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Title: The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
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Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $15.95
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| The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks The Christian Foundation for Western Success | Rodney Stark's "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success" is an eye-opening and thought-provoking discussion of why the Christian Western world has been so much more successful over the past 2000 years than the rest of the world. Stark bases his argument on the rational theology of Christianity: the application of reason and logic to religious faith and the belief that the Christian faith was progressive.
Stark argues that the Christian faith uniquely set the conditions for many of the breakthroughs and advances that have shaped the modern capitalist world - from banking to freedom to property rights. These advances were not possible under the Islamic faith or Eastern beliefs.
Stark's history is revisionist at times. He repudiates the modern perception that Greek science and thought or Roman technological innovations were better than the "Dark Ages," and he denies the banking accomplishments of the early Islamic world or the technological advances of the Asian world. And while he isn't the first to link the success of the West to Christianity, he does so in a unique and convincing manner.
This is a very intriguing book, if a bit dry at times. Stark's arguments are wide-ranging and persuasive, although he does leave the reader wanting a fuller explanation of some of his revisionist arguments. Anyone with any interest in history or theology should read this book.
| | The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks The Victory of Reason | I found this book well written and the points well substatiated with research. It is clear that Mr. Stark identifies some themes in Western culture including the importance of the individual, the importance of personal safety for your being and possessions, that personal freedom is a key to economic development and the creation of wealth is not just random but rather a response to stimulus. I have read many books but he is able to capture a system view and explain the factors present that make certain outcomes more or less likely. I would place this book as one of the most important books I have read and I would ethusiastically encourage the book be included in "must read" category.
Craig Wilson | | The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks Horrible. | It would take a large work to detail all the stupid and unforgivable mistakes present in this book. I would like to point out just one, in the hope that it will give the reader some idea of what to expect from this shoddy history.
"The Stoics, particularly Zeno, may have originated the idea of explaining the operations of the cosmos on the basis became the universal view. Thus, according to Aristotle, celestial bodies move in circles because pf their affection for this action, and objects fall to the ground `because of their innate love for the centre of the world.'"
First of all, Zeno the stoic lived about a century after Aristotle. This is like saying Noam Chomsky had a profound influence on Bertrand Russell. Why does Stark make this mistake? Because there were about a half dozen Zenos active at various times in antiquity. He's thinking of Zeno the pre-Socratic. He just can't do the research to keep them straight. What's even worse, though, is that he seems to think, based on this passage, that the Stoics not only pre-dated Aristotle, but that they influenced his thought. Wrong on both counts.
The book is filled with this kind of garbage. Don't believe a word in it. I don't know how people can publish such trash. | | The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks This book is a victory for reason | After reading this book, I rather suspected that the title should refer to the book itself. Or maybe it should be called "why everything you think you know about the history of Christianity is wrong." Granted, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but this book squarely takes on all sorts of myths and confronts them with the facts and solid reasoning. No sacred cow gets left alone. Here are just a few of the things you'll learn in this book:
- Why Christian Europe developed science, and why the Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, and other ancient cultures didn't
- How and why capitalism evolved in some places but not others
- Why Christianity is not the enemy of science, reason, and progress like the "new atheists" insist
- Why the "Dark Ages" were not all that dark
- And much more
I consider myself a history buff and have been studying the subject for quite awhile and I must say I learned a LOT from this book. It is absolutely packed with information and is well written. I intend to look up the rest of his books now that I've read this.
If you're interested in history, Christianity, the development of science, or the history of capitalism, you need to read this book. Also, even though this isn't primarily a book about apologetics, it ought to be mandatory reading for apologists - it has very valuable information and has highly recommended by numerous Christian leaders like Chuck Colson. Even if you don't think those sound interesting, read this book anyway - it's well worth the read. I am obviously very impressed with this book and recommend that everyone reads it. | | The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks I have purchased 4 copies so far | | This is one of those books you love to share with friends. It becomes the basis of clear headed discussions of the role of Christianity in the history of our civilization. For example, I had no idea that massive church-run businesses dominated European society during the middle ages. Nor did I realize that these enterprizes were successful in bypassing the anti-usury laws that characterized all other religions. This allowed the massing of capital so that production could grow beyond the economic model of one and two person shops which has strangled most of the mid-eastern countries. Where were these chapters in high school history textbooks? | | The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Random House Trade Paperbacks Product Description | 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.
From the Hardcover edition. |
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