The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

How Christianity Transformed the World

Wars, Oppressions, Slavery, Injustice, Degradation, Thefts, Murders, Rapes, Disease, Poverty, Destruction, and other harsh living conditions were the lot of the common man throughout history. With the advent and establishment of Christianity, this all began to change. In no other part of the world, except Christendom, was there any hope of change for the betterment of the common man. Christianity changed all that by its theology of the individual worth and dignity of all people. Christianity established that Human rights were a gift from God and could not be abrogated by any government, organization, or person, or as the Declaration of Independence stated:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In no other part of the world was this recognized as integral to the individual human being. Christianity was responsible for bringing these truths to light and establishing them as a basic tenet for all persons. This tenet changes the world for the better. The journey took two millennia to get us to where we are today, with several false starts, wrong turns, dead ends, and occasion retreats before much progress was made. While the Jewish religion had this basic tenet and was a solid foundation for Christianity, the Jewish people were localized to a section of the Mideast or in enclaves within Europe, and they rarely spread their tenets to other peoples. Christianity, on the other hand, spread its tenets throughout the Mideast, Northern Africa, and Europe and converted other peoples of the world to their religion and its tenets.

Prior to the Reformation in the sixteenth century, Christendom was not overly concerned about the Liberties and Freedoms of the individual but concentrated on living a moral life for the purposes of gaining entrance into heaven in the afterlife. It was also an oligarchical society led by the Pope, Kings, and Princes, which restricted the Liberties and Freedoms of individuals, especially in thought and speech that the leaders considered blasphemous or dangerous to their rulership. With the coming of the Protestant Reformation, these restrictions were loosened, and with the rise of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, free thought and speech became acceptable, and Christianity entered into a modern era. It was in the 18th century that much of this occurred, as I have written in my Article The 18th century – a truly remarkable century in the history of mankind. It was a century that impacted the lot of the common man in many spheres, such as Woman’s Rights, the worth of Children, anti-Slavery, Charity, Education, Capitalism, Science, Medicine, Arts, and the justification and conduct of Wars. Much of this was brought forth by an understanding of the Natural Rights of the individual and the acceptance of the worth and dignity of the individual, as I have Chirped on “11/07/23 The Divine Sovereign Individual”. With this understanding came the expansion of Liberties and Freedoms of thought, speech, association, press, and the practice of religious faiths, as well as the concepts of “Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All”.

This has resulted in the explosive growth of the human lot in Europe and North America in the last several centuries. Nowhere else in the world has seen the flowering of humanity as occurred where modern Christianity was established and held sway over society and government. The basic tenants of these modern Christian societies are expressed in the First Amendment to our Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This amendment, along with other rights expressed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, established Christian ideals as the foundation of a just society. These are peculiar core Christian values in the functioning of government and society, and whenever they were suppressed in a nation within Christendom, a migration of persons or groups to other Christian nations occurred. This can be seen in the modern history of Europe and North America when modern Christianity flowered in the Renaissance in Italy, which then flowed northward to France and then to Holland and parts of Germany. From there, it crossed the channel to England and throughout Great Britain, and finally across the ocean to America. At each of these stops, individual Liberty and Freedom were flourishing, and when they became constricted, the advancement atrophied and moved to new locales where individual Liberty and Freedom were growing. We can also say that as religious oppression grew in these locales, it restricted individual Liberties and Freedoms, and the progression of humankind moved to locales where Christian religious tolerance and freedom from religious oppression were instituted.

Thus, it can be said that Christianity was, and is, primarily responsible for the advancement of humankind, and to compare other religions or nations to Christianity and Christendom is not appropriate. Indeed, when such comparisons are truthfully and honestly made, the non-Christian religions and non-Christendom nations will be found severely wanting on Liberties and Freedoms and their contribution to the advancement of humankind.

Today, in America and in other parts of Christendom, we are seeing a decline in Christian faith and ideals in the world. This bodes ill for the future advancement of humankind, and it bespeaks the possible increase of oppressive governments in the world. Indeed, we have seen an increase of oppression in the government actions within Christendom, with the most common being in the attempts to restrict the First Amendment Rights of our Constitution and to the weaponization of government against those that would disagree with government actions, as I have written in my collected Chirps on “The Weaponization of Government”.

Alas, until we return to our beliefs in Christian values and uphold them in our society and governance, we shall see more chaos and oppression in the world, and the advancement of humankind will atrophy.