The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West (Hardcover)

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Product Description

Secular humanists and other progressives have been predicting the demise of religion for the past 250 years. But they keep running into a problem--those who were supposed to be liberated by secular gospel that God is Dead aren't buying it. Why not? Since the Greeks and Romans, as Robert Royal explains, religion has nurtured the development of the individual and of Western culture itself. Christianity and Judaism collaborated to create a dialogue between faith and reason that determined the history of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, and several Enlightenments, including our current postmodern moment. Royal concludes that modern democratic societies are intimately tied to a Christian view of the dignity of the human person and the health and survival of free institutions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; First Edition edition (August 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594031452
• ISBN-13: 978-1594031458
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #208,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What created the west? Royal argues it was Christianity, February 16, 2007

By	Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

What an interesting book. Royal sets out to prove that the secularists who argue that religion needs to be erradicated from civilization have it all wrong. He insists that Christianity created the western mind, with its unique blend of individualism, science, and democracy. Those who are secularists today are "currently engaged in a deeply incoherent and, in multiple ways, dangerous experiment" (xiii).

First off, and against much tradition, Royal states that the west did not begin in Greece. The Greeks and Romans, just as all eastern civilizations, believed in anakuklosis, that life followed cycles. In China and India this belief crippled scientific questions and even prevented democracy from forming.

The religions and philosophies that grew up in pagan and eastern societies were deeply pessimistic. "Epicurus understood that many of the vices we see--lust, greed, ambition, snobbery, violence--are ultimately the product of the fear of death...in these dimensions Epicurus somewhat resembles the Buddha. Neither believed in a God or gods who are of much help to the human race" ( p 42). Life was pointless. Death inevitable.

Against these truths, paganism was a pale set of rituals created to appease gods who cared little about human beings.

And then came Abraham. He was a nomad, a person of little note in the world. But this obscure man claims to speak to God, and God "starts him on a fateful journey that has still not come to an end in its effects...'I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you....I will establish my covenant...'" (p 53). And, surprise, some 4,000 years after Abraham about 55% of the world's population claim to believe in Abraham and his God.

Abraham's God is a God of love, unlike Zeus. With the advent of Christianity, society would be changed forever. Most important was the belief that every person had an immortal soul. Christians argued against abortion and infant exposure. They forbade believers to watch the games or the theaters, where human beings were frequently put to death. Christian beliefs would lead ineluctably to the conclusion that Caesar was no god; and a slave was his equal in the eyes of the true God. Christians were famous for facing death calmly when standing in the arena. Unlike the spectators, they knew that death was not an end, but a beginning.

Ancient society, except for the Jews, had no idea of charity. But soon after the advent of Christianity, "Galen was puzzled by the power of Christianity to create virtuous behavior among the uneducated" (p 86). Galen, the famous physician, fled the city as soon as the plague started. He was never criticized for it. Christians, to the amazement of the pagans, risked their own lives to help others.

By 380 AD Christianity was the majority religion. After the fall of the Roman empire, monasteries kept Latin and learning alive. Theology would also prove to be a huge benefit for Christians. If there was an ultimate truth, and God was rational, then it was incumbent upon man to figure out what was right. Very different from the mindset in the east, where only compromise, not ultimate truth, is sought.

The founder of the Sorbonne university said, "'Nothing is known perfectly which has not been masticated by the teeth of disputation'" (p 132). This was the core of medieval thought. The great universities grew, science developed, and the Renaissance blossomed.

Much recommended.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Quite Like It, November 18, 2006

By	History Lover (Florida) - See all my reviews

I have to respectfully disagree with the previous reviewer's comments about this book being a tedious read. Since the reviewer feels the need to stipulate that he has an advanced degree, I will preface my review by stating that I too have an advanced degree--and I think this book is a real tour de force!

TGTDNF lays out the whole panorama of the role of religion in the West clearly, calmly, and forcefully, and without resorting to the usual, sterile polemics. Robert Royal uses the latest secular scholarship to correct mis-impressions about our religious history that have become widespread because of the prejudices students are taught in schools and colleges.

Starting from chapters on ancient Greece and Rome, which offer a particularly fresh re-reading of the classics and their true relationship to the modern West, he carries the story down the centuries to the present day and shows how religious questions have become prominent again precisely because they can never be eliminated from any truly human society. At times, the narrative reminds you of the sweep of someone like the British historian Paul Johnson. But there's nothing quite like it out there in my opinion.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing read, March 15, 2007

By	M. Masztal "MMasztal" (Melbourne Beach, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm in agreement with the others endorsing this book. Sadly, much of current Christian literature is fairly banal and not much more than an endless string of trite platitudes. However, readers will find this work both refreshing and validating.

Royal's book traces the development and perseverance of Christainity through the decades. Yes, Christianity despite the perpetual criticism from the Left and non-believers, was prime in the development of Western culture. God is not dead, but He remains continually working in the world.