Christianity: A Huge Factor in the Story of Western Progress - Literature review Example

Christianity: A Huge Factor in the Story of Western Progress Stark’s The Victory of Reason versus Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind [Professor] [Student Name] [Date] Christianity: A Huge Factor in the Story of Western Progress Stark’s The Victory of Reason versus Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind The Dark and Middle Ages ─ from the collapse of the Roman Empire (around 500 AD) up to the Renaissance Period (approximately1500 AD) ─ was an age of momentous progress in the Western intellect and culture. That era was not factually dark, as hypothesized by some medieval intellectuals and as concluded in Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. Stark claimed as well that the power of reason and the rise of economic, cultural, political and intellectual advances are attributable to Christianity (Bernstein). However, the more recognizable material theory is that Christianity hindered progress in all the aforementioned aspects, as claimed by Charles Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason (Riggins). The two authors have completely opposite viewpoints concerning Christianity’s impact on the growth of Western culture and rational thinking. Freeman’s work is supported by reasonable academics, whereas Starks attempt is similar to an "apologia", meaning a justification of own beliefs, particularly on the subject of theology. Both books showing different positions about the Christianity’s involvement to developing the Western society will likely strengthen the readers’ preconception on the issue (Gaviidae). The history recounting Christian religion form the era of Alexander and Greek culture, Plato and Aristotle, and the Roman Empire up to the time of Christ is detailed in "The Closing of the Western Mind."  Freeman discovers the lives of Christ, Paul, the earliest Christian populace, and the chaos in Christian spirituality for the initial four centuries after Christ, until the period of the Roman king, Constantine. The conversion of Constantine to the Christian faith and his founding of Christianity as the empire’s religion were one of the most highlighted experiences in the history of Christianity (Gaviidae). According to Freeman, an important defining moment in Western civilization occurred in the 4th and 5th centuries after the death of Christ, when the tradition of reason begun by the Greeks ─ Plato and his student Aristotle, was suppressed. The repression would take the West a millennium to recuperate, Freeman said. The tradition by Plato was not a substitute to rational thought but a subjection of every belief to the examination of reasonable argument. The Greek rational tradition was intentionally stifled by the Roman Church during the time of Constantine (Riggins). The reason behind the stifling was tinged with political interests. Emperor Constantine believed that by institutionalizing the state behind Christianity, he could turn it into a tool of mass annihilation and would eventually be a unifying strength against the empire during the time it was under threat from raiding assailants, and be a powerful arm of social control. Freeman concluded that the liberated belief and rational thought were defeated since the bishops acquired political supremacy (Gottlieb). The vulnerable religious and philosophical rationale of the Roman Empire ended in the 4th century when the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the executive religion of the empire. Freeman stated, this “orthodox” thought started the suppression of even the slightest form of free reason (Riggins).  Stark’s book contradicted Freeman’s. Stark’s stance was firm when he wrote that it was indeed Christianity that encouraged a cultural loyalty to reason that facilitated the rise of the West. The Medieval Christianity was primarily and possibly solely accountable for the big leap shaped by Western Civilization in the fields of philosophy, the arts, science, technology, and autonomy (Wolfe). As Stark claims: But if one digs deeper, it becomes clear that the truly fundamental basis for . . . the rise of the West was an extraordinary faith in reason. The Victory of Reason explores a series of developments in which reason won the day, giving unique shape to Western culture and institutions. The most important of these victories occurred within Christianity. . . . While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth. . . . Encouraged by the Scholastics and embodied in the great medieval universities founded by the church, faith in the power of reason infused Western culture, stimulating the pursuit of science and the evolution of democratic theory and practice. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians (Stark). Because this pro-religion controversial argument by Stark seems convincing, attracts an increasing acceptance among modern scholars, and is favored by today’s open-minded press (Bernstein), it opens new avenues of inquiry that survive for decades. Stark’s work is rich in reckless, sweeping statements but lacking in care and caution observed by most authors (Wolfe), as evidenced in his writing: During the past century, Western intellectuals have been more than willing to trace European imperialism to Christian origins, but they have been entirely unwilling to recognize that Christianity made any contributions (other than intolerance) to the Western capacity to dominate. Rather, the West is said to have surged ahead precisely as it overcame religious barriers to progress, especially those impeding science. Nonsense. The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians” (Stark). Stark ignores other factual information when he makes generalizations, and uses strong and offensive words to prove his point. Freeman, on the other hand, makes careful assumptions, well-supported by facts of history. He delivers with intensity and authority that is missing in the more easygoing texts of Stark. Freeman meticulously discusses how the earliest Christians attempted to block the path of reason, disgracing Stark’s conclusions and occasionally groundless evidences (Wolfe). Contrasting Stark’s theories, the early Christians were amazed by the Greek’s achievements, hence they were repressed. Paul was unaware of Plato’s and Aristotle’s triumphs. Freeman writes: “Paul may have been unsettled by his confrontation with the pagan philosophers in Athens. His response was to hit back with highly emotional rhetoric, the only weapon at hand. So for Paul, it is not only the Law that has been superseded by the coming of Christ, it is the concept of rational argument, the core of the Greek intellectual achievement itself." Freeman writes, it is Paul who granted Christians what they very much crave for so as to survive a besieged society, that is, peace. Paul’s importance is not to be ignored; however, his fervor should not be confused with reason and empiricism (Wolfe). Freeman says that it was Paul who proclaimed war against the Greek rational tradition through his assaults on “the wisdom of the wise” and “the empty logic of the philosophers”. After Christianity became the official doctrine it ended some opposing philosophies hence putting the West to a millennium of backward crisis (Riggins). Stark’s work identifies Paul and his writings as the origin of the Western ideas of equality, regardless of world inequalities: that all Christians are equal in the eyes of God. As Paul wrote, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor fee, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Stark likewise claims Augustine and Aquinas were the first to influence the idea of individual property rights and the idea that the state should not impose on the freedom of citizens for the pursuance of virtue (Stark). These early theologians could not have caused improvement in modern society as they lived before the sixteenth century, the era when scientific revolution started. Their work "was the key to many intellectual undertakings, among them the rise of science," as claimed by Stark (Wolfe). As investigated by Freeman, Augustine being a poor thinker and being pessimistic and guilt-ridden about even the slightest sins believed that God had made theological passages inexplicable to humble the educated. Augustine’s idea then began the foundation of the Western tradition of Christianity that There is no other Christian theologian who shows such uninhibited philosophical curiosity. The tragedy of Augustine and the West marked the decline of his intellect. Moreover, Freeman said that the efforts of Aquinas, who largely restored the rationalist tradition of Aristotle and other Greek scientists, through combination of Christian spirituality, concluded the stagnation of reason from the period of the earliest Christians up until the Dark Ages. Even if the most significant Christian philosophers from the time of Paul to Augustine suppressed the rational thought they sought to displace with theological doctrines that disheartened queries and arguments as heretical, still, the darkening of the Dark Ages could not entirely be blamed on them. It was leaving from Greek rationale to belief in the supernatural and miracles, making science submissive to faith. Augustine, for example, advocated unquestioning faith and that rational thought was a threat to faith, leading to fallacy and discrimination of heretics and witches. The subsistence of body and soul in separate worlds and searching for understanding of the physical world was pointless or even treacherous (Gottlieb). Stark emphasizes that there were no theologians in the other religions as well. Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism do not believe in a powerful god and that their religious convictions are hampered by their legalism. These religions mainly debate on standards instead of doctrines. Only Christians, according to Stark, could improve and understand reason, because Christians are the only believers of progress and the only ones who possess a spirituality influencing human interest (Wolfe). Stark’s book suggests validating his acknowledgment of the position of Christianity by raising a controversial query: Was Jesus born to “Virgin” Mary? The virginity of Mary was rendered uncertain when the early leaders of the church said they were not sure and when Paul admitted that he thought that Jesus had brothers. Aquinas used his reasoning power and deduced that Jesus’ brothers were not related to him in blood, and that Mary was indeed a virgin. This controversy, according to Stark, is a testimony to the intellectual supremacy of Christians. Only Aquinas and no other theologian could persuasively prove a reason such as this to even change the creed of the church (Wolfe). The story of Mary was actually largely indebted to non-Christians, however the Catholic Church respected Mary and was sure on her purity. Freeman describes Mary’s virgin nativity as an unstable scriptural root, because in the Gospels, only her siblings are mentioned and John who was supposedly her brother did not mention her at all. As proclaimed in Isaiah’s verse: "Behold a virgin will conceive, " however this verse, as Freeman maintains, is from the Old Testament’s Greek version, and uses the word parthenos, which could also denote a young girl, instead of the Hebrew word almah. It was in the 4th century when Christian scholars expanded their love for Mary; furthermore, they borrowed generally from paganism, particularly the Greek goddesses Rhea and Tyche, and the Egyptian goddess Isis. With these facts form Freeman, disputes on Marys virginity give evidence as much to the necessities of several religions to compare good versus evil, a perfect example: Eves original sin versus Marys virginity, with both arguments challenging the power of reason and common sense (Wolfe). Stark declares that Western technology and innovation outshined the rest of the world during the Dark Ages. Some of the breakthroughs started from Asia. What became so amazing was how the innovation was known and extensively accepted. Immediately after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity’s dedication to reason and progress paved the way to an era of unexpected innovation and progress. Europe surpassed all farming technologies that remarkably increased food production. Its water and wind power became unparalleled; its military strategies and power became the envy of the world; Gothic structural designs and works of art far exceeded Greek art; and dialect languages were used by some scholarly icons. The best invention in the entire West medieval leap was the method of organization and operation of commerce and industry, called capitalism. These breakthroughs put to rest the notion of illiteracy and ignorance of the Dark Age (Stark). Freeman’s book will provide its readers a vast backdrop and a profound chronological perceptive of how Christianity came to rule the Western world for a millennia, what that must have effected intellectual degradation, and how, if the Western populace is to improve their situation in the new century they should reclaim the intellectual assurance so typical of Greek culture. A tradition liberated from the unsuccessful dictatorial models of the previous century is the best existing rational way to accomplish this end. However, it is vital to note that the Greeks were not the only inhabitants to have a rational attitude. Parallel theorists can be found in the orthodox periods of other civilizations, for instance Ancient Egypt, China, India and the Islamic society of the Medieval Era, and the expectation of a progressive prospect for the entire global populace relies on a unification of the best progressive trend in all cultures.  Why the Western world climbed to its prominence after the closing of the Middle Ages is perhaps the only mystery of today’s history. Stark’s book answers this with frank revelations that became increasingly accepted by modern intellectuals and favored by the liberal presses. Forty years ago, the historian William McNeill attributed Europes rise to its “taste for war,” its navigational systems and its defense against maladies. Lately, Jared Diamond argued that firearms, microbes and steel decided the world’s destiny. Seven years ago, Stark, a creative sociologist of theology argued that “Christianity created Western Civilization.” He deems that the Christian emphasis on reason was the driving force in the West’s climb to international domination. Whereas all the other religious convictions throughout the world highlighted on anonymity and instinct, Christianity single-handedly held reason and logic as the principal guide to spiritual reality (Meacham). Undoubtedly, Christianity played a great role in the story of Western progress. However, there were other religions as well. Geography, economics and tradition were fundamental also. The world owes the invention of gunpowder, paper and compass to China even before the monks could preserve the scripts. Islam saved Aristotle’s works and set powerful fundamentals in the field of science and medicine and aided the creation of international trade between Europe and the Eastern world through the Islamic world. History did not commence with only the two Greek Icons, namely Augustine or Aquinas. Let us not ignore the role of tradition, that is, the passing on of the work of earlier generations (Meacham). Works Cited Bernstein, Andrew. “The Tragedy of Theology: How Religion Caused and Extended the Dark Ages.” The Objective Standard. 1.4. Winter 2006-2007. 2 Feb. 2012. Freeman, Charles. The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. New York: Vintage Books, 2005. Gaviidae. “Divine inspiration? Or hectic improvisation? A Stark contrast!” Shopping. 2006. 2 Feb. 2012. Gottlieb, Anthony. “When the Lights Went Out in Europe.” The New York Times. 15 Feb. 2004. 2 Feb. 2012. Meacham, Jon. “Tidings of Pride, Prayer and Pluralism.” The New York Times. 25 Dec. 2005. 2 Feb. 2012. Riggins, Thomas. “Book Review: The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman.” Political Affairs. 25 Oct. 2006. 2 Feb. 2012. Stark, Rodney. “How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and the Success of the West.” Catholic Education Resource Center. 2005. 2 Feb. 2012. Stark, Rodney. The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. New York: Random House, 2005. Wolfe, Alan. “The Reason for Everything.” The New Republic. 16 Jan. 2006. 2 Feb. 2012. Read More