His many books include The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press) and The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade (HarperOne). Stott’s best-known work, 4 Ways Christians Can Influence the World, Book review: Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul, 6 practical ways to improve cross-cultural engagement in pastoral leadership. What is not debatable is the very high quality of the book as a whole, and its appeal to anyone interested in Christian history. He is describing a Western revolution, which is not necessarily a Christian one. By it millions have been lifted from illiteracy and ignorance and have been placed upon the road of growing intellectual freedom and control over the physical environment. To share this article with your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below. In noting this, I am not just pleading for a larger number of representative examples, but mainly suggesting that perhaps the Christian reality Holland stresses—this supposed Christian revolution—hit some areas of the world and not others. It’s biblically and historically mistaken. If we are pessimists and think we are capable of doing nothing in human society today, I venture to say that we are theologically extremely unbalanced, if not actually heretical and harmful. That’s the world I want to be a part of and the vision I hold on to for the future. Rather, it implies that those “revolutionary” values arose from a particular constellation of circumstances that affected Christians in (Western) Europe and Euro-America, but not elsewhere. In my view, Holland does find himself overstretching at various points, as when he roots the #MeToo phenomenon in the Christian urge to sexual continence, especially in its Puritan manifestations. Browse 60+ years of magazine archives and web exclusives. Looking through the list of vignettes, we must be struck by their overwhelmingly European focus, particularly upon Western Europe, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. Hillsong’s celebrity pastors remind us how style can be both a status symbol and liability in ministry. His many books have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages. Christ and his church have had an enormous influence. Christianity spread … Philip Jenkins is distinguished professor of history at Baylor University. They were encouraged to consider freeing or manumitting their slaves on easy or generous terms, which did not preclude replacing them with new arrivals. Why did Christianity attract such an incredible following so quickly? To unlock this article for your friends, use any of the social share buttons on our site, or simply copy the link below. That is especially true in matters of gender or sexuality, which have differed widely among Christian and Christian-derived societies. It’s ludicrous to say Christians can have no influence in society. | Privacy Only in the 19th century did Christian advocates of slaveholding become a diminishing and ultimately insignificant minority, as Christian powers felt a moral obligation to fight the practice wherever it might appear. In the New Testament or the early-church era, we easily find remarks urging humane treatment of slaves. Read the whole thing at Christianity Today. Surely nobody is arguing that around 1760, Europeans suddenly opened their New Testaments for the first time and realized the horror of their policies. As Abiy’s military closes in on TPLF forces, thousands flee to Sudan. Those together constitute three distinct eras of the church: Antiquity, Christendom, and a period he calls Modernitas, extending from roughly the middle of the 17th century to the present day. Yes. But as Holland acknowledges, explicit condemnations of slavery as such, or outright calls for its abolition, are vanishingly rare, and they are not explicitly present in the New Testament itself. It has protected tens of millions in exploitation by their fellows. That implied the historically unprecedented exaltation of humility, forgiveness, and love. If, for instance, we find that churches in France or Italy saw some values as fundamentally and integrally Christian, while the churches of Egypt or Syria did not, that does undermine the idea that the tradition of Jesus and his first followers inevitably led to certain conclusions or outcomes. All Rights Reserved. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). If those Western revolutionaries found scriptural justifications for their policies within the Christian tradition, they might just as well have found similar support elsewhere. Owners were instructed to treat their slaves with humanity and compassion, avoiding brutality or sexual exploitation. Tom Holland’s Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World is a substantial work that makes a straightforward case. And if only we were out and out for Jesus Christ in the fullness of our commitment, then we would have far more influence than we do. More than one thousand years before the birth of Christ the biblical requirement given by Moses comprised an essential component of … These are bold claims, to which I will certainly offer some caveats. No, Christians are sober-minded, biblical realists, who have a balanced doctrine of creation for redemption and consummation. From that brief life and its apparent frustration has flowed a more powerful force for the triumphant waging of man’s long battle than any other ever known by the human race. A reader feeling daunted by the whole book could very profitably dip into any of these chapters as a freestanding item. This is a seriously rewarding project, well written and consistently thoughtful, and it can be heartily recommended. The brutal institution of slavery returned full-force in the early modern era, with the vast European exploitation of Africa. The Impact of Christianity on the World. The relationship of the Christian community to the world may be seen differently depending upon one’s historical, sociological, and theological perspectives because the Christian community is both a creation in the world and an influence upon it. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. You might find that reasonable, given that, during this era, Christianity had been seriously reduced from its earlier splendors in other parts of the world, such as Central Asia. But did it launch the sort of across-the-board Christian revolution for which Holland contends? Holland justifies his exclusion of Orthodox and Eastern churches in an interesting way, declaring that he prefers to concentrate on “how we in the West came to be what we are, and to think the way that we do.” But if the model he uses does not apply outside the Christian West, then surely he can hardly claim to root it in Christianity itself.