Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind

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This extraordinary book is vintage Tom Holland: history boldly and elegantly retold, with fascinating interconnections traced to create a narrative that cannot fail to stimulate, for it leads to a never-ending question -- Diarmaid MacCulloch Holland is an illuminating guide on a journey from Ancient Athens to 21st-century gay rights * History Revealed * Sustained with all the breadth, originality and erudition that we have come to associate with Holland's writing * Spectator * Fizzing with insights and challenges, this is one history book that is timely and important, as well as a feast of intellectual entertainment -- Christopher Hart * Sunday Times * Holland is an exceptionally good storyteller with a marvellous eye for detail * The Economist * An all-absorbing story * Literary Review * This book has ruffled feathers .

How you feel about the person whose place you take in the queue for the gas chambers is neither here nor there. Followers of Satan around the same time were obliged to suck on the tongue of a giant toad and lick the anus of a black cat. Widen the focus, though, and Christianity's enduring impact upon the West can be seen in the emergence of much that has traditionally been cast as its nemesis: in science, in secularism, and yes, even in atheism. Further down the line the British empire would similarly act as a vehicle for an analogus dissemination. Humanism, instead of springing from ancient Greek philosophy or Enlightenment thinking, "derives ultimately from claims made in the Bible: that humans are made in God's image; that his Son died equally for everyone; that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

Despite these omissions, Dominion packs an astonishing amount of stuff into its 500 pages on Christianity’s enduring influence. a cornucopia of characters and information: almost everyone would learn from it something they didn't know .

Indeed, his characterisation of St Paul does seem to be questionable in some areas and it is surprising that we hear more of Paul rather than of Christ himself even if Paul was a key transmitter of the Christian message. A masterpiece of scholarship and storytelling, Dominion surpasses Holland's earlier books in its sweeping ambition and gripping presentation -- John Gray * New Statesman * [Holland encapsulates] so much, so intelligently and entertainingly, in a book that's fizzing with ideas -- Andrew Lycett * Mail on Sunday * I love the sweep of it * Sunday Telegraph * Tom Holland's stupendous new book . Certainly those readers who are already predisposed against Christianity will and indeed have been particularly critical on this score.

Social conservatives would claim that they had two thousand years of Christian tradition behind them, but so too did liberals. This led him to investigate the process of change leading to today, concluding "in almost every way, what makes us distinctive today reflects the influence over two thousand years of the Christian story". This time the author takes on the very broad concept of Western thought and culture and how it has been influenced by Christian values. However, if you are well versed in the history of Christian history and scripture, you may find that you are familiar with a significant amount of the content although I doubt that there will be many readers who will have encountered every story or vignette presented. Recommended to anyone looking to get a new perspective on how western culture was and continues to be this day shaped by a death of a single man in a rem