Although the high water-mark of the New Atheism has passed,
argues Nick Spencer; one of its’ lasting influences has been the almost
complete triumph of the secular attempt to airbrush Christianity from the
cultural landscape. His book, “The Evolution of The West: How Christianity Has
Shaped Our Values” is Spencer’s attempt to reverse this process and reacquaint
us with the formative importance of Christian thought. Spencer’s argument is
that The West, would not look as it does today, without the influence of
Christianity; indeed much that liberals and secularists most cherish about the
West, would not exist in its current form, were it not for this particular
influence. However, the voices who wish to exclude Christianity from the
contemporary public square, do so on the basis of this selectively amnesiac
view of history. Spencer’s quest, in this absorbing and profound little book,
is to meet such critics on their own terms, and demonstrate by careful and
scholarly analysis, that such exclusions are unwarranted historically, and are
therefore unjustifiable today.
Spencer frames each of his arguments extremely carefully,
and is anxious to avoid the error of attributing every gain to Christianity.
The obvious point that some Christians opposed Wilberforce, is enough to wreck
some superficial attempts at historical apologetics. Spencer’s approach is far
more nuanced, and as a result far more robust. His view is that both good and
evil existed in our past in a deeply Christian context which influenced
everything. “The tree of Western values did grow in Christian soil, but it
would be a mistake to imagine that soil had some precise blueprint for what the
tree would eventually look like”, he writes. (p6) Rather than drawing neat
lines between social gains and Biblical proof-texts, Spencer demonstrates the
way in which Christian thought was the structure within which all these debates
were worked out; and an essential element in their outcomes.
While the scope and range of this book is enormous, and the
ground covered in less than 200 pages astonishing; the beauty of it is
Spencer’s ability to distil vast amounts of research into remarkably clear and
concise theses. The book is a series of themed essays, which are so well
presented that they enable the reader to gain easy access to difficult and complex
areas.
In the twelve essays Spencer covers areas as diverse as the
development of the rule of law, equality before it and due process; the
formation of nation-states, democracy, Darwin, humanism, human rights, and
welfare. In each of these areas he presents a historically viable case for the vital
influence of Christian thought. Two areas seem to crop up repeatedly. Firstly
there is Christian anthropology based on the imago dei. Secondly, there is the idea that the attempt to merely
assert “human rights” and dignity as absolutes, without having a universal
foundation to underpin them is insecure. The blunt instrument of the old ‘axe
the root, and loose the fruit’ argument is re-stated here in elegant and
nuanced tones, fit for the 21st Century.
If there are any criticisms to be made of this book they are
simply these. Firstly, chapter ten is written at a higher academic level than
the rest of the book, making it rather uneven. More importantly though, there
are times in which Spencer, in his quest to meet secular contemporaries on
their own terms, somewhat underplays the value Christianity has added to the
fields he assesses. Seeking only to present a scholarly case against the
exclusion of Christian thought from the public domain, he doesn’t press his
case further to seek to persuade the reader of the value or truth of the
Christian message itself. In this way, he presents a very different assessment
of Christianity and history than say Vishal Mangalwadi (previously reviewed in
these pages). If Mangalwadi is accused of sometimes overplaying his hand in
seeking to persuade; Spencer might be accused of underplaying his, in seeking
to appeal to the cynical, secularist reader he has in mind.
What is undeniably the case is that the story of “how
Christianity crafted the building blocks that made the West” has been lost, and
that as a culture we are deeply ignorant of the “Deep reasons why the West
became what it did” (p24). Spencer’s book is a superb corrective to this
historical fallacy; which should quietly strengthen the Christian Church’s confidence
to resist being silenced.
(Nick Spencer is the
Research Director of Theos.)
_____
My review first appeared in Solas Magazine (www.solas-cpc.org), used with permission.
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