Light of the World

Christianity Inspired Liberal Society & Even Informs Its Antagonists

How do you measure the influence of Christianity on the world? By the transformation of Rome from state persecutor to state endorser? By Christianity's growth rate in terms of numbers or geographic reach? Certainly, these rank as indicators, but according to historian Tom Holland, the influence of Christianity runs far deeper than metrics such as these. In his most recent work, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Basic Books, 2019), he says the emergence of Christianity in the ancient world has been the single most transformative development in Western history, with effects so deeply embedded today, it's virtually impossible for us to extricate ourselves from them. And precisely because they are so...