[Snow]

I just finished How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr. PhD.

The premise of the book is that the what we learned in schools - that the middle ages were the dark ages, full of ignorance and suppression, not in the least part maintained by the Catholic Church - is false, and not just false but wholly and completely false. The author tells us that contrary to what we think, in fact it is the Catholic Church that is responsible for all that is good and right in the modern world. He writes that the Church formed or originated:

-Western Art
-Western Music
-Modern Economics
-International Law
-Western Law
-Charity
-Hospitals
-Astronomy
-Higher Education
-Science
-and so on
-and so on
-and on and on.

Occasional he'll making a passing observation that the Catholic Church was less than 100% perfect but, you know, the rest is so great that all Western civilization is their doing.

First, I found the book very informative. I picked up lots of facts and a perspective I didn't have before. However I thought it was less a book and for the most part more an awfully long list of all the many wonderful things the author could dig up.

Second, I think it is disputable that everything on the list belongs on the list. For example he attributes the University system in general and Oxford in particular to the Catholic Church. I think the Greeks were onto higher learning long before the Catholics and the Oxford website paints a different history than does the author.

Third, every one and their dog was Catholic. Of course most things, good or bad, had to arise from under the Catholic Umbrella.

Forth, there is no balance to the book or discussion how things might have progressed had they not been fostered or, as we have been taught, held back by the Church.

Catholics would eat the book up I'm sure and it's gotta be an apologists dream - in fact it is an apologetic work. However, I can't recommend it to the general reader unless you read a ton or are willing to dig into the subject beyond just this book to get a balance picture.