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Anonymous
Anonymous asked in Society & CultureReligion & Spirituality · 1 day ago

Did Christianity build western civilization?

14 Answers

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  • 1 day ago

    I'd say it expanded Western Civilization.  The Greeks had to barrow from the African and Asian Civilizations to get things going.  The Roman built upon what the Greeks started, and used Christianity, which came out of the Jewish/Hebrew tradition, as a way to unify the regions they conquered. 

  • Anonymous
    1 day ago

    No.  People built western civilization.  Some of those people were Christians, some were not.

  • 1 day ago

    It would have been built a lot faster without the thousand years dark ages that Christianity put the brakes on all advancement..

  • 1 day ago

    Actually the Puritan work ethic did have a lot to do with it.  The Bible says that if a man won't work, he shouldn't eat. (There are exceptions, of course, since some people are unable to work.)  

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  • Anonymous
    1 day ago

    No. It has been a millstone round its neck.

  • Ivan
    Lv 6
    1 day ago

    Yes it did. The "dark ages" fell upon the world after the barbarians took control of Rome and Roman civilization and the "Pax Romana" collapsed.  Wave after wave of barbarians fell upon Europe like Vikings and Goths and Visigoths and other pagan tribes. 

     The Church was the only entity left that was educated and had some authority. That made them targets of raiders. The raiders robbed and raped and killed and enslaved and stole all they could. The Church started the hospital system the university system (for those lame answers about them being ignorant and uneducated) and were the first to educate women. The Church allowed the poor peasants to live and work on Church lands in exchange for some of the products they produced. The Church, even though She was not a political or military force, managed to convert 1 pagan tribe after another. Usually by converting the chief or the king first. The Church did this by evangelizing the pagans even after they had enslaved the Christian. There was never any "fire and sword" conversions of pagans because the Church had no armies.After several hundred years of coexistence, Christian kings outnumbered pagan kings. Great men like Charlemagne who controlled vast lands in old Europe became a patron of the Church. It was him the Church called on when hit with the first Islamic jihad of the Arab invasion around 800-900 AD. The Muslims conquered almost to Vienna Austria before the Church aske the Christian kings and princes to put aside their squabbles and unite to save Christendom from the Muslim hordes.This was the event that set the stage for the crusades of a few centuries later, and the Spanish inquisition too. The managed to drive the Muslims out of everywhere but Spain. They stayed there until 1492, when Isabel and Ferdinand united their kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and managed to drive them back across the sea to north Africa. After 800 years, Europe was free of Islam. This is when the king and queen of united Spain started their inquisition to ferret out any remaining Muslims and Jews, who they perceives as Muslim allies. The Church condemned it, but they refused to stop until they were ready.So, thru the commonality of nearly everybody being Catholic, the culture of Christianity grew throughout the west  up until the great schism when the Orthodox and the Catholic excommunicated each other, leaving the east open for Muslim conquest. The Church by means of Christian kings and princes fought against the incursions of Caliphs and sultans for centuries. Raids hitting European coastal towns like the old Viking raids, where they killed raped robbed and took slaves back to their own lands. They trained the best and strongest of the boys they stole in Islam and warfare, and named them Janissaries. They were used especially against their own people in future raids in Europe.Without the Church holding the light of civilization and education aloft for the world to see, the world might all be Islamic today.

  • 1 day ago

    Western civilization was established long before Christianity was ever imagined. And anyway, people, not religions or ideologies, build civilizations. Religions are built as a part of civilization. People, with religion in mind, have made valuable contributions to the advancement of civilization, but they have also been destructive and/or have impeded it's progress. 

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 day ago

    yes it did...........

  • 1 day ago

    No, Western civilization began with Greece and Rome.  But Christians settled the New World.

  • 1 day ago

    There have been decent people who happened to be Christian, but the group of know nothing, anti intellectual, conservative, white Evangelicals that make up much of the modern Republican Party have contributed nothing of value to society whatsoever.

    They've been wrong about everything, from scientific advancements, to art, to slavery, to civil rights, and then when they are finally dragged kicking and screaming into something resembling modernity, they begin taking credit for societal accomplishments they had nothing to do with. 

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