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In Defense of Faith: The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity

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It was with some skeptical trepidation that I bought David Brog's new book "In Defense of Faith." I was a fan of his previous volume, "Standing With Israel," but have also been a fan of Christopher Hitchens' provocative "God is Not Great," a tome to which Brog's new book may be considered to be a rebuttal. As an avowed atheist myself, I did not expect Brog's book to score too many points with me. I was wrong.

It is important to clarify the premise of this book. Nowhere in this volume did I find my atheist beliefs challenged. "In Defense of Faith" makes no attempt to convert its reader to religion. However, if you happen to hold dismissive attitudes towards the indispensable role Judeo-Christian faith has played (and continues to play) in the moral evolution of Western culture, (as promulgated by the likes of Hitchens and Bill Mahar), then my friends, prepare to have your views on this important matter be shaken to the core. I found that Brog not only has the intellectual chops to go toe-to-toe with religion bashers like Hitchens, but in the battle of ideas, succeeds in landing the KO in the very first round

To be sure, Brog's ambitions here go well beyond the mere rebutting of any particular author. Brog is not only a top drawer writer, but is first and foremost a student of history. His enlightening historical analysis, and his adroit employment of simple logic makes a most compelling, (and for me surprising) case for the indispensable role religious faith has played in the development of modern moral ideals that we now take so for granted and I hungrily devoured the rich historical perspective Brog provides on this topic. (I had no idea, for example, that it is deep religious faith which under girds the humanitarian efforts of Bono in Africa! Who knew?) I found Brog's narrative fascinating, engrossing and enlightening. I highly recommend it.

I don't write book reviews. It is not just a matter of finding the time -I really haven't read many books that I've wanted to write about. All of that changed while half way through Brog's first book, "Standing With Israel." l found myself a weeping mess in an east coast airport, trying to assimilate the information presented within it and was compelled to write my first amazon.com book review which stated, " ...simply the most important book I have read since discovering the Bible." David's second work now takes slot #3 in books that have changed my life. "In Defense of Faith" the reader is taken back to the heart of "perfect faith" preached and lived by the founder of my Christian faith and His early followers. Thank you David Brog for connecting the dots and bringing to life the memory of more recent historic times when the "followers of the Way" were known by the exquisite, sacrificial quality of the lives they lived. This book beams a bright light of hope within the dank times we live, and having read it I am greatly encouraged to try harder and live better.

"...the danger [lies] not only in the ideas people embrace, but also in those they reject. When our civilization abandons the Judeo-Christian idea, we open the door to the return of slavery and genocide."

If you have ever asked yourself, "What went wrong in Germany, a so-called `Christian' country? What went wrong in America, where all men are created equal? Why do people suffer and die at the hands of their fellow man?" The answers are in David Brog's latest book.

Time and time again history has proven that the greatest crimes against humanity (such as those committed against the American-Indians, Jews, Blacks, infants, social classes etc...) have occurred when people have rejected or abandoned the Judeo-Christian values, namely, the sanctity of life.

In Defense of Faith delves into several historical scenarios and traces the breakdown of Christian values that eventually led to these horrific crimes. The results are unnerving - everything from creating alternative moralities (such as Hitler did), to replacing God with gold (as in the case of the Catholic, Spanish Conquistadors). Still others held to the worldview that humans are of no more worth than any other species in the animal kingdom.

Conversely, there have been those throughout history who have held strongly to their biblical values, overcoming their own selfish genes, and looking upon their fellow man as made in the image of God. They loved their neighbors as themselves, and as a result, these men and women won many battles against segregation and injustice, and against brutality and genocide.

As Brog makes his case, the voices of history call for us to embrace our Judeo-Christian faith - the faith that William Wilberforce had when he purposed to free an oppressed people - the faith Martin Luther King stood on when he fought hate and discrimination - a faith that brings light and hope to a sin-sick world.

With a breadth of scholarship and insight that not infrequently achieves the breath-taking, Brog piece-by-piece dismantles the notion that reason alone can reliably lead us to a truly moral society. For those of us who simply assumed the opposite, often as the core unspoken premise of supposedly advanced educations and sensible friends, this book is truly paradigm-shifting. For me personally, it's that rare book that I find I cannot help talking about to everyone I meet. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

In an age where it is not only politically correct to mock faith, but down right fashionable, David Brog has set the record straight on the incredible and invaluable contributions that Judeo-Christian principles have poured into western civilization as we know it. With the same story-behind-the-story page turning style he brought us in "Standing With Israel", Brog draws from his experience as an attorney to build an iron clad case "In Defense of Faith". Exhaustively researched, "In Defense of Faith" puts history in the witness stand to recall what happens when society chooses science over faith as it's moral grounding wire. Though sometimes chilling, this book, authored by a conservative Jew, will leave the Christian reader inspired by their faith's legacy and encouraged to effectively be the salt and light they are called to be.

At the outset, it may be helpful to clarify what this book is not. It is not a missionary's manual for conversion, neither is it a study of comparative religion nor a work of apologetics. David Brog does not proselytize, does not denigrate other faith traditions or deny the atrocities committed in the name of religion.

What it does prove is that humans are not born with humanitarian values and that it is dangerous to assume they are. The author agrees with Richard Dawkins that humans are born selfish; Dawkins' 'selfish genes' correspond to Christianity's 'original sin' and Judaism's 'evil inclination.' We take for granted the supreme spiritual idea - that of reverence for life, which is acquired by acculturation. The morality and ethics of the West, derived from Judeo-Christian principles, counteract the selfish inclination.

History reveals the truth clearly enough. Great though it was, the Greco-Roman civilization practiced infanticide and considered murder a spectator sport. The previous century's secular salvationist ideologies based on class, nation or race - attempted substitutes twisting the core notion of the sanctity of every human life - bore a genocidal fruit. In one of them, the image of God was restricted to certain nations of a single race whilst in the other, it was reserved for a certain class.

Since the individual does not possess an inborn revulsion for the aforementioned practices, it was the concept of the holiness of human life which infused Western civilization with compassion and mercy. Not the law of Hammurabi which placed a higher value on the life of the rich. The radical egalitarianism of the bible - the idea of the individual as the image of God - gave rise to two related concepts: that every human life is equally sacred and that this sanctity needs to be promoted and defended.

The book chronicles the fact that every significant initiative aimed at preserving human life and dignity through many centuries has been led by Christians. These include the efforts to stop the annihilation of Indians in the Americas, abolishing the slave trade and slavery itself, granting civil rights to all in the USA and alleviating disease and famine in the Third World. More recently Jews have joined in these programmes. Before that, they were not in a position to do so due to Christian Antisemitism, the author admits.

The legacy of the Enlightenment is mixed. On the one hand it reigned in the excesses of religious superstition and led to the separation of state power. On the other, it justified slavery and found new ways of dividing mankind by means of class and race. Xenophobic nationalism grew out of the romantic reaction against the Enlightenment. Here, perhaps, it would be wise to make a clear distinction between the Anglo-Saxon and Continental versions as explained by Gertrude Himmelfarb in The Roads to Modernity.

The Enlightenment's sinister offspring have risen again, despite the lessons of the barbaric, blood-drenched twentieth century. That is why Western religion is being undermined so relentlessly in popular culture and why Christianity was not deemed worthwhile to be mentioned in the constitution of the European Union. The mistaken assumption is that the aforementioned core value would survive the disappearance of Judaism and Christianity.

The twentieth century ought to serve as a warning of how rapidly a society's morality can implode when the key concept is discarded. In this regard, the French philosopher Chantal Delsol has expressed her concerns in two illuminating essays: The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century and Icarus Fallen. The idea of the sanctity of life is by no means an obvious one which automatically reproduces itself.

The author agrees with Delsol that one does not have to be a dogmatic believer to embrace and cherish the heritage of the Judeo-Christian tradition. There are examples of agnostics and atheists passionately defending these same principles whilst adherents of other faiths may share them. Plus, it needs be said, many self-declared Christians have not lived up to the tradition's golden rule.

Moral Relativism, an outflow of the ideo-faith of Postmodernism, is exacerbating the loss of the compassionate framework. Equating all faiths, it focuses on religion's worst aspects in order to dismiss it altogether. It is not consistent, however, in applying this judgment - all faiths are equal but Western religion is worse. And the PoMo, Multicult cluster resembles ideologies like Marxism and Nazism in its obsession with the struggle for power.

Disaster rapidly follows the degradation related to celebrating our innate selfishness. That's why it is so important to transfer the moral insights of the Judeo-Christian tradition from one generation to the next. The human being as the image of God is the tie that binds the West's two traditional religions. It is also the glue that holds our civilization together and the inspiration behind our noblest achievements.

David Brog's first book, "Standing with Israel" changed my life by crystallizing concepts with which I was previously familiar; solidifying a foundation of understanding; and filling in the pieces of a worldview which I had formed. I have subsequently joined the organization that he leads, engaged in e-mail dialog with Mr. Brog, heard him speak and read his columns. Simply put, David Brog is one of the great minds of today's world. His ability to analyze information and come to logical conclusions is akin to any of the great mean and women that have come before.

Let me repeat that for skimmers- *David Brog is one of the great minds of today's world.*

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Changing my thinking about my Native-American Ancestry

This, David's second book is changing my thinking in new ways. I had previously little sympathy for the indigenous populations from which my grandmother descended. My attitude was dismissive- I held that the native populations were idolatrous, stone-age and cruel, deserving of the same fate as those who the Israelites were commanded to remove from Canaan. This was something I was hesitant to admit. Chapter Three, which addresses the Judeo-Christian Idea AGAINST this genocide is creating an ongoing paradigm shift in my mind.

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The Central Idea & "Judeo-Christian"

As Brog explains, "The thesis of this book is that the Judeo-Christian tradition has been the primary means by which Westerners have been able to rise above their impoverished genetic morality and make ethical progress."

On fairness to both sides of the "Judeo-Christian" tradition. It was one of David's Christian colleagues that described David as "one of the greatest Christian Apologists of our time, who happens to be Jewish". I think the speaker was saying that David is capable of so succinctly and accurately articulating a number of points-of-view that even when he speaks of an idea that he does not hold true, he sounds convincing. This fairness and love of truth leads to the greatness with which David Brog analyzes ideas in his pursuit of truth. As someone who is conversant with both points of view, I think that David Brog has been careful to maintain the distinction between Judaism and Christianity, to use proper terms that each finds acceptable and yet maintain a concept of a "Judeo-Christian Tradition" which has been transformative in the world, while maintaining its distinct parts.

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On Politics

David Brog is the (Jewish) Executive Director of Christians United for Israel. I think that it's necessary to point out that David is both an observant Jew and the director of a "Christian" organization, to show his ability to build bridges, from coalitions, and also maintain proper separations between things that should remain separate and distinct (e.g. Christianity and Judaism).

In Defense of Faith shows that politics and faith are not things which should remain separate or distinct. In his discussion of slavery, Brog points out:

"What [John] Newton told [William] Wilberforce that day was revolutionary, and it is advice which contines to be controversial down to the present day. He did not tell Wilberforce that it was merely acceptable to mix religion and politics; he told him that it was imperative to do so. He instructed his young charge to take his faith, and all of the values and compassion with which it filled him, straight back to Parliament. Wilberforce took his advice. And in doing, he changed the world."

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Rarely do I review a book before finishing it. In this case, I think it is imperative to do so, as the potential of this book to better civilization is at stake.

In Defense of Faith, by my friend and former colleague David Brog, is what I expected, and hoped, it would be - foremost an honest book; a thoroughly researched, logically argued treatise that makes its case, but allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. It's honest the same way Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing is honest--the work presents a series of conflicts within cultural contexts, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions, even as the author presents his.

The book flows through rich, clear prose, relying on exquisite, sometimes graphic anecdote and citation. And it resonates. Months after reading an early draft, David Brog's concept of "zones of altruism" continues to enlighten me as events arise. And his passage about concentration camp workers picnicking still haunts.

In Defense of Faith offers both vital history and provocative philosophy. All served with a religious view from which the reader can take as much - or as little - as he chooses. It's powerful - and important - stuff.

David Brog's In Defense of Faith provides a clearly-crafted and beautifully written argument in favor of the Judeo-Christian idea. Historical and insightful, I learned something new on every page and was yet reminded that the age-old principle of loving others as we love ourselves is still the best directive we have in a world that continually struggles to find its way.

Mr. Brog tackles a weighty subject - religious faith - and does so in an immensely readable and entertaining manner. "In Defense of Faith" is well written, meticulously researched, and filled with very interesting historical anecdotes which propel Mr. Brog's argument forward. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to learn more about the Judeo-Christian tradition and its impact on morality.