Once again you spend many paragraphs wasting your time talking about the greatness of Spanish ruled America. The fruits are apparent today!!!!! Say it over and over to yourself dozens of times, because you cant seem to absorb what is obvious to the most casual observer.
“United States is rapidly following on the steps of Latin America embraced to discredited socialist schemes”
EXACTLY! Once America abandoned its protestant Christian theological ideas, things go down hill fast. That is the whole point you keep missing!
from: http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=138585
““The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
– John Quincy Adams”
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian.”
– Supreme Court
IT IS THE IDEAS OF THE REFORMATION THAT CREATED THE MEN AND DOCUMENTS THAT FORMED AMERICA.
You keep arguing the greatness of the Spanish rule of conquest and dominion and that is exactly why you are so wrong. It is not conquest and control and forced schools that made America what is was, it was the Love of God and His word made available to the people through the reformation. THE LIBERTY OF CHRIST became the liberty of America which became the beacon of liberty for the world.
“Defies rationality to think that the first English colonists who were fleeing from religious persecution in Europe, had the means to buy land from the Indians.”
To be that ignorant of history, and yet doggedly argue it does not say much for your character.
“I do not see any bragging about the United States Calvinist roots.”
Well if all you are reading is that Catholic historian you quoted I am not surprised.
You really need to read some of the works about the IDEAS that created America, and their evolution. Some wrongly assert they are mostly from the “Enlightenment”, which is itself not independent entirely from the reformation. Maybe you could move beyond your narrow field of Catholic authors.
Maybe you could start with John Locke. “•Many of Locke’s political ideas were specifically drawn from British [reformation]theologian Richard Hooker (1554-1600), whom Locke quotes heavily in approbation throughout his own political writings”
“•Locke’s Two Treatises of Government were heavily relied upon by the American Founding Fathers. In fact, signer of the Declaration Richard Henry Lee declared that the Declaration itself was “copied from Locke’s Treatise on Government.” 5 Yet so heavily did Locke draw from the Bible in developing his political theories that in his first treatise on government, he invoked the Bible in one thousand three hundred and forty nine references; in his second treatise, he cited it one hundred and fifty seven times. “
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=106
here is a page where someone summed up their thoughts on the high level connections
http://www.reformationsa.org/index.php/reformation/115-the-reformation-roots-of-western-civilisation
I fully agree with you that this nation is so great because it was founded in Judeo-Christian morals and principles, and that abandoning those pillars of our nation is bringing it to its demise.
Far from demerit, I profoundly admire the works of the Founding Fathers, regardless of their religious background. I am not as blind, as you are, as not to recognize the achievements of those who do not share my religious convictions.
Most parents try to give the best education possible to their children, but not every child takes advantage of their education the same way.
Also I believe it is not very enlightened in your part to despise the education of children while they were also receiving the Word of God. Before the middle of the 16th century, bishop Zumárraga brought the first printing press to Mexico, almost at the same time that printing was introduced in Madrid (100 years prior to Boston.) In 1539 they published the “Breve y más Compendiosa Doctrina Cristiana en Lengua Mexicana y Castellana”, the first book edited in America, a catechism in two languages, Nahuatl and Castilian. By 1575 they were publishing books in 12 different native dialects. Grammar books and dictionaries of several Indian languages were also published in the Universities of Mexico and Lima, whereas in United States’ colonial times, John Eliot’s Indian Bible stood alone.
As a man of faith you should appreciate that in the Spanish colonies, since the very beginning of their arrival to this Continent, the education and saving of the soul of their children were as paramount for them as the education and saving of the souls of Indians.
Your admired John Calvin even though he established a tyrannical theocracy in Geneva of the style of today’s Iranian Islamic republic, but even bloodier. I believe that the Constitution was made to avoid the creation of a theocratic government in U.S. rather than to follow John Calvin’s example. I also think that the Calvinists certainly had also a deleterious cultural influence that justified the burning of witches, trade of slaves, religious intolerance, the foundation of the KKK and the persecution and killing of Blacks, Catholics and specially, Black republicans. It is a historical fact that the main slave traffickers were British and Dutch Reformers. You should not throw stones at others when you have a glass house.
You stated that there is a relationship between the “Enlightenment” and the Reformers, even though the “Enlightenment” gave birth to the age of reason. The Enlightenment attacked basic Christian beliefs and rejected God. Reason and enlightenment became the new Gods.
Although Enlightenment had positive contributions to the world, Marxism and Nazism also found their roots on the Enlightenment. Hitlerism is firmly rooted in the rationalist and scientific outlook of the 18th-century European Enlightenment. Marx is indebted to Enlightenment rationalism.
Dear prophet, is evident that you have a very limited and distorted knowledge of the invaluable legacy of the Church to the world. While the reformers were fighting and killing among themselves, the Catholic Church was saving Europe and the Western civilization from being obliterated by the forces of Islam.
How The Catholic Church Built Western Civilization
|May 2, 2005 | Thomas Woods
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0101.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ysmbkCzQU
Ask a college student today what he knows about the Catholic Church and his answer might come down to one word: “corruption.” But that one word should be “civilization.” Western civilization has given us the miracles of modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of the rule of law, a unique sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, a philosophy grounded in reason, and innumerable other gifts that we take for granted as the wealthiest and most powerful civilization in history.
But what is the ultimate source of these gifts? Bestselling author and professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. provides the long neglected answer: the Catholic Church. Woods’s story goes far beyond the familiar tale of monks copying manuscripts and preserving the wisdom of classical antiquity. In How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, you’ll learn:
• Why modern science was born in the Catholic Church
• How Catholic priests developed the idea of free-market economics five hundred years before Adam Smith
• How the Catholic Church invented the university
• Why what you know about the Galileo affair is wrong
• How Western law grew out of Church canon law
• How the Church humanized the West by insisting on the sacredness of all human life No institution has done more to shape Western civilization than the two-thousand-year-old Catholic Church—and in ways that many of us have forgotten or never known. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization is essential reading for recovering this lost truth.
A non-Catholic’s View of a Good Book About a Great Civilization-James E. Egolf
Thomas Woods’ book titled HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILD WESTERN CIVILIZATION is an unanswerable antidote to anti-Catholic bashers and their mindless sychophants. Prof. Woods provides a compelling case that Western Civilization could not have thrived without the valuable achievements of the Catholic Church over the past 2,000 years.
Prof. Woods survey of the Catholic Church in late Ancient History and during the Dark Ages makes clear that the Catholic Church authorities and especially the monks were invaluable in preserving learning. He makes clear that the early Catholic monks and nuns were the only literate people in Europe, and they preserved learning by hand copying books and teaching. Prof. Woods’ treatment of this historical episode gives the thoughtful reader an insight as to how crucial those who were in religious orders were to European recovery.
Prof. Woods’ chapter on Medieval universities is solid. He gives the conditions under which teachers and students operated and makes clear that the “Age of Scholasticism” was an intellectually vibrant age. The books gives examples of the curriculum and the emphasis on logic and reason both in learning and solving intellectual issues.
The Age of Reason actually began in the Medieval Catholic universities rather than in the 17th and 18th centuries. Prof. Woods’ evaluation of Medieval Scholasticism compares favorably with John Baldwin’s THE SCHOLATIC CULTURE OF THE MIDDE AGES, 1000-1300.
Chapter five of this book undermines the notion that the Catholic authorities tried to undermine scientific study.
For example, Prof. Woods cites numerous examples of Catholic university officials supporting scientific study and lending considerable resources to the study of astronomy. He also gives an honest assessment of the trial of Galileo who was also highly praised by Catholic authorities including the Pope.
This reviewer learned for the first time that the Jesuits started the study of seismology. This chapter is important because it undermines the false notion that the Catholic Church was against science. One should note that many scientific advances that are taken for granted and which are important originated with the Catholic Church.
Not only did the Catholic Church make invaluable contributions in science and philosophy, but Prof. Woods presents an abundance of evidence of the valuable contributions that the Catholic Church made in developing both Canon Law and the concepts of natural and legal rights. These chapters are especially important in that they clearly prove that the Catholic jurists had meticulous concern for the rights of individuals including those who were not Catholic. This thesis is proven beyond doubt in chapters nine, ten, and eleven.
Prof. Woods presents a historical case of what happens in “A World Without God” which is the title of the book’s conclusion. The twentieth century is thus far history’s bloodiest century. The absence of moral codes except that of what the state dictates without religious convictions, convictions taught by the Catholic Church, presents historical tragedy.
Prof. Woods could have written a five foot book shelf on the crucial role of the Catholic Church in creating Western Civilization. Those who want to know more should consult the bibliography at the end of the book HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT WESTERN CIVILIZATION which is a good bibliography.
This reviewer would have included Regine Pernoud’s book titled THOSE TERRIBLE MIDDLE AGES EBUNKING THE MYTHS and G.K.Chesterton’s ORTHODOXY. A recent book published by Father Duffy titled QUEEN OF THE SCIENCE:THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND LIBERAL LEARNING should be read in tandem with Prof. Woods’ book.
Prof. Woods has simply written a great book.
HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT WESTERN CIVILIZATION should be in every Catholic school on the planet. Thoughtful Protestants who do not define their religion by Catholic bashing would benefit from this book. This book should not be recommended to Catholic bashers as it could cause cultural shock and apoplexy.
If anyone reads this review and assumes this reviewer is a Catholic, they would be wrong. This reviewer has studied enough history to know just how crucial the Catholic Church has been and is wise enough to appreciate the Catholic Church’s achievements.
Why the Middle Ages were a golden age
By Thomas Craughwell
This is one of those eye-opening books that put to rest widely accepted but nonetheless misguided notions about the past. In 225 information-packed pages Tom Woods reveals how, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church single-handedly revived and rebuilt Western civilization.
The Benedictine monks, for example, transformed wasteland and swamps into fertile fields, harnessed water power, and bred healthier strains of livestock.
The Jesuits became pre-eminent in astronomy and developed a scientific approach to archaeology. The Church fostered village schools and the great universities of Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and Cambridge; operated hospitals and orphanages; sheltered and fed the poor; and formulated the idea of basic human rights. Thanks to this book, people who use the term “medieval” as an insult are going to be awfully embarrassed.
Everything you know about the Catholic Church is wrong
By Kevin Beckman
About the Catholic Church that is. Ask the average layperson about the Middle Ages and he’ll probably say it was a time of ignorance and superstition, where the Church ruthlessly stamped out dissent.
Surprise! Woods shows just the opposite is true: it was the Church that gave us the university system. It was the Church, the monks specifically, that preserved the wisdom of the ancient world and drove technological innovation for centuries.
But the Church crippled scientific progress right? Wrong. Woods proves again that just the opposite is true: science as we know it would not have arisen without Christian presuppositions, i.e. God’s creations operate according to laws that can be discovered by man. This is in stark contrast to other ancient cultures which believed nature was unpredictable and the gods were capricious.
Charity, morality, economics, international law, the idea that all men are created equal, and many other things we take for granted all have foundations in Catholic thought.
The title is accurate: the Church built Western civilization. I’m sorry the book is so short at 225 pages. Each chapter could easily become a book in its own right.
Woods has a gift - also evident in his other books - for swift narratives, delightful anecdotes, and discovering astonishing facts that were there all along but somehow became great secrets. Woods says that our debt to the Church is one of history’s greatest secrets. I hope more people are able to learn this secret. Woods’s book is a great start, and the bibliography provides other excellent sources.