Christianity: Is it a Positive or Negative - Essay Example

Europe is not only important in world history because of its size and power but more especially due to its impact on politics and religion. Indeed, rulers and their contributions or the lack thereof often influence the success or failure of nations. Therefore, the educational, familial, and religious backgrounds of leaders matter a lot as well because these are the foundations of the beliefs and principles of leaders who are deciding about the nation’s fate. This has been clearly exemplified in the history of Europe wherein religion, specifically Christianity, was greatly tactically used to influence its political successes and failures. Thus, this paper considers even further if Christian influence positively affected European history as it is expected or if it did more harm to the nation than good.

Christianity speaks about love, justice, and humanity. These are important considerations not only socially but also politically. Therefore, for people in the past and today, this is expected to have a good influence on individuals and groups of people as well. Quite profoundly, Europe’s history shows the actualization of this Roman Catholic doctrine as the patriarch did his best in making warring nations come to friendly terms. At a time when the nations were at war, it has been a good thing that the Roman Catholic Church was there to advocate peace and brotherly love, an act which cooled down arguments and put some sense in the heads of hot-tempered leaders. The rise of Christian power also opened the way to arguments about equality which nearly led to the abolishment of slavery in Medieval Europe. Such liberal thoughts consequently resulted in scholars and studies which has become the foundations of modern research. This means that Christianity did not only affect the political realms of Europe but it also influenced its economic and educational advancements.

Nevertheless, despite the positive changes Christianity brought along to the nation, it has affected it negatively as well. The world has become familiar with the information on European Christians who used their membership in the church to exploit non-Christians. There were several deaths that occurred in the name of Christianity, considering the victims as evils who were doomed by their religion and cultural backgrounds. Once again, they re-lived the lives of ancient Biblical accounts of wars and claimed that it is but right for them to kill non-Christians as popular characters in the Bible have done. This is also perhaps the reason why slavery was not completely abolished during this era.

Considering the aforementioned historical circumstances, it could be said that Christianity in European history may not have lived up to the expectations of people when it comes to Christian obligations. Nevertheless, on a general note, it could still be judged to have been positive. The results may have been devastating in the past however, looking at Europe now and its effect on world education and economy, Christianity has brought a positive effect on the nation. Education flourished because of liberalism and many people are succeeding as a result of the Enlightenment. Arts, literature, and sciences also progressed which is a great contribution to modern education. Therefore, no matter how brutal the killings have been in European history because of Christianity, the foundation of learning has been established, not to mention that equality and liberalization were also birthed in the era.