Is religion good for society? More and more people are answering “yes,” even if they once might have answered “no.” Whether they are religious themselves or not, they must admit that religion has brought them many beautiful things, especially the Judeo-Christian religion. Do you like science? Do you like women’s rights? Do you like human rights in general? Go thank a Christian!
In short, this is the thesis of British historian Tom Holland’s long 2019 book. Dominationsubtitle How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. It was recently and notably cited by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in his announcement that turns heads that she now considers herself a Christian. After seeing the evil of fundamentalist Islam up close as a child and then turning to the new atheism as a young adult, Ali now believes that “Christianity has it all.” Everything she cares about as a Western citizen comes from a Judeo-Christian ethic, whether she has always admitted it or not.
Or is it?
To address some of these questions, the British talk show Amazing? brought together Ben Shapiro and YouTuber Alex O’Connor to a lively new episode in an ongoing series of “Great Conversations” between theists and atheists. The host barely got a word in as Shapiro and O’Connor quickly exchanged points and counterpoints. Shapiro himself advocates the societal benefits of religion from a distinctly Jewish perspective, sometimes overlapping with a Christian perspective, sometimes not. O’Connor appears to be a cheerful atheistic determinist, asserting that free will doesn’t even exist, but admitting that this is a useful fiction.
Meanwhile, O’Connor doubts Tom Holland’s thesis. Halfway through the debate, he launches into a lengthy complaint that Christians can’t really honestly “claim” things like the scientific revolution, abolitionism, or women’s rights in the context of a liberal West, because they have been historically “wrong” on these issues. and other problems. It’s all well and good to say that all social justice movements are “Christian” in origin, but aren’t some of these movements simply opposed in substance to Christian precepts, especially when it comes to sexuality or gender roles?
Like many atheists, O’Connor engages in a poor history of ideas and makes multiple confusions in his argument. But he still puts his finger on something true here. Basically, a writer like Tom Holland is a secular liberal, pitching his book to other secular liberals. As such, he and his audience have a hierarchy of “Western values” that will inevitably fail to correspond to a hierarchy of conservative Christian values.
Certainly, Holland rightly exposes the fact that any purely atheistic framework for “human rights” is up in the air. As he provocatively likes to say, if an atheist wants to believe in human rights, he might as well believe in angels or the resurrection of Jesus. (The fact is that all of these beliefs are irrational articles of faith, which is in itself questionable.) He is also correct that any “rights” movement for the vulnerable or weak is downstream from a seismic cultural paradigm shift. The Romans abandoned their little girls, but the Christians saved them. Eventually, Christians conquered the world.
But Holland’s thesis cannot be extended indefinitely. Christians believe that women should be honored and protected, but that does not mean that feminism is the best way to honor and protect women, especially when it encourages them to kill their own children. Christians believe that gays and lesbians should have human rights, but that does not mean same-sex marriage (or artificial formation of a family) is a human right. Any attempt to characterize such debates as “Christian civil wars” will fail. This may be an eye-opening concept for secular liberals, but for the conservative Christian reader it is nothing more than reinventing the old liberal wheel.
Ultimately, no analysis of how Christianity “remade the world” will be complete as long as Christianity is reduced to an origin story of “liberal values.” It’s much bigger than that, much less on only that. Scripture will not tell anyone what they already want to hear. It will provoke, destabilize and challenge. If we recognize the biblical foundations of human value while ignoring what the Bible says about human teleology, we have only understood half the story. And if we tell sinners that they have dignity and worth without turning them away from their sin, we are only telling them half the truth.
Tom Holland started a great conversation about Christianity. But ultimately it will be up to Christians to finish it well.
