How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
by Thomas E. Woods Jr
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thomas E. Woods JrBrand: Spring Arbor/Ingram
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-02
ISBN: 0895260387
Number of pages: 280
Publisher: Regnery History
Book Reviews of How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
Book Review: An important contribution to scholarship
Summary: 5 Stars
How The Catholic Church Built
Western Civilization
By Thomas E. Woods Jr. Ph.D.
Regenery Publishing Inc.
Washington DC 2005
Reviewed by Frank J. Capone
TCRNews.com
Since at least the time of the Enlightenment it has been the prevalent notion in Western intellectual circles that organized religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular are a threat to the building of an enlightened civilization. During the past one hundred or so years this idea has trickled down to popular culture, even as many intellectuals are now beginning to question it. Movies and Science Fiction novels, for example, have promoted the idea that the Church is a tyrannical institution that would distort scientific inquiry and establish some kind of outright thought control which it is alleged to have done during the Middle Ages. They fear a return to intolerance, persecution, and religious wars. In their view a society based on the Church's teachings and spirituality would set society back several centuries.
Thomas Woods' recent book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization is a serious challenge to these notions. He has built a strong case that, far from being a detriment to the advancement of Western civilization, the Church has been the prime architecht in building the foundation of Western civilization in the first place, and actually formed and promoted many of the concepts that the secular intellectual elites themselves cherish! One who has been indoctrinated with the secular-humanist propaganda of the present day may very well be surprised by the enormous evidence marshalled by Mr. Woods in this important work. And it is hardly a dry work filled with many technical terms but is a very easy read.
Science
One outstanding example is in the area of science (ch. 5). Many in the scientific community believe that religious ideas must be kept out of scientific inquiry. True knowledge can only come about when there are no preconcieved ideas of a Prime Mover directing things. As Dr. John Hubert brought out in a recent article at TCR, they believe in a "methodological naturalism" which excludes anything not verifiable in the material realm, such as a First Cause, Prime Mover, Final Causality, etc. This concept is the main impetus behind the opposition to the growing Intelligent Design movement. Because Intelligent Design posits a Designer, and thus a purpose to creation, they are afraid that if this concept catches on it will be to the detriment of true "scientific" advancement.
What Mr. Woods shows is that, far from being a hindrance to scientific advancement, the Church promoted a worldview that made science inquiry itself possible! He directs the reader, for example, to the work of Father Stanley Jaki, a historian of science, who brings out the point that it was the Christian outlook that created the intellectual enviroment that made it possible for scienctific research to advance. Science couldn't develope in the other great cultures of antiquity because of "their lack of belief in a transcendent Creator who endowed His creation with consistent physical laws." (p.76-77) They saw creation permeated by a mutiplicity of human-like gods and goddesses and nature having a mind of its own. It was the Christian insistence of a God who transcended nature and who ordered it that "..allowed Christians to view the universe as a realm of order and predictability."(p.77) For Mr. Woods, "It was precisely this sense of the rationality and predictability of the physical world that gave early modern scientists the philosophical confidence to engage in scientific study in the first place".(p. 81.)
Woods also calls on the examples of twelfth century philosophers who endeavored to find the natural cause for things without reference to divine power, believing that nature was significantly autonomous while, at the same time, believing that God was the ultimate author of it. Also brought out are the contributions of priests and other Catholic scholars who made tremendous contributions to genuine scientific knowledge, contributions we don't often hear about. What Mr. Woods has presented here may come as outright shock to those used to reading the works of scientists such as Arthur C. Clarke and Richard Dawkins.
International Law, Unity of the Human Race,
Human Rights
Another noteworthy contribution the Church made to Western civilization is the concept of international law and basic human rights.(ch. 7) Mr. Woods presents the examples of 16th century churchmen like Father Francisco De Vitorio, who laid the foundations for international law, and Bartolome de Las Casas, who helped further the concept that the natives of the New World were as entitled to basic human rights as Europeans (how often do we hear that?). They based their thought on the principles of natural law laid out by St. Thomas Aquinas. The actions of the Spanish in the New World stirred these and other theologians to examine Church teachings concerning the dignity of human beings, natural rights, and concluded that "The treatment to which all human beings were entitled-e.g., not to be killed, expropriated, etc.- derives from their status as men rather than as members of the faithful in a state of grace."(p.139)
It is from the work of these men, Woods believes, that the present day concepts of international law and dignity of every human individual owe their origins. He states:
"The Catholic Conception of the fundamental unity of the human race, on the other hand, informed the deliberations of the great sixteenth century Spanish theologians who insisted on the universal principles that must govern the interactions of states. If we criticize Spanish excesses in the New World, therefore, it is thanks to the moral tools provided by the Catholic theologians of Spain that we are able to do so.'(p. 150)
Dignity of Women
There are many other examples of surprising facts brought out in this work that would come as a shock to anyone who believes modern secular propaganda concerning the Church. For instance, contrary to ultra feminist teaching, the Church actually worked toward the emanicipation of women, giving them freedoms unheard of in the ancient world. He also relates how the Church restored the dignity of marriage by insisting that relations were to be confined to husband and wife and that it is just as adulterous for a man to cheat on his wife as it is for a woman to be unfaithful to her husband (a novel concept in the ancient world!) Thus the dignity of women was actually greatly increased because of Church teachings, as well as the importance of the family as the basis of human life.
War and Peace
Also, concerning the concepts war and peace, the just war concept promoted by the Church became a basis for thinking twice before going to war. "Thus the developement of a distinct intellectual tradititon in the West whereby the moral rectitude of wars is held up to scrutiny according to certain fixed principles has been the work of the Catholic Church."(p. 208) ( For further illustration of this read Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy, Bantam Books, New York . 1971. by Telford Taylor, U.S. Chief Council at Nuremberg. Taylor says many of the same things as Woods does concerning the role of Catholic theologians in the forming of international law and the Just War concept.)
Jurisprudence
Also brought out in ch. 10 is how Church canon law "became the model for the various secular and legal systems that would now begin to emerge."(p. 190) Up tuntil the 11th century Europeans still lived under a primitve system of law filled with blood feuds, ordeals by fire and unsavory superstitions. But the "rational proceedures called for by canon law thus hastened the end of these primitve methods."(192) This runs counter to the Enlightenment myth that it was science and reason that ended superstitious practices promoted by religion.
In other areas there are numerous other examples of how the Church influenced Western architechture, economics, charity (an almost unheard of concept in the ancient world until the Church came along) education and art.
It has been said that society must be now based on humanistic principles and not religious ones. The Enlightenment, it is believed, has made it possible to grow "beyond" any dependence on the Creator. Those who say this, as previously mentioned, believe that a religious society would only lead to intolerance and conflict. If religions now believe in tolerance and human rights, the story goes, it is only because they have embraced concepts that have sprung up from Enlightenment principles.
What Mr. Woods has deftly shown is that if anything, the opposite is true. Many of the principles that the Enlightenment promoted and that secular humanism embraces have actually been borrowed from Catholic thought! Far from being a threat to the concepts of equality, human dignity, peace, the advancement of science and other of the good concepts that secular thought cherishes, the Catholic Church is the very foundation on which these ideas are supported! Far from being a hindrance to the advancement of human culture, the Church was the only reason Western Civilization actually did advance at all! One shudders to think what would happen if Western culture did indeed altogether abandon its Catholic roots!
The Quest
If society hasn't completely fallen apart yet, it is because people have not yet completely abandoned the the teachings and principles of the Church. Indeed, "Western standards of morality have been decisively shaped by the Catholic Church."(p. 203) Included among these are those which people still cling to.
Not a few today, thankfully, have rejected the logical implications of biased secular thought and are on journeys in search for a more solid basis for knowledge, science and existence. In doing so they are travelling on roads that will eventually lead back to Rome. Mr. Woods has provided a roadsign that will point many in the right direction if they as they continue on their quest. Every objective inquirer should get this book.
Summary of How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
From modern economics to Western art and m usic, the Catholic Church has contributed more to the development of Western civilization than any other institution--but rarely gets credit for it.Church History Books
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