How Christianity Built Western Civilization

By Dr. Alex Locay

Today, the voices from the secular left are hard at work removing any trace of religion from government and the law. Meanwhile, secular historians have successfully limited Christianity’s contribution in history to the Crusades and Inquisitions; as if that is all Christians have to speak for. The real story is quite different, primarily that everything good in Western Civilization has its roots in the Christian religion. How Christianity Built Western Civilization is the epic tale of how our Christian forefathers stood up to history’s darkest forces, to forge a new way of life, grounded in the biblical worldview.

Over the centuries it has become evident that Western Civilization has emerged as mankind’s greatest achievement. It is here where the greatest political and economic systems were born, and here that we see the concept of human rights emerge, along with the modern scientific process and the greatest discoveries. It is in the West that we find the most advanced educational institutions, along with the greatest charities, artistic masterpieces and architectural innovations. Is this a coincidence, or the deliberate result of our worldview?

How Christianity Built Western Civilization answers this question with chapters on human rights, modern science, universal education, charity, art and architecture; focusing entirely on the revolutionary milestones and individuals that made these achievements possible. Each chapter unfolds chronologically, starting with the biblical foundation and moving through the work of the early and Medieval Church, arriving at modern times. The author builds a compelling case demonstrating how Western Civilization would be indistinguishable from India, China or Africa today, if not for the teachings of Christ and the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664242487

Dr. Alex Locay

Alex Locay received a BA from the University of Miami, as well as an MBA and doctoral degree from Nova Southeastern University. He is the founder of FaithFromEvidence.org a Christian ministry that helps churches establish an apologetics and evangelism program. Alex lives in Florida with his wife Christine and their two daughters.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Human Rights

Chapter 2 Modern Science

Chapter 3 Universal Education

Chapter 4 Modern Charity

Chapter 5 Christian Art

Chapter 6 Christian Architecture

Endnotes

INTRODUCTION

Over the past thirty years, atheists have become ever more strategic and outspoken. The past decade in particular has seen the rise of a new strain of atheism that does not merely reject God but also is hostile toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. Often referred to as the New Atheists, these individuals, in order to make their case against Christianity, have incorporated a plethora of tactics with the intention of discrediting the biblical worldview. By arguing from the exception, fabricating history, misinterpreting scripture, and labeling Christians, these secularists have effectively branded Christianity a medieval religion of bigots and homophobes. Unlike their forebears, who made philosophical arguments against the existence of God, the New Atheists smear individuals and rewrite history to further their cause.

One of their favorite targets has been Christianity’s contributions to history, which they have successfully limited to the Inquisitions and the Crusades as if that is all Christianity has to speak for. Why do so many Americans even know about these two events? They would have fallen into obscurity given the number of wars taking place during the Middle Ages if it were not for the fact that atheists continue to bring them up as a blanket example of the evils of religion and Christianity.

As for erasing Christianity from history, it did not take much. Just omit the fact that the first hospitals and universities were built by Christians in the service of God. Then ignore the fact that men like John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir William Blackstone, Williams Wilberforce, William Penn, and Robert Boyle, among others, made their case for freedom, equality, emancipation, and scientific inquiry using biblical arguments, and you’re almost there. Next just repeat myths like Most wars are religious wars and Human rights are the product of the European Enlightenment, and presto, by default you have a society built on secular ideology.

There are several reasons why this should be important to all Christians, notwithstanding the fact that we are to be the bearers of truth and reject deception. First, from an evangelistic standpoint, these myths can easily become a stumbling block for many potential believers. Having had discussions with hundreds of them over the years, I can say that this is a harsh reality. I’ve always believed that the goal of Christian apologetics is to remove obstacles to the Gospel, and I’ve written How Christianity Built Western Civilization with that goal in mind. So when an atheist states that the Bible endorses slavery, the Christian can properly respond. Second, it is important because Christianity has a rich heritage in everything from the arts to politics, and therefore, if we are to keep that legacy embedded in our culture, we must be able to properly argue in its defense. Finally, if Christianity is the one true religion from God, then it must work as a social philosophy as well as a personal philosophy. Put another way, given two thousand years of history, we should be able to look at the results of Christianity in light of other religions and worldviews and make a clear distinction as to which provides the best framework for a peaceful and fruitful social life.

None of this is to say that Christianity is merely an ethical theory or social philosophy. Yet latent within Christianity are many philosophical concepts such as the nature of humankind and free will and the problem of evil. Among these concepts is the social philosophy of Christianity, which includes theories on law, rights, institutions, and education. The study of philosophy is the study of foundations or presuppositions. Therefore, as the layers of How Christianity Built Western Civilization unfold, we will explore the fundamental beliefs behind these Western achievements. It will help us to better understand the motive behind a group of believers who, for instance, undertook a two-hundred-year building project in the form of a cathedral, something of an enigma under secular philosophy.

Around the first century, Roman civilization seemed to be on a par with other great civilizations. Christianity was legalized in the fourth century, at which time it began to spread rapidly. It was not until the ninth century that it had permeated much of European life, including education, the arts, and charitable work. By the twelfth century, biblical Christianity was just starting to make its way into politics and civil law on a large scale. Around this time, things began to change and the West began its rise to new heights in art, architecture, technology, politics, and philosophy, although not simultaneously. For example, while modern concepts of freedom and human rights surged following the Protestant Reformation, the fine arts began their perpetual decline under the same movement.

When we say Western civilization, we generally refer to European civilization or the Christianized Western world, primarily Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The West emerged under Greek or Hellenistic philosophy, which was incorporated into Roman culture. It was Saint Augustine who, during the fifth century, developed classical Christian philosophy and the whole of Western thought by synthesizing Hebrew and Greek philosophy. By the fifteenth century, much of Greek philosophy had begun to unravel, leaving behind a biblical philosophy that would go on to shape Western life for the next six hundred years. Though many aspects of Western culture had been secularized by the end of the twentieth century, societies cannot throw out their past like the weekly paper. The past remains embedded in social life by the laws, traditions, and norms that are followed every day. For example, in India many believe it is immoral to kill livestock; in China, dishonoring your ancestors is wrong; while in the United States, we value such things as a fair trial and ownership of property. In Europe, freedom is a right; in some Arab countries, it is a crime. The foregoing issues have been entrenched in these great civilizations over a long period of time, having roots in the underlying philosophy of the respective culture. Most of the occupants just assume they are a given, rather than something of a historical struggle.

Today, it is relatively clear that the West has advanced well beyond all other regions, evidenced by the fact that we have a net increase in immigration, while very few Westerners migrate to other continents. It is also evident by the fact that the West provides aid to other societies, while very few bring their aid here during a disaster. Finally, we have the highest standards of living, along with the lowest level of real poverty. We have the best health care, the most freedom, and the best roads, national defense system, and legal system, and we continue to turn out the best inventions. The West gave birth to the university system; the hospital system; democracy; the automobile; polio, hepatitis, and smallpox vaccines; personal computers; aviation; and so forth.

When we say that the West is better than other societies, we do not mean culturally, as that is a subjective matter. I do believe it is incumbent upon sociologists and academics in general to ask the question Why is the West superior? Why did all the great innovations in politics, human rights, economics, science, education, art, and architecture happen here rather than elsewhere? Is this a great coincidence or the deliberate product of our belief system? To answer these questions, we need not some university professor to give us his or her opinion on the matter. Rather, we simply have to look at the origins of those remarkable developments that built Western civilization and determine the motivation behind them, which is what we intend to do through the pages of How Christianity Built Western Civilization. For those who want to jump to the conclusion that perhaps white Europeans and Americans are just smarter than people of other races, I would ask you to compare the aptitude test scores of Asian countries against those of Europe and the United States in order to end that argument.

These questions can be posed in different ways for different audiences. For example, if I were talking to a Muslim, I might ask why God granted these great political, economic, and scientific discoveries to the West rather than to the Arabs. If I were talking to an atheist, I might ask why all the great charities of the world are Christian and where all the atheists’ soup kitchens. Or perhaps if the atheist claimed that the Bible supports slavery, I might ask why then were all the great leaders of emancipation devout Christians. Multiculturalism is a great idea when you are a professor at an Ivy League school who drives home to a gated community. It is not a great idea for those ravaged by the outcome of a broken worldview. A little bit of traveling will reveal the obvious: some cultures are far more successful than others.

The truth is that an atheist living in the West who is critical of Christianity is about as ironic and hypocritical as a person can get, simply because everything good in the West has its origins in Christianity and no one living here is unaffected by the values of our forebears. While many today demand that we take religion out of law and politics, those very atheists drew their ethical, political, and economic views from our laws and social norms, almost all of which have biblical origins. I call them Christian atheists because unlike, say, a communist atheist, they may believe in freedom, which again is a purely Christian concept. The Nazi atheists of the Third Reich believed in the evolutionary concept of a superior race. American atheists probably believe in tolerance, something they can thank the theologian Roger Williams for, because he was the first to implement the concept at the state level.

The great ideologies of the world flow into every aspect of life, uniting us socially with general beliefs and values, ultimately forging individual and social behavior. In the West, the enduring ideology is found in the religion of Christianity. And while this is not enough to make the case that Christianity built Western civilization, it should be enough to merit our attention and respect, not senseless criticism.

While it is hard to find many historical societies that were purely Christian—Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Geneva are among the exceptions—we can look back and find societies that were purely atheistic in nature, primarily the communist nations of the past century. The founder of communism, Karl Marx, was an atheist, along with every prominent communist leader. Communists were hostile toward religion, closing churches and killing clergy as they were ever supportive of everything atheistic. They are also responsible for more deaths by starvation and murder than all the wars for several centuries combined. Of course, prominent atheists today are doing everything possible to wiggle their way out of being associated with those atheists, but the facts of history well record the slaughter at the hands of the ideology that claims such a high moral ground today.

We should not blame the average atheist for the misdeeds of the revisionists because many opened their eyes in the 1970s and 1980s and noticed much of everything was secular and therefore it must have always been that way, given very little knowledge of history. But the truth is that absent of Christianity, Roman paganism with its various gods may have prevailed as a kind of Western Hinduism, leaving Western civilization indistinguishable from India today. Or perhaps without the unity that Christianity brought to the West, Europe would have been overrun by the Islamic invasions, leaving the West looking more like Iran and Saudi Arabia. There is no way of knowing what the outcome would have been. What we do know is that atheistic political philosophy left more than one hundred million dead during the last century, so there are no good alternatives to think of.

Before we go on to the chapter section, it seems appropriate to discuss the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the myth that most wars were religious wars since we have already brought them up. The truth is the reason the Crusades and the Inquisition are so popular is they are such a black eye on the church, not because they are unique in any way. While they are indefensible acts, we can put them into historical context. In the case of the Crusades, the church was trying to take back land that was held by the West for centuries and subsequently taken by an Arab invasion in 636. The Crusaders were further trying to liberate the Christians and Jews in Palestine who were living under Muslim oppression. In October of 1009, Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was believed to have been buried, setting off the events that followed. The Crusades seem legitimate given those circumstances. What was terribly unjust was the slaughter that took place at the hands of the Crusaders when they reached Jerusalem, something that cannot be defended, although it is not unlike what the Muslims did earlier in North Africa, Spain, Portugal, and Southern France. The fact is, if not for the Crusades and the battles to push back the Muslims in Europe, especially those in Poitiers and Toulouse, and later in Vienna and Lapanto, it is possible that the Muslims would have made their way into Europe and we would all be living under sharia law today, seeing that the goal of Islam has never been anything short of world domination.

The Inquisitions were set up to silence heresies, and although they are inexcusable, they pale in comparison to what the atheists did under communism and the European Enlightenment to silence opposition, something that is not heard much in our history classes. The best course when someone is using the misdeeds of a few believers as a pattern for Christianity is to point out that these are examples of those who departed from the teachings of Christ, rather than those who followed Christ, and therefore they cannot be used to represent the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. As an example, suppose someone violates the laws against murder and kills another person. We do not use this to make a case that the laws against murder are bad. Rather, we acknowledge that this person departed from the law. In the same way, when a pastor commits adultery, we cannot allow others to represent this as legitimate Christianity. The laws against murder are still sound (and Christianity is still good) as long as the individual follows them.

Another flaw in this argument is that in every case people are arguing from the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of Christians do not commit adultery, burn books, or go on crusades. The more we read our Bibles and draw closer to God, the more loving, giving, and charitable we become—something that cannot be found in atheism or most other worldviews.

Let us address the myth about wars and religion given the fact that so many atheists fall back on this talking point to make their case against Christianity. During the three thousand years of recorded history, the number of deaths resulting from religious wars according to Wikipedia (a source the atheists love) could not possibly exceed eighteen million and is probably closer to six million. As for the atheists, Mao Zedong is the Chinese ruler who brought communism to China and ruled for three decades. The total death toll attributed to his rule stands at forty million to seventy million. He eliminated Christianity, missionaries, and churches. Joseph Stalin, the Communist ruler of the Soviet Union, is attributed with the killing of more than twenty million of his own people. He instigated a reign of terror upon the Christian population, shutting down more than fifty-four thousand churches, killing believers, and decimating the population of monks and clergy. Stalin was a confessed atheist, and his vision for the Soviet Union was secular with no trace of religion. The atheist Pol Pot banned religion and killed 25 percent of the population in Cambodia in just four years. With more than two hundred million deaths during the last century alone, most at the hands of secular governments and none of them from religious wars, the number of deaths at the hands of atheists in the last century, versus all those in history ascribed to religion, would put the figure at less than 8 percent. But sadly, the two hundred million deaths attributed to something other than religion in the last century is just the tip of the iceberg. The Napoleonic Wars alone, which were fought in the name of the secular Enlightenment, killed more than four million people, making the religious war myth something akin to Soviet-style propaganda. History has demonstrated time and again that people and nations do not need religion to start wars; they do just fine without it.

The question of whether religion is good for society has been a topic of much debate recently and therefore deserves some attention. Religions are so vastly different in the way they affect society that it is naive to lump them all together as secularists do when making their case, pointing out the misdeeds of each. If we were looking for a very peaceful effect on society, Buddhism would be among the top three religions. We have seen how warring tribes have become peaceful monks over the course of just one generation with the introduction of Buddhism. Islam appears to be at odds with democracy. Most economists agree that the caste system of Hinduism has kept millions in poverty in India. The fact of the matter is Islam is about as different from Christianity as Buddhism is from atheism. Therefore, in order to answer the question, you must look at each religion individually. This author will demonstrate that only in Christianity do we find the framework for a productive and fair society.

Let us take a general look at the question How Christianity Built Western Civilization is attempting to answer, primarily, Is Christianity better for society than atheism? We can answer this question in two ways: empirically and logically. Empirically, all we have to do is look at the last century and the atheistic societies of North Korea, China, Russia, and Cuba and compare those to the Christianized West to make clear distinctions. We can do the same for all other world religions. Using the logical argument, it is obvious that Christianity is better for society because with Christianity there are clear incentives to be good, something not present with atheism. Several incentives work to mold better citizens. These include a clear moral law, eternal reward and punishment, and marriage as a sacrament. And if that is not enough, God is always watching. In an atheistic society, no such incentive exists. All people make up their own moral standards, and while some may choose honesty and fidelity, others may choose drugs and violence without any conflict in their worldview. The atheistic response is to point out the misdeeds of a few Christians or even the child molestation scandal at the hands of Catholic priests. Once again, these are people who departed from the teachings of Christ, not people who followed him, and therefore cannot serve as examples for the church. History is bursting with examples of priests who brought immeasurable good to their communities. Why the Catholic Church, which teaches sexual purity, took all the criticism rather than the gay community, which does not, is incomprehensible.

It seems obvious that some who hear the message of the Gospel will truly change for the better and others only superficially. Many do follow Christ’s teachings, but for those who do not, it is likely that they would have engaged in immoral behavior without the church, seeing as nothing in the Bible would promote such bad behavior. In order to make a case against Christianity, atheists would have to show how teaching love, forgiveness, fidelity, honesty, charity, and so forth, every day in churches around the world, hurts society, but this has never been done. Because we cannot measure the impact of Christianity on the billions of people who did stop doing drugs, lying, and committing adultery, it is wildly irrational for anyone to make the claim that Christianity has a negative impact on society. You must have an accurate account of the positive impact to measure against any negative impact in order to come to the proper conclusion. Otherwise, it is bad conjecture.

Of course, atheists will come back and claim that nothing within atheism inspires people to rape or murder. That’s how they distance themselves from Stalin, Pol Pot, and child rapists. And that is true: atheism does not teach anyone to rape, kill, steal, or lie. What atheism does do is remove the barriers to a given set of morals, giving each individual the option to embrace his or her own morals with no limitations. And as mentioned, many, particularly here in the West, where they live under Christian laws, will choose to do good, and some will make poor moral choices without any sense of guilt.

These same atheists who demean Christianity are usually making a case for bigger government or even a world government. They claim that religion is the enemy and that the answer to peaceful social life is good government. The ignorance of this claim cannot be overstated. Even a brief look at history or the present will reveal the truth. It is governments that wage wars, and governments that keep people in poverty for centuries, and governments that consolidate power among the few, and governments that harbor widespread corruption. In short, it is governments, not religion, that have instigated the most misery on humankind.

Secularists are a partial focus in How Christianity Built Western Civilization because it is atheists who have been so deliberate in deleting Christianity from our history and putting forth false claims against historical relevance. Thus, we are not simply outlining the Christian contribution to Western civilization. We will also use a small section in each chapter to dispute popular claims. Because historians have ignored or otherwise undervalued the contribution Christianity has made in the West, it is well time the issue is addressed. While the overall goal of How Christianity Built Western Civilization is to demonstrate how it was that Christianity built everything good in Western civilization, the goal of each chapter varies. Therefore, we will outline those goals now.

The goal of chapter 1 is to demonstrate that it was Christians arguing from a biblical perspective who brought us the modern concept of human rights. We will discredit the modern myth that human rights are the product of the European Enlightenment, along with other popular claims. Chapter 2 will walk the reader through the evolution of the modern scientific process, highlighting its Christian origins and demonstrating that every major branch of modern science was the product of Bible believers seeking God. Chapter 3 will reveal how the concept of universal education and the university system was in fact driven by Bible believers and will show that Christianity has been the greatest advocate of universal education in history. Chapter 4 will prove that Christianity is the most charitable ideology in human history with no runner-up to think of, and that almost all the great charities of the world have their origins in Christianity. In chapter 5 we will demonstrate how the greatest innovations and masterpieces in art history were developed by Bible believers and that the church was the greatest art patron ever. We will also look at the devastating effects of secularism on the fine arts. Finally, chapter 6 will unveil the fact that the greatest architectural innovations and achievements in history were accomplished by the church for the glory of God. Together, these accomplishments served as the catalyst that raised Western civilization to what it is today. Each chapter will unfold chronologically, taking the reader through the events as they developed throughout history. We will discuss only the great milestones and the individuals who had a lasting impact and forged a new way of thinking for succeeding generations.

The following pages are the product of six years of research and study. Every quotation and important claim is backed by an original source, rather than some university professor’s opinion, so that the reader can have confidence in these claims. The reader will find that several great Western achievements are absent, primarily the foundation of the United States and capitalism, both of which have their roots in Christianity. The reason for this is that the life work of the president of Wall Builders, David Barton, has been to demonstrate how the United States is a nation founded on biblical principles, while Max Weber has done a thorough job of demonstrating how capitalism is the product of the Protestant work ethic. The book makes no distinction between Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant (with its various denominations) because for the purposes of How Christianity Built Western Civilization, all are rooted in the Christian faith.

We do not spend too much time on the misdeeds of Christians because the atheists have done a thorough job of this. We do not discuss the atheistic achievements either, primarily because they were so late in coming and therefore ride on the shoulders of their Christian forebears.

Reviews for How Christianity Built Western Civilization

[LINDSAY MEDINA · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 2011 Vishal Mangalwadi wrote a book with a similar name ( the Book that made your world. How the Bible created the soul of the western civilization) that one was awesome!

[Rafael Cxl · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Narrow minded partial speech with little to none critical observation.