The Myth of the Dark Ages, Part II

Rational Exuberance

OK, so the Dark Ages in Medieval Europe did not actually exist. It was a mythical concoction to further a broader ideological cause--to wit, that the Christian faith represents superstitious ignorance. It was a myth to promulgate the religious cause of Unbelief.

But the question is begged--was there any causal connection between the Christianising of Europe from the fourth century AD onwards and the economic and technological progress of Europe at the same time? Rodney Stark argues that there is a causal connection. The Christian faith provided the cultural, intellectual, and social climate that indirectly produced the economic advancement of Europe.

There were, he argues, a number of Christian doctrines which indirectly resulted in technological, scientific, and economic advances. The first turns upon the doctrine of man. Christian doctrine professes the fundamental equality of all men (males, females, and children). All are equally created in God's image. But equally, and more immediately relevant, the Kingdom of Christ--the realm established by the Saviour of the world--equally redeems male and female, slave and free, rich and poor, "our people" and barbarians, adult and child. All are saved by Christ and made part of His body, the Church. This indirectly meant the death blow to slavery and the oppression of others.

We say indirectly. This is important. The Kingdom of God reconstructs society from the inside out; it does not first tear it down to begin all over again. In fact, our Lord explicitly forbids any revolutionary attempt to "make things right" by force, or instantaneous actions. This is the point of the Parable of the Tares. The uprooting of the tares--getting things cleaned up by apocalyptic action--will damage the wheat. (Matthew 13: 24-30) Rather the Kingdom of God acts like leaven. The truth of the Gospel insinuates itself gradually into human life and society, transforming it from the inside out.

The Christian faith, then, established the fundamental equality of all human beings before God. What God has created and accepted, let not man despise is the upshot. It also established the concept of the "self". We say, "established" since, of course this was profoundly revealed in the the Word's Older Testament--witnessed so powerfully in the Psalms, for example--but in Christ these things were unequivocally established for the entire world.

In political theory this meant that Christianity led theorists to focus upon individuals as much as they focused upon the state or the corporation. Stark writes:

Even the Greek philosophers had no concept quite equivalent to our notion of the "person". Thus, when Plato was writing the Republic, his focus was on the polis, on the city, not on its citizens--indeed, he even denounced private property. In contrast, it is the individual citizen who was the focus of Christian political thought, and this, in turn, explicitly shaped the views of later European political philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke. This was, quite literally, revolutionary stuff, for the Christian stress on individualism is "an eccentricity among cultures." Freedom is another concept that simply doesn't exist in many, perhaps most, human cultures--thee isn't even a word fro freedom in most non-European languages." Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason, p.23f

One of the upshots was a growing cultural conviction that to be and do what he ought before both God and man. This establishes a vital pre-condition for economic, intellectual, and technological advances.

A second major leavening influence was the Christian idea of progress. Human civilisation was moving toward a glorious end, when not only would all nations become Christian, but the entire creation itself would be freed from groaning under the consequences of Adam's sin. Augustine, for example, joyfully and exuberantly celebrated the glories of the creation which God had appointed man to discover, exploit, enhance, and enjoy.

Augustine celebrated not only theological progress, but earthly, material progress as well. Writing early in the fifth century, he exclaimed: "has not the genius of man invented and applied countless astonishing arts, partly the result of necessity, partly the result of exuberant invention, so that this vigour of mind . . . betokens an inexhaustible wealth in the nature which can invent, learn, or employ such arts.

What wonderful--one might say stupefying--advances has human industry made in the arts of weaving and building, of agriculture and navigation!" He went on to admire the "skill [that] has been attained in measures and numbers! With what sagacity have the movements and connections of the stars been discovered!" And all of this was due to the "unspeakable boon" that God conferred upon his creation--a "rational nature." Ibid, p.9f

This world was a wonderful garden in which man could romp around, enjoy, and think God's thoughts after Him. And every time he did, he enjoyed greater blessings and felicity. The boon was palpable and tangible.

Lastly, but certainly not least, the Christian faith brought the law of God to Europe.  This law established the importance of family, of familial relations, so that the individual self was always integrated into familial structures.  It also established the importance of church and public worship.  Society, therefore, had orders and structures for the blessing of man, the individual.  It also established the state--and the functions and limits of the state.  Absolutist doctrines, such as the Divine Right of Kings were heretical aberrations and could never survive in a Christian culture.  And it established the rights and protections of property.  Finally, it established the fundamental importance of truth telling in all of life.

The Law of God provided the necessary conditions for intellectual progress and economic and technological advance. 

Europe would not have been without its Christian foundations and infrastructure.