Christianity's impact upon civilization

No one denies historical tragedies that Christians contributed to. However, Christianity undeniably made a huge positive difference in the history of humanity. A unique contribution that Christianity made to mankind is its belief of the intrinsic worth of each individual person as a child of God. Here we will briefly scan the influence of Christianity on the development of civilization. 1. When the early Christian church was formed, Christians were under attack not only from Jewish authorities, but also from the Roman emperors at large. Around the year 67, Nero crucified and burned thousands of Christians (Cf. Tacitus, Annals, 305). Over the next three centuries, his successors followed him in persecuting Christians. The reason why Christians were persecuted, was not only for their refusal to worship the pagan gods and the emperor, but also because they lived a morally upright lives, seen as offensive to the decaying Roman morality. In the words of Pliny the Younger, an advisor to Emperor Trajan, Christians “bound themselves by a solemn oath not to deny any wicked deeds, never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up”(Cf. Pliny, Letters, 403). Christian commitment led to the conversion of Emperor Constantine upon defeating his rival Maxentius in 312 by the sign of the cross. As a Christian emperor, Constantine introduced moral reforms in civil law including the outlaw of crucifixion and branding of slaves. He was impressed by “the comparative order and morality of Christian conduct, the bloodless beauty of the Christian ritual (as opposed to gladiators games), the obedience of Christians to their clergy, their humble acceptance of life’s inequalities in hope of happiness beyond the grave”(Cf. Will Durant, Caesar and Christ, 1972). 2. Infanticide (the killing of deformed and weak newborn) was widespread in the Greco-Roman culture and even beyond (India, China, Japan, Brazil, Africa, Eskimos..). Cicero (106- 43 B.C.) justified it by citing the ancient Twelve Tables of Roman Law, and the philosopher Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.) said “We drown children who at birth are weak and abnormal” (De Ira 1.15). Infant girls were especially vulnerable (an inscription at Delphi reveals that only 1% of families raised more than one daughter in the second century). It was Christians who, on the contrary, condemned infanticide as an act of murder (Didache, 110 A.D.) thus honouring human life as an inalienable gift from God. Once Christianity attained legal status in the 4th century, the Christian emperor Valentinian, influenced by St. Basil, formally outlawed infanticide (374 A.D.) 3. In the Greco-Roman culture, if unwanted infants were not killed, they were abandoned at the base of the Columna Lactaria, so named because this was the place the state provided for nurses to feed them. Euripides, the Greek poet of the fifth century B.C., mentions infants being thrown into rivers, exposed on roadsides and given prey to birds and beasts. In Sparta, when a child was born, he was taken before the elders and they decided whether he would be kept or abandoned. Even stage plays of that culture revolved around mythical heroes who were abandoned as children (e.g. Oedipus Rex, Poseidon, Hephaistos..etc). Abandonment of infants was also practised for centuries in Persia and Africa. Christians condemned the culture of abandoning infants. As early as the 2nd century, St. Clement of Alexandria condemned the Romans for protecting young birds while abandoning their own children. A sixth-century canon law of the church called parents who abandoned their children “murderers” (Cf. Patri Graeco-Latina 88:1933). Examples of Christians who provided protection and nourishment for children who were abandoned emerge as early as the 2nd century (Benignus of Dijon, Afra of Augsburg). In the 5th century, Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II ruled that an abandoned child had to be announced in church and if no one claimed him, the finder could keep him. In the 11th century, King St. Olaf of Norway fined parents who exposed a child, and his successor King Magnus charged such parents with murder. The Christian opposition resulted in laws outlawing this practice throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. 4. Abortion practice was practised in virtually all pagan cultures. It was widespread in the Greco-Roman civilization, sometimes due to food shortage, but mainly due to the deterioration of the value of marriage, and the increase in promiscuous sexual affairs in the late Roman era. Moreover, the desire to remain childless was promoted (Cf. Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam 19.2; Horace, Satires 2.5) The great Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle argued that it was the prerogative of the city-state to have a woman submit to an abortion so that the state would not become too populous (Cf. Plato’s Republic 5.461). However, other philosophers opposed abortion (Pythagorians), and the Hippocratic Oath (5th century B.C.) said “I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion” Jewish tradition, even before Christ, defended the sanctity of life including life in the womb (Cf. 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, Against Apion). Christian tradition from the beginning criminalizes abortion as murder (Cf. Didache, in The Apostolic Fathers, 319). As commented by the historian Ferdinand Schenck : “The intrinsic worth of each individual man and woman as a child of God and an immortal soul was introduced by Christianity” 5. One of the perverted customs that Christianity overturned was human sacrifices. The Canaanites and virtually all ancient societies knew of this sacrifice to the pagan dieties. Aztec and Maya Indians sacrificed captive warriors in their religious rites. The Romans introduced the gladiatorial games in 264 B.C. as a way of showing the power of Roman Emperor to whom even people can be sacrificed. Gladiators were usually slaves, condemned criminals, or prisoners of war, all of whom were considered dispensable, without dignity. These games were not confined to Rome but were also held in Syria, Greece and Asia Minor. Gladiators were encouraged to slash and slay each other before an entertained crowd with the emperor at the Colosseum in Rome or amphitheaters in other cities.The church condemned sacrifice of human life as part of any rituals. The church also condemned the gladiatorial bloody contests and gambling with human life. In his book de spectaculis, Tertullian (d. 220) devoted an entire chapter to admonishing Christians not to attend gladiatorial games. Christian Emperor Theodosius I (378-395) terminated the games in the East, and his son Honorius ended them in 404 in the West. W.E.H. Lecky stated “There is scarcely any single reform so important in the moral history of mankind as the suppression of the gladiatorial shows, a feat that must be almost exclusively ascribed to the Christian church” Much of Christianity’s influence is still with us even in the ever-growing secular and religiously pluralistic milieu of today: The world's first university, Italy's University of Bologna, was designed to teach canon law. Hundreds of hospitals, which still bear the prefix "St." in their names, bear witness to Christianity's enormous impact upon healthcare-even in non-Christian lands.The work of our culture's greatest artists-Michelangelo, Donatello, El Greco, Dali and others-were inspired almost exclusively by Christianity. Most music for 1600 years after Christ fits this profile as well. Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are among the great works of literature with a heavy Christian stamp upon them. The Bible remains the bestselling book in the history of mankind. Perhaps the best way to evaluate Christianity's impact upon civilization is to compare it to the culture it replaced. The Roman Empire's regard for human life was small. Infanticide, with female babies comprising its primary victim, was widespread in Greece and Rome. So too was abortion. Gladiatorial contests, in which hundreds would sometimes die merely for others' amusement, were a feature as central to their culture. Christianity obliterated all of this for hundreds of years. In the Americas, Christianity replaced a diverse array of Native American empires and fiefdoms. Constant warfare, slavery, and cannibalism were features of the most powerful ones. Where does one find the greatest amount of religious freedom? It is in the Western countries where Christianity has had its greatest and longest presence, or is it in societies where Christianity has had little or no presence? China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia provide the answer to this query. There is no predominantly Christian nation on the face of the earth where people of other faiths can't practice their religions freely. The same cannot be said for non-Christian nations. While Christianity is a common target of contemporary feminists, women of other cultures fare far worse than their Christian sisters. In parts of Africa, female clitoridectomy is standard. China, which for hundreds of years witnessed the barbaric mutilation of its daughters' feet, now features a birthrate of two females for every three males because of its forced abortion policy. Women in Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are forced to wear the veil and are denied an education. Until the British eradicated it, the practice of the Suti-widows committing suicide upon their husbands' funeral pyres-was customary in India. In contrast, St. Paul pronounced, "There is neither…male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." How does Christianity stack up against these other cultures? For any clear thinker, the question answers itself.