According to the well-regarded atheist New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman, these are the cultural gains and losses that can be associated with the Christianization of western civilization.
There never would have been a Descartes or Kant.
There never would have been a Michelangelo, Giotto, or Ruebens.
There never would have been a Mozart, Handel, or Bach. There never would have been a Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky.
The word 'service' is one way to describe the basic ideology celebrated by the early Christians. Not all Christians practiced this ideology, but it was the one that was taught, preached, and urged.
The Christians insisted that love of the other was more important than dominance, that it was more important to serve than to be served. It is important to note that the Christian views came out of Judaism.
With the Christianization of the West, there emerged hospitals, orphanages, public funding of welfare and private charities.
These things did not exist in the pagan world. They came into being because of the Christian church.
Most would consider this development a real plus, hugely beneficial to the human race at large and to most of us individually.
source credit: Bart Ehrman, PhD, University of North Carolina, 'The Triumph of Christianity', 2024.
Gains
The Christianization of Europe is the most transformative event of Western Civilization, and arguably the most transformative event of human history. If Christianity had not taken over the Roman world, none of the historical movements that have shaped our world would have happened: What we know of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and arguably the Enlightenment would have been unthinkable. In one way or another, Christianity was the dominant force in all of them, and all of them shaped who we are today.Culture
The history of western philosophy, art, music, literature as we know it would not have occurred.There never would have been a Descartes or Kant.
There never would have been a Michelangelo, Giotto, or Ruebens.
There never would have been a Mozart, Handel, or Bach. There never would have been a Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky.
Ethics and Social Justice
There was an important and sustained discussion of ethics in the ancient Roman world. But it was simply understood at every level that the strong would and should assert dominance over the weaker.The word 'service' is one way to describe the basic ideology celebrated by the early Christians. Not all Christians practiced this ideology, but it was the one that was taught, preached, and urged.
The Christians insisted that love of the other was more important than dominance, that it was more important to serve than to be served. It is important to note that the Christian views came out of Judaism.
With the Christianization of the West, there emerged hospitals, orphanages, public funding of welfare and private charities.
These things did not exist in the pagan world. They came into being because of the Christian church.
Most would consider this development a real plus, hugely beneficial to the human race at large and to most of us individually.
Losses
Diversity:
The pagan cults tolerated diversity in religious practice, and the sense that varying paths to the divine were acceptable.Loss of pagan literature:
The Christian monasteries were mostly focusing on copying and preserving Christian religious texts, and an enormous amount of pagan literature and philosophy was lost to posterity.source credit: Bart Ehrman, PhD, University of North Carolina, 'The Triumph of Christianity', 2024.
