The Victory of Reason

March 25, 2008

Lar,

As you and others can tell by looking in the right-hand column on this page, my current read is The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark.  Now, I have only finished the first chapter, so I am not going to venture to give a full summary of the book.  But the subtitle by itself tells us quite a bit:  “How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.”

I have often wondered about the various effects of the Christian worldview and knew there was a historical connection between the various blessings we enjoy and Christian though.  I just never really understood how.  Well, Stark has proved helpful immediately.  His thesis is sound and, from my vantage point, somewhat obvious.

Interestingly enough, however, his thesis is not necessarily a popular one among scholars.  Actually, this doesn’t come as a complete surprise, because of what we know of sin.  However, when I think about the many men and women who write historical books, I can’t help but wonder how they can call themselves objective while minimizing the impact of Christian thought on the formation of Western Civilization.  It really is striking the way in which sin can blind Ph.D’s.  It surely powerfully distorts us all.

Also worth mentioning in all of this, however, is the way in which all human beings tend to minimize the power of ideas.  It’s as if we are quite ignorant of our own make-up.  We don’t realize that our answers to the basic questions of human existence really are the most important things about us.  Who are we?  Where did we come from?  What has gone wrong?  And how can it be fixed?  Though the answers to these questions might seem somewhat abstract and impractical, they are anything but.  As Stark shows in this book and a few others, if the right answers to these questions gain power amidst the masses, blessing comes to all.  Sure, sin has and will continue to distort the various cultural enterprises that have arisen in Western Civilization.  But that doesn’t mean that those enterprises are sin in and of themselves.  Indeed, they are blessings that flow from a Christian worldview, blessings that affect us all.

I am sure I will have more to say about this book, but that is good for now.

Thankful (as always) for sound resources,

Joe

Posted by Joe | Filed Under Random Musings, Seeking Him 

Comments

2 Responses to “The Victory of Reason”

  1. Marcus Goodyear on April 2nd, 2008 12:04 pm

    Victory of Reason is a really interesting book. I’m not sure I’m fully convinced of every argument Stark makes, but the arguments themselves are so beautiful I always wanted to be convinced.

    The stuff connecting banking and credit to monasteries is especially fascinating.

  2. Joe on April 3rd, 2008 4:45 am

    Marcus,

    I just finished it up and was planning on making another post on the book. It is an amazing book isn’t it? I really enjoyed it. And considering he spends a good deal of time talking about the wool business of the 12th century, that means he must have written a fine book.

    I’ll look to write more later. Thanks for checking in.

    Joe

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