How the (Catholic) Church Built Western Civilization

Zenit News Agency ^ | September 26, 2005

[NYer]

Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[murphE]

I see Thomas Woods at mass every Sunday. =D

[CaptainKeyword]

the church rocks. /anti catholic sentiment.

[rjp2005]

An excellent post. Good point about art and culture being an area needing more confident Catholic artists. Gibson's movie was a breakthrough and I'm still amazed at the level of publicity he generated.

[fizziwig]

Science, as we know it today, would not exist without Christianity.

Great article, thanks!

[txzman]

Although raised Catholic, I left the Church at 16, baptized at 40 in a Baptist church, now attend Chuck Swindoll's church in Texas (www.stonebriar.org). I was also a history major in college, love God and His history.

Since living in Texas I have been amazed at the number of folks in other denominations who do not seem to understand that the Bible Baptists or other Protestant denominations read came from the same place. Or that the history of Jesus Christ and all His churches all come from the same beginning.

I still do not understand why some Baptists keep Catholics at arms length - perhaps just the same misinformation that goes on in so many other areas of our everyday world.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Mark for later...

[ikka]

This reminds me of a Hungarian customer I once had, who informed me that it was Hungarians who first invented the telephone; and that Tesla got some of his ideas from a Hungarian assistant. etc. etc.

Catholicism was definitely helpful; but, there is a reason it is called the "Protestant" work ethic.

[MissAmericanPie]

I agree with the "Christianity" part, but that casts a much wider net than just the Catholic Church. I think Protestants did quite well in the good old USofA after having wrenched the bible from the hands of those that didn't allow the ordinary man to read it, and they seem to have been very blessed in all their endeavors, as opposed to Old Europe's stagnation.

Who can disagree that Protestant America and it's Constitution have given the world it's greatest and inspired discoveries.

[DoctorMichael]

Good post. Thanks!

[olde north church]

I was Baptized, Communioned, and Confirmed Roman Catholic. Although I was unable to experience my Marriage as a Sacrement, I had the wedding rings blessed.
I believe, it is our American culture which makes the celebration of any religion, well most religions, a truly wonderful gift. It's what sets us apart from the dour Europeanism from which are ancestors, thankfully, escaped.
I know my comments were tangential to the topic but nonetheless, are the result of a Roman Catholic upbringing.

[Pyro7480]

I think Protestants did quite well in the good old USofA after having wrenched the bible from the hands of those that didn't allow the ordinary man to read it

The "ordinary man," that you refer to, even up until 19th century, couldn't read. Literacy did not become widespread until then. Also, before this time, if you were literate, there was a good chance that you could read Latin as well. Up until the Protestant "Reformation," the Bible was available for anyone to read in Latin, since it was the intellectual language of the time. The problem the Church had with vernacular translations wasn't with the translations themselves, it was the fact that most were bad translations.

[A.A. Cunningham]

after having wrenched the bible from the hands of those that didn't allow the ordinary man to read it

Long ago debunked urban legend.

[wideminded]

According to the well-known theory of Max Weber (1864-1920), it was the rise of protestantism that led to the economic progress of western civilization. It's not called the Catholic work ethic.

[annalex]

Slightly off-topic but still worth mentioning are two other calumnies against the Church:

• Myth: The Crusades were wars of conquest caused by land shortage
  Reality: The Crusades were wars of liberation of Palestine and North Africa from Muslim aggression several centuries prior; they were undertaken by the West after Byzantium had failed to defend itself and asked for help.
• Myth: The Holy Inquisition was brutal suppession of religious dissent by torturing and burning the dissenters
  Reality: The Holy Inquisition was systematic and lawyerly determination of men who held views that could not be properly called Catholic. The state executed heretics because they were considered traitors. Most of those investigated by the Inquisition were aquitted or given penance, such as tithes and pilgrimages. Very few were released to the state for execution. Only mild torture was allowed. The Inquisition did much to promote modern legal methods of adversarial justice and get rid of corrupt local clergy

[R. Scott]

Contrary to popular opinion, the Catholic Church historically has been the champion of scientific, economic, legal and social progress.

I’ve never believed that many thought the Earth was flat – at least, not anyone living near a coast or working the sea.
I also don’t buy that the Church encouraged science. While most early achievements were made by priests and monks it may have been because the Church controlled education. If a person wanted an education entering the priesthood was just about the only way to do it.
Economic advancement was helped along by secular guilds and monastic orders instituting a banking system and the development of large commercially centered cities – with help from Viking traders.
Our legal system owes more to the Vikings than to the Church – our jury system as an example. Much of our early civil and criminal law was based on Roman Law.
The Black Death contributed much to the advancement of Western Civilization – when a large percentage of the workers died their labor became a precious commodity, thereby helping social progress.

Not to denigrate the contribution of the Church – but it was hardly alone in advancing civilization, and should not be given credit for being the “Champion” of progress.

[kidd]

I still do not understand why some Baptists keep Catholics at arms length - perhaps just the same misinformation that goes on in so many other areas of our everyday world.

I once experimented with the idea of becoming a Baptist. It was precisely because of the great amount of Catholic misinformation in the Baptist church that I quickly returned to Catholicism.

It was somewhat of a shock to hear so much hate of Catholicism when in fact the two religions are 99% similar.

[GovGirl]

Q: How did it come to be that the Church is considered the enemy of progress, freedom, human rights, science, and just about everything else modernity champions, when in fact your book claims that the Catholic Church is at the origin of these phenomena?

Did I miss something? When did the Church look anything like the the "Religion of Peace"? I guess nobody ever told me we Catholics were an enemy to any of the above mentioned items.

Hmmm... I thought we were pretty progressive, liked freedom quite a lot (I know you saw "The Sound of Music", too. Tell me that's not a freedom loving group of nuns), supported human rights for everyone (including those who aren't born yet), and had a lot of Catholic scientists (oh, and don't forget the monks and priests who are behind the science of wine).

Maybe they have me on the modernity thing, but really, do you want to see any of the clergy in low rise jeans and tube tops? ewwww.....

[whershey]

"I also don’t buy that the Church encouraged science. While most early achievements were made by priests and monks it may have been because the Church controlled education. If a person wanted an education entering the priesthood was just about the only way to do it."

That's not really true. The Jesuits would take anyone with talent. Some of the worlds greatest philosophers and scientists came from Jesuit schools.

That Catholic Church was far from a perfect entity. The Spanish inquisition for instance stagnated the population and played at least a small part in Spain falling from the role of being a great power. But all the same I find it hard to believe that western civilization would exist today if it hadn't been for the church.