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)