Christianity And Western Civilization
By L.R.R
This article is a dedication to a long gone but not forgotten engineers, scientists, architects, who built and formed Western Civilization which none other but Christians. The truth about how Christians achieved in pursuit of knowledge, theology, philosophy, science, arts, music, education and their contributions to the progress of humanity in the Middle Ages has been hidden from our educational system.
In fact, bias and prejudice skeptical teachers helped undermine and ridicules the Christian faith which undoubtedly caused the history and development of Western Europe. The deeply rooted prejudice against Christians in general and the Christian faith in particular produced lies, and propaganda such as Christians in the medieval Europe was the culprit and the basis for the banishment of all higher learning, superstition and faith they believed replaced knowledge.
The ‘Dark Ages’ in Europe was supposedly the working of Christians right after the Roman Empire finally collapsed in the hands of the Vandals an East Germanic tribe, ‘Germanic’ as defined by Tacitus, that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century.
Is this true that the Christian faith paved the way for superstition and ignorance? Was the Dark Ages an offspring of the “Romanized Christianity?” Before we continue let me tell you that my aim here is not to thoroughly examine every aspect and area where Christians has been highly influential during the Middle Ages. This study is just a tip of the iceberg. My goal in this article, however, is to tell you two important things that Christians have achieved during this age namely the building of universities and the continuation of studies in science.
Old Myths Never Dies
First, the term “Dark Ages” in which supposedly related with Christian corruption in the medieval Europe is very misleading. There weren’t any so-called Dark Ages (If there was one it was Christianity that brought light upon it). This is pure myth an oft-repeated old canards fabricated by prejudiced anti-Christian, in which not a single unbiased historian believes this lie.
Bigotry and What Prejudiced ‘Historical Books’ Won’t Tell You
Historical books on how Christians change and refused to live as their amoral pagans contemporary and how they built Western civilization and why it survived and how they accumulated knowledge (Greek philosophies, mathematics etc.,) and other disciplines in educational system are hardly emphasized by secular politically correct educator.
This is so probably because they are scared that the public will find out why the Christian faith is more rational and that naturalism (as a philosophy) did nothing in contribution to the Western world.
Biased historian of the medieval Europe do tell stories about Christians and these are the Crusades and other maladies. These historians even graphically explains how the crusaders pillaged, murdered, and raped innocent people in the name of God! So much of the Christian faith! Why concentrate on the negatives? Yes, Christians so-called did pillaged, murdered and raped innocent people but why not tell and teach in process that Christians (besides from being murderous as our skeptics pictures them) were geniuses too!
Christians in the Middle Ages was more than just evangelists and poor peasants they were also teachers, scientists, philosophers, theologians, educator, orator, mathematicians, artists, inventor, poets, architects etc., These men and probably women had a high regard in academic discipline – they were simply scholars.
These church scholars should be attributed in there contributions of the rise of knowledge and in their passion to regain and build Europe. Church Historian, Bruce L. Shelly wrote,
“Europe owes more to the Christian faith than most people realize. When the barbarians destroyed the Roman Empire in the West, it was the Christian church that put together a new order called Europe. The church took the lead in rule by law, the pursuit of knowledge, and the expressions of culture. The under lying concept was Christendom, which united empire and church.”[ Bruce L. Shelly, Church History in Plain Language, (updated 2nd edition), Thomas Nelson Publisher, p. 161.]
There are other highly significant contributions from the Christian community that has been ignored by secular and biased historians such as:
1. Agriculture
2. Architecture
3. Charity and Compassion
5. Printing
6. Health Care
7. Winery
8. Sanctity of Life
9. Universal Education
10. Nursing
11. Orphanage
11. Building Universities
12. Law
13. Morality
14. Science
15. Arts
16. Bathing and Bouquets
These and many other things has been unnoticed by our historical books and not emphasized the Christian heritage by our so-called teachers both in highschool and colleges. This is because they have argued that religion in general and Christianity in particular is irrational. One cannot be a rational person if you believe in God, Jesus Christ, demons, heaven and hell.
But this false assumptions contradicts the real truth that one can be a Christian yet celebrates rationality (since it was given us by a rational creator such as God) and education hence the above example of these that Christians are not stupid and/or backwards after all!
The Rise Of Universities
The myth goes today that during the Age of Faith in the Middle Ages people lived in deep ignorance, superstition and intellectual repression. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to a historian, Thomas E. Woods, Jr, it is to the Middle Ages that we owe one of Western civilization’s greatest – unique – intellectual contributions to the world: the university system. [1]
Did you know that the world most well-known universities had a Christian origin? Most of the present state universities in Europe, for instance, Oxford, Paris, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Basel had Christian origins.
Not to mention other famous and large universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale in the United States have their Christian forbears. Of course student now a days doesn’t know about these facts. They have been indoctrinated by hostile critics of Christendom. What this students know about ‘Christianity’ are the Crusades, Inquisition, Witch burning at Salem, and other supposedly maladies that has been committed by Christians.
No wonder that the majority of students who have been brainwashed by their teachers today are ignorant, indifferent and hostile towards proffessing Christians.
Ignorance prevails among lay people and Christians today because the see truth as something undesireable, and arrogant.
They would rather exalt ignorance just to avoid truth. Ignorance is bliss is their mantra. This is true among postmodernists. However, this ignorance, denial and hostility to God’s truth was the very antithesis of the so-called Dark Ages. Dr. Bruce L. Shelly, as qouted earlier say,
“…therefore, schools in these cathedrals gave birth to medieval universities-for the supreme task of the university was to understand and explain the light of God’s revealed truth.”[2]
But what strikes me most in our present day education is the dishonesty and arrogance that prevails among schoolmen and lay persons. Not only they deny truth they also robs, and discredits Christians and its influence in building the Western civilizations prosperity by exalting knowledge, and rationality. But this truth is hardly studied today. Alvin J. Schmidt a professor of sociology comments this lamenting truth,
“Individuals in Western societies spend many years in schools, colleges, or universities, but learned very little about the contributions Christianity has made to education, so highly treasured today. In the absence of this knowledge, it is not only Christianity that has been slighted, but Jesus Christ as well. Were it not for him and his teachings, who knows at what stage of development education would be today?” [3]
Great Scientists In The Midst Of “Dark Ages”
The myth “faith is incompatible with science” is well and alive today among atheists. Naturalists world and life view ironically enough, demands much faith (fish-to-philosopher, universe popping out from nothing) than Christians.
The notion that the Christian faith replaced knowledge and reason with faith and superstition in the Middle Ages exists in the mind of bigoted historians and their research do not hold water.
Also, the false accusation that Christians are “backwards” is ludicrous when examined in the light of true historical scholarship.
What we must bring into an account is, science would not have existed today if the followers of Christ were nothing but backwards.
The development of modern science should be attributed to Christians in the medieval era who were arbiter advocates of scientific knowledge. Alfred North Whitehead (non-Christian), the renowed philosopher of science, once said,
“Faith in the possibility of science, generated antecedently to the development of modern scientific theory, is an unconscious derivative medieval theology.” [Alfrid North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, Macmillan, 1926. p.19]
Also, a medieval historian Lynn White has stated that,
“The [medieval] monk was an intellectual ancestor of the scientists.” [Lynn T. White, The Significance of Medieval Christianity, in The Validity of the Christian Tradition, Harper and Brothers, p.96]
Few educated and uneducated Christians or not knows about this truth. One can speculate as to why this fact are not widely known and as to why Christian scientists in the past have been stripped and consciously discredited probably of prejudiced and bigoted instance towards Christianity.
Isn’t this time to stop bigotry against the Christian church and give these intellectual giants their proper due? Isn’t this time to acknowledge Christianity as a world and life view as more valid and more rational than the humanistic worldview?
The Great “Dark Ages” Scientists
We read in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…” The word fear here doesn’t necessarily mean irrational fear but rather an owe aspiring fear. The aspiring fear for the Lord probably prompted these medieval scientists to search for knowledge.
If God is a rational God, then may not human beings, who are created in His image, also employ rational process to study and invistigate the universe and the world in which they live? Let us look closer who these scientists were and look closely in their achievements in the dsicipline of sciencia (science).
- Robert Grosseteste (1168-1253)
Who first proposed the inductive, experimental method.
- Roger Bacon (1214-94)
Known as the father of modern science. He argued that all things must be verified by observation.
- William Of Occham (1285-1347)
Introduced the principle of parsimony
- Jean Buridan (1300-1358)
Introduced the theory of probability
- Nicholas of Oresme (1320-82)
Introduced the mean-speed theorem
- Nicholas Copernicus (1474-1543)
Wrote the famed De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (Revolution of The Heavenly Bodies) and proposed the heliostatic theory
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Contributed to human anatomy, optics, physics and so on.
- Paracelsus (1493-1541)
Swiss physician who introduced treatments of particular illnesses based on his observation and experience; he saw illness as having an external cause
- Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
Danish astronomer whose accurate astronomical observations formed the basis for Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
- Roger Joseph Borcovich (1711?-1787)
Mathematician and natural philosopher.
…and the list could go on.
These scholars believed in their pursue on how nature works would help them gain a clearer glimps of their Creator. This inclination in invistigating closely at the physical world was not new with Christianity of course, but it did assume a distinctive place in the Christian mind.
Again, the myhtology that the Middle Ages was an era of intellectual slumber and supposedly, Europe’s wide phenomena of scholarly amnesia is a worse propaganda and a lie that has no support by real historian of the Western civilization. The myth that the Christian church in general and Christians in praticular were intellectual backwards during the “Dark Ages” is nothing but pure speculations that goes against the history and development both in West and East Europe.
Christians had contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes, and microscopes, magnetism, optics, and electricity. These are no small, insignificant acheivements and contributions to the civilization and to science.
They also contributed to the scientific knowledge and infrastructure of other less developed nations in Asia but also in Africa, Central and South America. Their assessments are astronomy, geomagnetism, meteorology, seismology (the study of earthquakes), and solar physics provided these places with accurate time keeping, weather forecasts, earthquake risk assessments, and cartography.
Thus, it is obvious that these geniuses did not adopted the oft-repeated humanistic lie, “Faith and Reason are incompatible.” As a matter of fact it was exactly their faith in God that drove them to pursue genuine studies in science. Faith and reason for them were compatible just as long reason glorifies and magnifies God.
Resources and Recommended Reading
[1]Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Ph. D., How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, Regenery Publisher, p. 47
[2] Dr. Bruce Shelly, Church History In Plain Language,Thomas Nelson Publisher, p. 195
[3] Dr. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Change The World, Zondervan, p, 191
