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Christianity and Western civilization achievements
Judeo-Christian Heritage: Role in Western Achievements
Figure 1.--One of the important inventions of Western Civilization is first and in more modern times humanitarianism. And here the primary impulse has been the West's Judeo-Christian heritage. The ancient world including the classical world (Greece and Rome) was not noted for mercy and pity. Jewish tradition introduced charity to the Western tradition as an important part of the Church's mission. Catholic charitable work as conducted by individuals, parishes, dioceses, momastaries, missionaries, friars, nuns, and lay organiztions. There is simply no comparble charitable effort anywhere in the world by any religious or secular body in terms of amount or variety of good works.
It is not just that Marx was so wrong about economics. He was also fundamentally wrong about religion. And because of the left-wing secular orientation of modern society, that attitude has been widely naccepted in the formerly Christian West. The modern trend is to drive religion from the public square. Young people are leaving our schoiols and universities without the slighst inkling of the role Judaism and Christiuanity has played in the monumental achievements of Western civilization. It is impact of the Judeo-Christian culture not Marxism that is in fact at the heart of most of the major accomplishments of Western Civilization. The relation was not always obvious or direct. Western civilization is responsible for modern learning, science, capitalism, democracy, protection of human rights, women's rights, the rule of law, charity, and much more. And all of this emerged from Christian Europe and America. One of the great questions of history is why modernity did not emerge from China. For melenia. China not Europe was the richest most inventive society. So we are left with the question of why modernity and all the values we today hold so dear today emerged in Europe and not China. Central to answering that question is Chritianity. Here Christianity was important not only for its ethical teachings, but because of St. Paul's fusion of classical thought with the Judeo-Christin ethic. Christinity became the vessel through which the classical heritage was not only presered and passed on but greatly expanded. Many of the critics of Christianity while castigating Christians as ignorant Bible thumpers or making gratuitous statements like 'clinging to their Bibles and guns', are themselves blissfully ignorant of the role of the Judeo-Christian heritage in creating our modern world. A strong movement at major universities is to attack both religion and the Western civilization it played such an imprtant role in creating.
Learning
The Church acted throughout the centuries as society's leading educational institution. It was the Church that operated the only schools after the Barbarian invaiions. The Church operated Cathedral and Monastic schools open during the Dark Ages of Barbarian rule. The Church was the principal literate section of society.
One of the West's great contributions to the modern world was the university. The first universities were established in the Muslim world. And while they at first made contributions in secular disciplines they gradually by the time of the European Renaissance became narrow centers of Islamic studies. This partially explains why the impressive scholarship of the Cliphate's Goldren Age largely dried up by the 13th centuty. European Univesities moved in the opposite direction. They were institutions founded by the Church and at first primarily consisted of religious scholars, but as the Renaisance develped gradually moved toward secular disciplines and the founding of modern science. University of Bologna was the first higher-learning institute established in the Chhristendom (1088), in fact it coined the term university . It was followed by the University of Paris (about 1096). Many others followed. They were a gift of the Church and were well established by the time of the Renaissance and the subsequent explosion of learning that began the advances that propelled Europe to world leadership in all branches of knowledge.
Science
Technology began in the Stone Age. And perhaps gthe greatest generator of technology until the 19th century was China. Technology is, however, not science. Stone age tools involved technology, but not svience. Technology is the practical application of knowledge. Science is systemized pricess of applying knowledge by developing laws based on observation and testing--the scientific method. While all scities develop technology, it was the Christian West that developed science and this process was led by the Christian church through its universities. A with universities, one has to ask why this occured in the Christian West and not the classical world, China, India, the Islamic Caliphate, or other Civilization. It is a question often not asked. In fact, more often the Church is viewed as supressing intelectual activity because of the Galileo affair. But can you name another important scientist supressed by the Church? Infact there are many scholars supported by the Church. And Pope Paul VI was a Renaissance pope, a suporter of the arts and learming. He authorized the action against Galileo because the famed Italian scholar not only insulted him personally, but set out to defy the Church thinking his reputation would protect him. And the idea of helocentrism which Gallelo championed came from Copernicus, a Polish astromer with church connections. Notably Copernicus was attcked by Protestabt clerics, but was never censured by the Catholic Church. This was the case as long as researchers presented it as a hypothesis. To justify the charge taht the Church supressed science, there needs to be a long lost od scientists and theories supressed. Such a list does mot exist. Galileo was a outlyer who puthiself in the Inquisitiin's cross hair by oprnly insulting the Pope. The best proff of this is Nicilaus Steno. Only decades after Galileo, Steno published awork that more significantly bchallenged Church teachings than Galileo. He postulated that fossild and rocks probide a chronoloigical recorf of earth's history at leasr\tbas accurate as the Genesis account. And Steno was no criticvised and least of all condemned. Whilke he was not attavcked by the Church, he was attacked by other scientists. . In fact he advanced in the heirarch becoming a bishop. The only major scientific advnce which riled the church was Darwin's evolutionry theories. The Church's overwealming support for science was based on its Old Testament Jewish foundation. The Jewish and Christian concept oF God and his creations, in sharp contrast to the pagan clasical tradition and most anicent religious traditions, is rational and orderly. [Jaki, p. 150.] This of course is very definition of the scientific outlook. It is thus no accident that science emerged in the Christian West and it is the West that raised science to its modern lofty standards. And what of the leadind scientist of the 20th century--Albert Einstein. He was not crir\ticise bt\y the Chy\urch, but he was vilfied by other German scientists. Stalin was also known for supressimg science he did not approve. The best example was his support of Trofim Lysenko which set back Soviet genetics a generation.
Art
Art is a major part of the Western heritage. Here again the Church continued the classical heritage with a shift in emphasis from scuplture to painting. No one can deny the impact of the Christian church because the subject matter of the Western art for a millenium was primarily religious. And art was primarily financed by the Church. Here there was a break with Judaism which like Islam discoraged figurative depiction of humans. Less well known is the critical role played by the Catholic Church in figting the Iconoclast movement sought to destroy art that depicted individuals, including Christ, Mary, and the saints. Not only would the Iconoclasts have destroyed art, but all of the masterpirces of medieval art would have never been created, magnificent paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows, illuminate manuscripts, mosaics, and other treasures. This was prevented because of what one scholar calls 'the Catholic understanding of an appreciation for the created world.' [Woods, p. 116.] It was in the Byzantine Empire that Iconoclasmim arose, perhaps influenced by the rise of Islam (8th century AD). It was never accepted in the West and clasified a heresey because it violated a central Catholic tenant--Incarnation. Christian art from the beginning influenced by the classical tradition, depicted Christ, Mary, and the saints. The author mentioned explains it was not only the classical tradiin, but cebtral to Cathoic doctrine above writes, "The depiction of Christ bin art was a reflection of the Catholic doctrine of Incarnation. With the vIncarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the material world, while neverless fallen, has been elevated to a new level. Ot was not to be despised, for not only had God created it, butvHe had also dwelled in it." [Woods, p. 116.] Here early Protestants if not Ivonoclasts went on a statue smashing phase and men like Calvin favored barren churches. They never committed itself to art like Catholcism, but by this time Western art had been saved and becoming increasingly secular. .
Music
Christianity has played a central role in the development of Western music. Amd of course it is Western music that is unsurpassed by any other cultural form. Iy is Western music that dominates musical exppressiin around the world. It was Catholic monks who developed the first forms of modern Western musical notation. The work was an effot in order to standardize liturgy throughout the expanding worldwide Church. [Hall, p.100] Western music meaning music in early Christian worship was melody only. This was the case during much of the medival era. Gradual in in the late medieval era, more complex musiappeared. We negin to see the simultaneous singing of more than one melodic line. Such pieces were composed for use in worship. For several centuries as Europe entered the modern era, such complex-or polyphonic-music was composed by Europe's most famous and skilled composers, what we now know as classical music. A massive body of religious music was composed for the Church over the ages. It was religious music that led to the development of waht we now know as classical music and its many derivatives. The Baroque style which had musical, artistic, and architectural aspect was promoted by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms, These forms were seen as a means of religious expression that could stir the emotions and stimulate religious fervor. [Murray, p. 45.]
Architecture
Church architecture wn through phases. Early churches were essentially Roman structures. We see atriums and basilicas. Romanesque architecture came to dominate church architecture in the millenium-long medieval era. It was a fushion Roman, Carolingian, Ottonian, Byzantine, and local Germanic traditions. Romanesque churches usually had semicircular arches for windows, doors, and arcades. There were barrel or groin vaults to support the roof of the nave along with massive piers and walls, with few windows. Thevmassive walls and narrow windows most basically destinguish Romanesque churches. The thick walls were necessary to contain the outward thrust of the vaults created by their weight. Other features include side aisles with galleries above them and a high tower over the crossing of nave and transept. There were often smaller towers at the church’s western end. French churches usually expanded on the early-Christian basilica plan. The gret cathedral appeared in the late-medieval period, just as the Renaisance was propelling Europe in the modern age. Patucularly stunning werec the soaring Gothic cathedrals. Gothic cathedrals permnently altered the European landscpe and has been identified as the greatest vCatholic contribution to art. An art historian writes, "The medieval cathedrals of Europe ... are the greatest accomplishments of humanity in the whole history of art." [Johnson, p. 153.] The Gothic aritecture opened the cathedrals to light through magnificent stained-glass windows. Arguably the cathedrals appearing at about the time that the Renaisance began helped to crete the greatest outburst im human art in all of history. This alonewould be a major achievement. There is a relationship betweem the cathedrals, epecially the ever higher soaring Gothic ctedrals and both math and science. At the time that architects were trying to build higher and higher, Catholic scholars were increasingly drawing links between God, mathemarics (especially geomertry, and geography. Beginning in the clasical era (Pythagoras and Plato) links were seen between matematics and the divine. The builders of the magnoficent Chartes cathedral, often seen as the epitome of Gothic archetecture, clearly made that connection. One author explains that scholars ar Chartes, "believed that geometry was a means of linking human beings to God, that mathematics was vehicle for revealing to humankind the innermost secrets of heaven. They thought the harmony of musical consonance was vbased on thev same ratios as those forming cosmic order, that the cosmos was a form of architecture and God was its architect." [Scott, p. 125.] Of course much more was involved in buildin Gothic cathedrals than geometry. Advances in mathematics had to be had to be combined with other disciplines. This was occuring as Europe was about to invent science. They led to perspective and three-dimensional art--the creation of the Catholic milleu. And the advances fed into the scientific revolution that would transform Europe and eventually the world.
Law
One of the monumental achievement of ancient Rome was law. Scholars describe it in great detail. And one of the central charateristics of Western Civilzation is the rule of law based primarily on Roman law. Most legal systems in countries around the world, except totalitarian countrues, are varied versions of Western law. What is less coomonly know is how we got from Roman law to Western law. Clearly the Germanic barbarians that spread over Europe had no concept or interest in Roman law. The Germans pilaged and raped, but for whatever reason, they did not destroy the Catholic Church. Thus in Dark Ages the Church persisted along with Germanic barbarians. And the Church fathers to govern the Church were influenced by Roman Law. This was the beginning of Canon Law, although there was not yet any comprehensive susstem. Thus the Catholic Church which not only preserved, but transmitted Roman Law influenced it in ways attributable to Church theological doctrine. And when the Germans began to form states they had to rely on the scholarship of the Cathloic Church. These scholars helpped turn the oral traditions of the Germnic peoples, an other vcrontradictory patchwork of fol custom, statutory law, traditions, and other sources into a coherent legal system adding a good measure of Roman law. Thus Salic law adopted by the Frankish kingdom had features of Roman law. As other Christian kingdoms came into existence, they too created legal systems based on Canon Law. Roman law may have been just, but it was so very severe. The Catholic Church added an element of theological charity and humnity. Various legal approached were prevalent in the Medieval era such as trial by ordeal. Canon law developed along more modern lines, but was not fully drawn together for some time (12th century). A monk pulled together the first comprehensive statement of Canon Law (about 1140). [Gratian] A legal scholar explains that modern legal concepts 'are a secular residue of religious attitudes and assumptions which historically found expression first in the liturgy and rituals and doctrine bof thevchurch and thereafter in the vinstitutions and concepts and values of the law. When these historical roots are not understood, many parts of thev law appear to lack any underlying source of validity." [Berman, p. 166.]
International Law
International law is primarily a development of concepts evolving from Christian Europe. In differs from Asian where one dominant power emerged--China. International political theory in Asia was thus was not based not on the equality of states, but rather the cosmological supremacy of the Emperor of China. Europe was different because after the fall of Rome there was never one dominant power. The Germans could have dominated, but there many many separate tribes and in medieval times the Church prevented the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from creating a unified nation state like Denmark, England, France, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and other countries. There were classical strains to the development of international law, but the primary impetus came from the Church. The papacy played arole in mediating internationla conflict. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). The papacy was not a perfect mediator as it was also a tempral power with its own interests. And the reformation meant that the papacy could not mediate between the Catholic and Protestant states. At the same time the needs for interational law was growing. The primary driver was international trade. As Europe emerged from the medieval era, the pace of commerce and trade quickenedcreating the need for the development of accepted rules of behavior between states. Without a mutually agreed code of conduct there was nothing to guaranteed the safety of merchants involved in internatuinal trade. As a result, economic self-interest drove both the development international trade rules and maritime law. This wasm, however, very complex, not only werre there nation states, but the Hanseatc League, and the more than 150 entities of the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian city states, and the Russian colosus forming in the East. The horrors of the Thirty Years' War provided the immediate crisis laying the ground work for international law. The central figure in founding a code of international law was Hugo Grotius. He differed from earlier thinkers who believed that the natural law was a gift and imposed by God. Grotius postulated that the natural law came from an human reason. And the core of Grotius' system was thesoverinitynand equality of the nation state. The Treaty of Westphalia cemented the principle of state sovereignty as the cornerstone of international order. Catholic theologians played a central role in another aspect of interntional law. Francisco de Vitoria and Francisco Suárez addressed the issue of the rights of man. Suárez is especially notable in distinguishing between ius inter gentes and ius intra gentes which he derived from ius gentium (the rights of peoples). This concept evolved out of the attempts of Catholic clerics to defend the native peoples of the Americans and recognize them as humans with rights aforded to all humans.
Economic Theory
The dominant view of modern economists is to see Protestant theologins like John Calvin and creating the foundation of capitalism and Adam Smith as first great economist. The groundwork laid by Catholic Church is either ignored or the Church identified as a negative forecebecuse of its usuary laws. In fact it is the Catholic Church which created the basis for Europe's dynamic economic develoment. Joeph Schumpeter is widely regarded as one of leading economisys of the 20th century, understood the imprtance of the church. He identifies the Church's scholastic scholars of the late-mdieval era as 'who comes nearer than any other group to having been the 'founders' of scientific economics." [Schumpeter, p. 97.] Catholic scholar and rector of the University of Paris (1300-58) first accurately described the modern theory of money. Nicolas Oresme (1325-82) further elaborated the theory of money. [Oresme] Gresham's laws about competing currencies was in reality a restatement of Oresme's momumntal work. Oresme also wrote about the crsive effects of infkation. The late-Scholastics addressed the issues raised by Buridan and Oresme. They saw the impact of the huge quqntiies of bullion from the New World on the Spanish economy (16th century). Te noted the declining purchasin power of money. Several scholastic scholars addressed modern conceps such as sujective value thory. And it is a telling rebuttle of Marx's labor theory of value, three decades before Marx postulated it. Simply put, a profuct does not derive its value from the labor exerted on it. In fact, the value of products entering Sovi d\factories often lost value. Soviet manufactured goods were often woryth less than the raw materials used to produce them. The late Scholastics coreectly decribed how labor derives its value from the value whivch conumers place on the product.
Democracy (Political Freedom)
Althouh not often asked in our academic institutiobs today, is why was it in the West that democracy, a conerstone of modernity, emerged. An important part of the answer is the West's Judeo-Christian heritage. Until the Reformation, the major branches of Chrstendom were led by high clerics like the Catholic pope or he Orthodox metropolitan. And Church councis to settle disputed issues were asseblies of the principles of the church. And the Church strongly supported the divine right of monarchs to rule. Such an institution does not sound like one which would play an important role in the development of democracy. But in fact it did. This dervives from the the central tennants of both Judaism and Christianity wih the value palced on every human life. It is no accident that conceps like natural law and human rights emerged from Western civiization and no where else. We see the foundation of these principle from an early point in the development of Christian theology, beginning with St Thomas Aquinas. In fact these concepts are still questioned in countries like China outside the Christian orbit. Christian scholars give great emphasis on the influence of evangelical inspiration and the Gospel message. The Jewish and Christian faith are origins of the foundational 'axioms of democracy'. [Maritain] Maritain is the best known Catholic philosopher who has sought to reconcile the 'rights and democratic' principles of the modern state with Christian influenced western philosophical traditions. The origins of democracy are often assiociated with the Greek clasical era. And democracy did flourish in Athens and other city states. Often not mentioned is the fact that democracy was criticized by some of the most inflential Greek philosophers, includingSocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Aristtotled argued that when the people oust the monarchy and aristocracy society degenerates into anarchy and chaos--which is how Aristotle described democracy. Christian thinkers known as Scholastics took a very different view. The most highly respected Scholastic was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He literally created the modern concept of democracy, a government in which all participate by being represented by the best, and presided over by one. Aquinas identifies tyranny as the worst possible form of government. He describes a tyrant as a leader who keeps all the power to himself, and instead of using it for the common good and general justice, and for the liberty and welfare of all, he uses it for his own enjoyment and benefit, and keeps the people enslaved and oppressed. That is why Aquinas believed that 'government by one' or monarchy should be tempered by the 'government by the best' or aristocracy. And for monarchy not to degenerate into 'government by the most powerful' or oligarchy, it should be limited by 'government of the people' or democracy. By this Aquinas wanted all the people in one way or another to participate in the election of their best representatives. The underlying basis for sovereignty or political authority within civil society thus ultimately in the people invested by God. St. Paul wrote, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." [St. Paul--Romans 13:1.] It is for the benefit of the people that civil authority and government is instituted. After Aquinas other Catholic theologians pursued this idea (16th and 17th centuries). Particularly notable is Spanish Dominican theologian Francisco de Vitoria. [de Torre] These ideas came into actual political existence with innumeral imperfections with the English (Civil War and Glorious Revolution--17th century), American (1776-1783), and French (1789-99) liberal political Revolutions. centuries).
Capitalism (Economic Freedom)
Another conerstone of modernity is capitalism. And like democracy, capitalism emerged in the West. And again the question comes up--why the West? China for an extended period was more technologically addvanced and richer than the West. But again as with democracy, it was in the West that capitalism emerged. And Europe's Judeo-Christian heritage is an important part of the reason. We know when and who invented capitalism. It was It was the Dutch (17th century) and the English who quickly adopted it. That does not mean, however, that the Protestant Dutch created it out of a vacuum. The Ptrotestant ethic has been identified as playing a vital role. [Weber] We do not disagree with this, but we blieve that the Catholic Church laid a foundation during the medieval era that made it possible for the Protestant Dutch to invent capitalism. There are several key threads to consider here. While they are not theological, there is an unedrlying theological thread--the value of the individual. This in fact was a feature in common between the classical world and Judeo-Christianity. And it is best illustrated in not only the teachinggs of the Jewish prophets and Christ, but in the very nature of Christ. God chose to appear to humanity in a human form--that alone symbolizes the great transcedent value of the invidual. The Church's work during millenium-long medieval period helped prepare Europe to invent and accept capitalism.
First, the idea of property rights are deeply enshired in the Judeo-Christan ethic. The Dominion Covenant
is extended to the family, the primary institution of Hebrew life. Jewish laws strongly protects family property. The Jubilee laws insured a family that it would always have land so that dominion could be exercised. [Leviticus 25] The idea of property rights is repeated throughout the Bible. And it is the basis for the idea of freedom also enshired in classical thinking. The individual's very freedom in tied up in his property. An iduvidual only has the ability to act independently if he is free and has the right to own property. An attack on private property therefore is also an attack on liberty. [Rushdoony, p. 83.] Communists charge that the right to hold individual private property was a crime against the State. It is not accident that the athesistb Communist states they created supressed human freedom and were the greatest violators of human rights in history.
Second, is the Church's canon law which served as the basis for European legal systems with one fudamental consistent thread--the rule of law. Capitalism can not exist by itself. It needs Governt to create laws protecting property rights and other conventions. And canon law was the basis for those legal systems.
Third, the Church prevented the Germanic Emperor from dominating the Holy Roman Empire which wouls have led to domimnating Europe as the Chimese emperor dominated China. The conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor and the papacy was the funament conflist in the medieval era and the result was a Europe divided intoa complex web of states and principalities. This meant economic policies were localized, allowing experimentation with economic activity and taxes. The result was innovation and experimentation as a result of the Demonstarion Effect led to liberal economic policies like limited regulations amd taxation. [Raico, p. 44.] This was in sharp contrast to centralized China.
Fourth, the Church's canon law also laid the foundation of modern corporate law. An important legal principle of canon law is that communities (cathedral chapters and monasteries) could act as legal individuals. It is fot this very reason that Pope Innocent IV was the known as the 'father of the modern learning of corporations'. [Collins] The Church defending the rights of Franciscan and the Dominican communities against the secular clergy and lay professors at the University of Paris. Thomas Aquinas defended the role of free associations as part of civil society. He argued the 'inherent right' of individuals to form corporations.
Fifth, the Church despite a prohibition on charging interest, played a major role in creating a European banking system. The Roman banking system disappeared with the fall of Rome. Europe for centuries had nno banking system. Pope Urban II lauched the Crusades (11th century). The Crusades required a way to transfer funds to support military operations in the Holy Land, but an international banking system did not exist at the time. King Henry II was a major finaceer of the Crusades. The Templars and Hospitallers acted as Henry's bankers in the Holy Land. The Templars' huge land holdings across Europe gave it the ability to secuyrly hold and transfer funds in multiple currencies. This would be the beginning of a European banking sysrem (12th-14th century).
As a result of these rich medieval heritage in whih the Catholic Church had played a central role in creating it would be the Protestant Dutch that would actually put it all together to invent capitalism. Note that all of the central tennants of capitalism were created by the Church (property rights, legal structure, liberal eco\nomic policies, corporate law, and a European-wide banking system). One historian explains why it would be the Dutch whomwould piece it together. "The Dutch Republic was unique in permitting an unprecedented degree of freedom in the fields of religion, trade and politics .... In the eyes of contemporaries it was this combination of freedom and economic predominance that constituted the true miracle of the Dutch Republic.” [Swart, p.20.] Another historian explains that Holland “emerged itself as a decentralized polity, without a king or court—a ‘headless commonwealth’ that combined secure property rights, the rule of law, religious toleration, and intellectual freedom with a degree of prosperity that amounted to an early modern Wirtsehafiswunder.” [Racio, p. 47.]
Civil Liberties
The idea of civil liberties are based on natural law. Natural law ( lex naturalis is the belief that certain rights are inherent by virtue of human nature. It is an exclusivel Western idea and deeply rooted in both classical and Jewish culture. It is the idea that rights are endowed by nature (classical idea) or by God (Jewish idea). Here the variance is with the the source. Classical Gods were unlike Yahweh. They were capricious and unreliable and certainly did not opeate in any reasoned way. But in both the classical and Jewish tradition, naturalcould be understood. And the fusion of the classical and Jewish tradion ircestrated by St. Paul was the basis of Christian trafition of natural law transmitted by the Church through the medieval era to the modern age and are the foundation of civil liberties. Civil liberties are intricatelly tied up with development of democracy. You cannot have democracy without civil liberties snd there cannot be civil liberties without denocracy. A monarch can permit civil liberties but he can just as eaily rescind them. Democracies can limit civil liberties, but it is only in democracies that civil liberies flourish. Christianity developed primarily within the confimes of the Roman Empire. Rome was a slave society. One of the early accomplishments of the Church in the realm of human rights was ending slavery in Europe. The Church's role in civil liberties is certainly unblemished, but one has to copare it to contemporary society at the time. The Church's greatest failure in modern eyes is the lack of religious tolerance. The only other religion the Church tolerated was Judaism and that toleration gradually declined during the medieval era and eventually drove most Jews out of Western Europe. The Inquisition was a great violator of human rights focused primarily on relgion before and after the Reformation. At the same time it was the Church which waged a campaign to defend the idignenous people of the America from the depredations of the Conquistadores and landed colonial magnates (16th centry). The most famous of the Spanish clerics involved was Father Bartolomé de las Casas. Civil liberties were a major concern of the Enligtenment, a largely secular movement. But the foundation of the often anti-clerical Enligtenment was the principle of natural law enshired in Church doctrine. The great Enligtenment thinkers did not invent natural law, it was from the beginning a fundamental Church doctrine. The next major human rights campaign of the Church was aginst the African slave trade. This campaign was primarily conducted by the Protestant churches which founded abolitionist movements in Britain and America. And the Church became a major opponent of the great totalitarian states of the 20th century. Marx described religion as the 'Opium of the mases." And Lenin and Stalin launch athesist campaigns in the Soviet Union. Hitler was more circumvent, but the Catholic Church as targeted by the NAZIs in both the Reich and occpied countries. The most important modern Church statement on civil liberies is the Papal Encyclical Pacem in Terris, issued by Pope John XXIII (1963). It is a major statement on human rights. Its was expanded by the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council (1965). The young priest who began fighting the Communists in Poland, as Pope John Paul II would help deal it a death blow.
Charity
The ancient world was not a very charitable place and this included the clasical world of Greece and Rome. The desperate poor might have to sell their children or even themselves into slavery. There was good deeds in the classical world. Wealthy individuals did give, often to finance building projects, but it was rarely gifts to the poor. Ancient giving was commonly self interered to put recipents in their debt or to add luster to their name. One hustorian describes classical scholars, including the stoics, as regarding regarding 'mercy and pity as pathological emotions--defects of character to be avoided by all rational men. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice." [Stark, p. 142.] The Jewish concept of charity was very different. The Jewish term was 'tzedakah' sometimes translated as 'charity'. The Hebrew root 'tzedek' is commonly translated as 'justice' or 'fairness' which suggests how the Jews viewed charity. There are many Old Testament references, including the Torah. One example reads, "And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and stranger; I am the Lord your God." [Leviticus 19:9-10] And Jesus in the New Testament gave comsiderable attention to the poor and charity. Thus St. Paul's fusion of the classical and Jewish tradition introduced charity to the Western tradition as an important part of the Church's mission. Catholic charitable work as conducted by individuals, parishes, dioceses, momastaries, missionaries, friars, nuns, and lay organiztions. There is simply no comparble charitable effort anywhere in the world by any religious or secular body in terms of amount or variety of good works. The modern word hospital has Lain origins, but was a medieval charitable institution where the poor and needy were cared for--almost always run by the Church. One of the pillars of Islam is charity. But look at the charity operations in poor countries. The religion involved is almost always Christianity and the charity dispensed goes both Christians and non-Christians. Islam is virtually absent in intrnational humanitarian charity and where active Muslim groups are primarily focused on promoting Islam and tragically not uncommonly financing Islamic extremist violence. The same is true with natioansl disasters, even those affecting Muslim countries. When the Tusami hit Indonesia, the vast proportion of the aid came from Christian countries (2004). The Saudis and other oil rich countries were virtually absent.
Morality
The core of Western Christian ethics is the value, even sacredness of human life. And there was a foundation of Natural Law. This was a huge shift from classical civilization where both infanticide and suiside were accepted practices. Gladatorial combat and a slave society were furher indication of the value assigned to human life. And these attitudes toward life were expressed by major philosphers including Plato, Seneca, and others. The Christian concept of ethics was a major departure from clasical thinking. The Christian view of the uniqness and value of the imortal human soul could not be more strikingly different. The early Church grew out of Judaism. Thus much of Chritianity has Jewish roots amf this is the case of ethics and morality. Life is presented in the Old Testment as God's creation and man was made in the creator's vision. [Genesis 1:27] This alone establishes the value and sacrednes of human life. And the Old Testment also laid the foundation of Natural Law. Jawyeh was not a capricious classical god, but the God that acted within a rational frame and with a moral imperative. This created a kind of outlook in which Natural Law could develop. The classical outlook did not disappear. Many traditiinal societies failed to value human life. In particular the lowly status relegated to women meant that infanticide was common, mostly meaning girls. This has caried over into modern times. We seee it in China when the Commuinists established a one child policy. Many parents commited infanticide so they could have a boy child. The result was that China today has a huge gender inballance. And the great totalitarian powers of the 20th century acted with not only an indiference to human life, but with a vicious blood lust.
Sources
Berman, Harold J. Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983).
Collins, Randall.
Durant, Will. Caesar an Christ (New York: MJF Books, 1950).
Genesis.
Gratia. A Concordance of Discordant Canons (Decretum Gratina) (about 1040).
Hall.
Jaki, Stanley L. Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscilating Universe (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1986).
Johnson, Paul. Art: A New History (New York: HarperCollins, 2003).
Krause, Paul. "The Classics and Christianity," The Imaginative Conservative (January 11, 2019).
Leviticus.
Martian, Jacques. Christianity and Democracy: And the Rights of Man and the Natural Law (French original--New York: Éditions de la Maison Française, 1943).
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848).
Murray.
Oresme, Nicolas. A Trestise on the Origin, Nature, Law and Alteration of Money (c1355).
[St.] Paul. Epistle to the Romans (Sixth book of the New Testament).
Raico, Ralph. “The ‘European Miracle’” in The Collapse of Development Planning ed. Peter Boettke (New York: New York University Press, 1994).
Rushdoony, R.J. Law and Liberty.
Scott, Robert A. The Gothic Enterprise (Berkely: University of California Press, 2003).
Schumpeter, Joesph. History of Economic Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954).
Stark, Rodney. Stark is quoted in Vincent Carroll and David Shiflett. Christianity on Trial (San Francisco Encounter Books: 2002)
Swart, K.W. The Miracle of the Dutch Republic as Seen in the Seventeenth Century (London: H. K. Lewis, 1969)..
de Torre, Joseph M.
(Manila: Vera-Reyes, 1994)
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–05).
Woods, Thomas E. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (Regenerry Publishing: Washington D.C., 280p. The Woods book has been instrumental in rethinking our ideas about the Church'a role in Western Civililization. He writes about bthe Catholic Church. We believe. however, the Protestant Churches have also played vital roles.
