The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success - Rodney Stark Audiobook
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Many books have been written about the success of the West, analyzing why Europe was able to pull ahead of the rest of the world by the end of the Middle Ages. The most common explanations cite the West’s superior geography, commerce, and technology. Completely overlooked is the fact that faith in reason, rooted in Christianity’s commitment to rational theology, made all these developments possible. Simply put, the conventional wisdom that Western success depended upon overcoming religious barriers to progress is utter nonsense.
In The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial, and long overdue idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium.
In Stark’s view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason: While the world’s other great belief systems emphasized mystery, obedience, or introspection, Christianity alone embraced logic and reason as the path toward enlightenment, freedom, and progress. That is what made all the difference.
In explaining the West’s dominance, Stark convincingly debunks long-accepted “truths.” For instance, by contending that capitalism thrived centuries before there was a Protestant work ethic–or even Protestants–he counters the notion that the Protestant work ethic was responsible for kicking capitalism into overdrive. In the fifth century, Stark notes, Saint Augustine celebrated theological and material progress and the institution of “exuberant invention.” By contrast, long before Augustine, Aristotle had condemned commercial trade as “inconsistent with human virtue”–which helps further underscore that Augustine’s times were not the Dark Ages but the incubator for the West’s future glories.
This is a sweeping, multifaceted survey that takes readers from the Old World to the New, from the past to the present, overturning along the way not only centuries of prejudiced scholarship but the antireligious bias of our own time. The Victory of Reason proves that what we most admire about our world–scientific progress, democratic rule, free commerce–is largely due to Christianity, through which we are all inheritors of this grand tradition.
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| Creation Date: | Sat, 08 May 2021 18:42:41 +0200 |
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This post has 34 comments with rating of 3.9/5
May 8th, 2021
Stark truths.
May 8th, 2021
Ha ha yeah…ok.
Can we discuss how all that freedom and capitalism and Christianity le bto millions of Africans being sold into slavery and tens of thousands of European Jews and Muslims were killed for not being chrisitian?
Christian apologists are the worst people in the world.
May 8th, 2021
Apologists for various shades of blood-red stars are not the best characters, to be sure. Mindless defenders of the most genocidal ideology in human history, standing in hypocritical judgment of 2000 years of history which they can’t hope to comprehend?
May 8th, 2021
Okay, for 1 - slavery still exist to this day all over the world except in the western Christian nations. where is the out cry? Oh that’s right, uppity do-good-er leftist can’t criticize anyone in the East because all those countries are just SOOO just and righteous right? And of course saying anything bad about African nations would mean one was RACIST! for which there is no greater sin.
2- Muslims started the war with outer Christendom not the other way around so what are we apologizing for? Winning?
3- Why is all this stuff so GD terrible if done by a Christian but all fine and dandy if don’t by virtually ANY other group?
4- All of this was rather un-extraordinary within the context of the time it took place. To look back in history and apply todays morals and standards and try and pass judgment makes you look like a hypocritical amateur.
May 8th, 2021
Well sure, what could be more reasonable than an invisible man in the sky who is also the father, son, and Holy Ghost (whatever that means), and, of course, whose mother was still a virgin after his birth. I mean, sure sounds reasonable to me.
May 8th, 2021
Yer mexicanhat is on too tight.
May 8th, 2021
Imagine galileo galilei Reading this Book!
May 8th, 2021
Galileo, unlike many moderns, probably knew his history, and would agree with the themes. He would know, for inst, that the Church created, inter alia, the university.
Sadly, the extent of many people’s knowledge of Galileo is confined to Bohemian Rhapsody.
May 8th, 2021
Careful now, caesar, your Malleus Maleficarum is showing…
May 8th, 2021
…does it look too big in this? That’s always what Calpurnia says - “Caeesar, old chap, you’re too big.”
May 8th, 2021
This should make interesting listening. Thanks for the upload
@wheresmycannon: You’re wrong in almost every statement.
Slavery still exists in a less than obvious form in many Western Christian nations. Maybe not so widespread but we read every day about vulnerable people having been kept in a caravan with no wages, poor clothing and little to eat.Quite a few middle class Americans have illegal immigrants paid less than minimum as domestic help. And its not leftists who support the autocratic regimes in parts of the Middle East. Their support comes from Western governments who don’t mind what goes on so long as they can sell arms; the same governments who blew up the rest of the ME in pursuit of oil and in the case of Libya, protection of their petrocurrency. Nobody is more ruthless than Christendom in protecting its interests.
Do a little reading on the Crusades if you think Muslims initiated centuries of Islamic-Christian intolerance.
May 8th, 2021
“apologists are the worst”
May 8th, 2021
Well, I think the point is that slavery does not legitimately exist in the West. In Europe, there’s a great deal of illegal sex-trafficking, incl children. People-trafficking is widespread throughout the world.
In Qatar, in prep for World Cup, 2022 - “workers” on the stadiums are essentially in a condition of slavery. Many have died, and the rest of the world really doesn’t give a phuck, as participation rates next year will remain high.
Regimes of the left, right & centre have all interfered in, and exploited the Middle East. From all around the world. All extremely ruthless.
On the Crusades: no. Islam is indeed one of the great religious traditions, one which I have a great deal of respect for, but that is not the history of the Crusades. Islam expanded very quickly, very violently, & very successfully. In the 400 yrs before the Crusades, two-thirds of Christendom was colonised by Islamic forces, in repeated waves of attacks, including deep into Europe.
Byzantium continuously appealed to Europe for existential aid. It was not forthcoming, because of internal division. Eventually, a strategy was agreed upon to retake & secure the Holy Land, because of the ongoing threat to pilgrims. This was again a bloody affair. European forces were specifically mandated not to exceed the territory that had been Christian prior to the invasions which began in the first half of the 7th c.
The efforts were eventually in vain, as Islamic forces recolonised the territories, and also took Byzantium/Constantinople, thereby leaving the way clear for invasion deep into the Balkans & environs. Please research the subject - that means everyone, incidentally.
May 8th, 2021
Awww sheeiitttt. I wish people would stop writing about how religion was the reason for one success or another.
Religion - a contrivance that was found to be a great way to explain the unexplainable by the people of the day…. IE, Mother Earth, Father Sky (Rangi & Papa to some) or the God of Thunder (not Gene Simmons, but Set, Zeus, Indra or so many others) and once the God Creatures were established in the lexicon of the day. It followed on that threatening the masses with the Wrath of God was a great way to control them.
I often have opinions that vary widely to those of caesar963 but he is on the money here.
May 8th, 2021
By the description this is the same type revisionist propaganda use for intelligent design, rather than reverse engineering Darwinism and evolution it’s reverse engineering The Enlightenment.
May 8th, 2021
@Roddd, Christianity was a significant part the dark ages in Europe because it outlawed reason. Even into the Renaissance and to some extent present day. It hindered Galileo and Newton and countless others.
May 8th, 2021
Brilliant. This is why we hold philosophical positions. Awesome up! As a Muslim I find this compelling. Sorry guys and gals, neuroscience shows without doubt that the prefrontal cortex is enlarged by religious practices. Argue all you want but you are arguing against science. The early Christians revolted against the material world thus paving the way for huge advances in brain development. Doctrines in all the world religions teach anti-violence and dialogue, thus ending constant tribal warfare and allowing for enlightenment across Europe and Africa, and the Middle East. Is it perfect no? Was it? No. Science itself isn’t perfect either. Anyway, great up.
May 8th, 2021
yeah ok, can we discuss how atheist communists murdered more poeple than ever perished in religious wars AND at a far faster clip i.e. less than one century?
May 8th, 2021
Come on. Seriously, guys. Every single thing…
It outlawed reason. FFS.
Enlightenment positives: Beccaria & penal reform; the philos of Kant.
The dark side of the Enlight: formulation & dissem of “scientific” racism; Rousseau’s authoritarian theories, which led directly to the FR, the brutal Terror, Vendée atrocities, the Rev wars, the tyranny & subsequent wars of Napoleon; the consequent rise of European nationalism; etc.
Galileo & Newton were devout Christians. Newton wrote more on theology than any other subject.
St Augustine theorised on evolution 1600 yrs ago.
There were no “dark ages in Europe” - historians & assorted educated folks point this out, ad bloody nauseam. The term is a misnomer, misapplied from the actual Greek Dark Ages (1100 BC-c750 BC) to the Early Mid Ages. A dark age is one in which literacy is lost; where no written sources exist. This did not happen during the mediev era. The Church, directly contrary to the above error, preserved literacy & Classical culture in the teeth of barbarian incursions into Europe.
During the Medieval period (or “the Dark Ages” if u prefer), the Church created the university, the hospital, the doctrine of human rights, preserved literacy, spread learning, developed the sciences, philosophy, instituted legal reforms such as due process in the trial & originated the doctrine of the presumption of innocence, etc, introduced agricultural reforms, & on & on. It was a remarkably vibrant, fascinating phase of civilisation.
Additionally, there was not one Renaissance during this period - there were four.
Classical texts were gathered, protected, and preserved/copied in scriptoria throughout the period. Augustine, Anselm, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Bonaventure, Albertus Magnus, Bacon, Meister Eckhart, J Scotus Eriugena, Wm of Ockham, Boethius, & Aquinas all engaged with these texts, and Classical thought, generally (of partic import were Plato & Aristotle). “Faith seeking understanding” guided their rational explorations in the project to successfully and creatively integrate Athens with Jerusalem.
This is all established historical fact. Emotion is not a helpful guide here.
May 9th, 2021
Too simplistic to say olny Christianity make the western world the way it is. Yes it was a factor. It is not the sole factor. Not having the Mongols storm into western Europe was a factor too. How the black death effected the west was a major factor. Gun power and steel was a major factor too. No with out any of these the west would not be here as we know it. No it it not just Christianity that made the west so powerful.
May 9th, 2021
You could write a book that said luck is the sole reason the west is the way it is now. You would be more right. You can prove anything in history if you start from the premise of proving your theory right and ignoring anything that does not fit your premise. Yes historians have not used the books theory for a reason. They spend their lives studying the subject. The author calls every historian wrong. Even the ones in the 1800s that also spent their lives trying to prove that western Christianity was the only true religion that was the sole reason that the west ruled the world. They were wrong then. This is the same Victorian stuff. They olny difference i can see is is that there is no British empire that is the glory of God.
May 9th, 2021
I think the purpose of this book is to use history to counter theorists like Marx and his rabid followers, and theorists like the neo-atheists who don’t use history or science, rather, bias and prejudice to judge religion. Bias is a problem in the sciences that goes much further than simply blaming religion for any impediments to progress. Bias comes even from atheists. Where we currently stand on the issue of free-will and determinism is a perfect example of how it isn’t only religionists who are whining about how determinism can’t be a fact (though they argue against Einstein’s math and evidence provided by neuroscience). The social “sciences” and the popular “science” anti-theists need to use more rigorous science and stop depending on theory which is really just fantasy with their own ideas as hero.
May 9th, 2021
@cluck, ol’ chap - Author is the very opposite of a Victorian imperialist, and not remotely a believer in nonsense Whig history, which is refuted by all established historical fact, in particular the events of the 20th c.
And that really isn’t the way in which the discipline of historiography operates. Of course it begins with a postulate, but the historical themes & theories will only be as strong as the evidence which supports them. Stark’s arguments are very strong (an established academic of great repute), and not nearly as shockingly revolutionary as the popular, cultural understanding of the period will unthinkingly assume. Pop understanding is virtually always at odds w & behind the academic research & comprehension.
Anything else is overly simplistic reductionism upon stilts, baby.
May 9th, 2021
Really enjoying this book! Challenging me in so many ways. I don’t know much about economics or history, and I’ve always assumed that it was the protestant work ethic that led to capitalism. Stark basically starts there with Weber and dismantles just about everything I thought was fact, using historical examples to support his arguments. As a Muslim I am definitely challenged by this book. Same can be said for my interests in Buddhism and Taoism. Stark covers all these topics brilliantly. And Alfred North Whitehead even shows up on the scene! One of the best books I’ve read this far. Awesome up and thanks for the always insightful comments Caesar!
May 9th, 2021
Meant to say one of the best books I’ve read this *Year. Thanks again.
May 10th, 2021
Christian exceptionalist nonsense aside, I’d really hate to see what the failure of reason looks like…
May 10th, 2021
One could argue that Christianity pushed education and the western civilization forward, up to a point. Now it’s mostly just hindering it and used by far-right evangelist and conservative politicians.
May 10th, 2021
But if some people think they need that old time religion, whether they prefer Islam, Christianity or some other, they’re welcome to it. I prefer my fantasies as such - just fantasies.
May 10th, 2021
@notmebug191 - You don’t have to imagine the failure of reason, merely study the ideological bloodbath that was the 20th c. Abundant evidence - and many of those currents are still flowing.
@ill ol’ pill - Aren’t you just making the error of taking some very unrepresentative evangelical noisy voices, and spuriously allowing them to stand for the whole? There are bad actors in all walks (see 20th c).
May 10th, 2021
caesar963
The problem is that this book is also Whiggish history, with slight modifications: for the Whigs, all good things came from Protestantism, and for the author, all good things come from medieval Catholicism.
May 10th, 2021
Well, whig historiography presents hist as having a telos, or purposive trajectory. It’s fatuously optimistic & ideological.
From the pov of Christianity, whig hist is absurd, because human nature does not change. The same motivations, urges, and currents are always present in us.
WH fashions a simplistic narrative, leading to an abounding, wondrous present. In order to achieve this end, it ignores all of the countervailing evidence. For inst, the global spread of barbarism over the last century.
Everything’s just getting better (look away from that genocide & exploitation) - just observe all the success ‘n gadgets.
Steven Pinker has been engaging in a bit of this of late.
To observe that a religion or movement was demonstrably responsible for a substantial amount of goods isn’t the same as contriving a telos of history, which does not (& cannot) exist. Thanks.
May 11th, 2021
Most of the scientists I know are Christian, including a nuclear physicist. As far as I know and as they will probably report when asked, they use their faith as a means to gain greater self-control and discipline to help further the progress of science. Most of the non-Christians I know, with simplistic self-serving answers for the origins of religion, are drug addicts. That’s just some observations.
May 16th, 2021
Thank you for sharing!
Free speech above any debate.
June 26th, 2021
Truly a history for illiterate airheads who didn’t make it beyond the title. Shameless propaganda for pigs being sold to the slaughter.
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