denomination, was greatly influenced by evanggelist George Whitefield (Kennedy, 52).
Specialized Education
Christians were also closely involved in the development of education for groups who were (at best) ignored by others. Abbe Charles Michel de l'Eppe, Thaomas Gallaudet and Laurence Clerc developed an inaudible language in order to provide a means by which deaf people could hear the gospel of Christ. Gallaudet, a Congregational clergyman, opened the first school for the deaf in the United States in Hartford, CT. He also established a college, known today as Gallaudet University, in Washington, DC.
Louis Braille, who developed the system still used to allow the blind to read, attended mass regularly.
Frank Laubach was a missionary to the Philippines. He also developed a literacy training program that has been used around the world for more than 60 years to teach the illiterate how to read.
Christian missionaries have established schools in the remotest jungles, converted unwritten languages into writing and taught reading and writing to the natives (Kennedy 56).
Conclusion
While some might suggest that even without Christianity, education would have eventually developed anyway. That's an unlikely possibility and purely speculative. It could just as easily be argued that without Jesus Christ and the Church, education would still be reserved for wealthy sons. This evidence shows that education did develop in association with Christianity. The scholar who seeks to "kill" Christianity commits matricide.
Sources
Bloomfeld, Samuel L. Is Public Education Necessary? (Boise: The Paradigm Co., 1985), p. 10
Kennedy, D. James, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994) pp. 40-56.
Rashdall, H. , The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. 1, part 3, 1895, p. 82.
Schmidt, Alvin J., How Christianity Changed the World, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001.) pp 170-193.
Stark, Rodney, The Victory of Reason, (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2005.) pp. 52-53.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Contributions of Christianity: Preface
Not long ago, I watched a recorded debate between a Christian and an Atheist during which the Atheist asked a question along the lines of "What moral act could a Christian do that an Atheist could not?" In one sense, his challenge was a good one. There is no moral act that a Christian can do that an Atheist cannot. There is no immoral act that an Atheist can do that a Christian cannot. The difficulty is that the issue at hand is not about the people, but about the philosophies or worldviews. The question is not "What can a Christian do that an Atheist cannot?" The question is not even "What can Christianity do that Atheism cannot?" though that is a better question. Still better questions are "What has Christianity done that Atheism has not?" and "What have Christians done that Atheists have not?"
Even these are not the best questions because Christianity has never existed in a vacuum. There have always been non-Christian influences in society in competition with the Christian influence. There are times when non-Christian influences appear to be gaining the upper hand; when even those who call themselves Christians are drawn to and into non-Christian ways. There are also times when the Christian influence appears to be gaining the upper hand; when even those who reject Christianity are drawn to and into Christian ways. The result is that both Christian and non-Christian influences or worldviews are contaminated. Followers of any of them fail to live purely according to the standards of their worldviews to varying degrees. [As a side note, this is the technical definition of sin.]
Another difficulty is the fact that society is not a unit, but a conglomeration of units, each of which also feels varying degrees of the same influences as the society as a whole. Within that part of the society which calls itself "Christian" and which fails to live up to the Christian standard, there are individuals who call themselves "Christians" who fail to live according to that standard to degrees and in ways that are not identical to that of the society. There is not a one-to-one correspondence between a society's failure and a person's failure either in quality or degree. The same is true of the various non-Christian segments of society and non-Christian individuals.
With this in mind, it should be expected that there will be aberrations and failures within the histories of both the societies and the individuals. Some may choose to focus on those aberrations and failures as if they are the whole record, the whole truth. In this series of posts, I hope to present evidence that the overall record of the influence of Christians and Christianity is vastly different from the claims being made by some of its competitors and opponents.
If you have evidence that either supports or refutes my claims, I'll be glad to receive it. I will include the references I have used plus any references they have used that I believe worthy of special note.
Even these are not the best questions because Christianity has never existed in a vacuum. There have always been non-Christian influences in society in competition with the Christian influence. There are times when non-Christian influences appear to be gaining the upper hand; when even those who call themselves Christians are drawn to and into non-Christian ways. There are also times when the Christian influence appears to be gaining the upper hand; when even those who reject Christianity are drawn to and into Christian ways. The result is that both Christian and non-Christian influences or worldviews are contaminated. Followers of any of them fail to live purely according to the standards of their worldviews to varying degrees. [As a side note, this is the technical definition of sin.]
Another difficulty is the fact that society is not a unit, but a conglomeration of units, each of which also feels varying degrees of the same influences as the society as a whole. Within that part of the society which calls itself "Christian" and which fails to live up to the Christian standard, there are individuals who call themselves "Christians" who fail to live according to that standard to degrees and in ways that are not identical to that of the society. There is not a one-to-one correspondence between a society's failure and a person's failure either in quality or degree. The same is true of the various non-Christian segments of society and non-Christian individuals.
With this in mind, it should be expected that there will be aberrations and failures within the histories of both the societies and the individuals. Some may choose to focus on those aberrations and failures as if they are the whole record, the whole truth. In this series of posts, I hope to present evidence that the overall record of the influence of Christians and Christianity is vastly different from the claims being made by some of its competitors and opponents.
If you have evidence that either supports or refutes my claims, I'll be glad to receive it. I will include the references I have used plus any references they have used that I believe worthy of special note.
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