Quote:
Originally posted by Snow@Dec 22 2005, 09:53 PM
I just finished How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas E. Woods Jr. PhD.*
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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:* ... Fourth, 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.
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While I have not plowed through these pages yet, a quick perusal of Amazon.com's reviews, as well as a look at Woods' previous works, gave me enough of a picture to comment on Snow's painfully objective review.
1. Woods is not trying to be balanced himself. He is providing a balance to generally anti-religious, certainly anti-Catholic historical myth that the Church was all about ignorance, and oppression of intellectuals, Jews, Muslims, and Bible translators. The author did not need to rehash the negative history. His goal was to correct the skewed picture that most previous histories of this era have offered.
2. A discussion about how things might have gone had the Catholic church not been there would have resulted in something we call historic fiction. Woods is a historian. He's writing about what happened, and should not be expected to engage is speculation, for the sake of appearing objective or balanced.
3. While Mormons, evangelicals, and even religious Jews and Muslims, may have serious theological disagreements, we would all benefit from cooperation to counter the anti-religious bias in academia. This is why I supported an LDS schoolboard candidate in my community, why I support Towards Tradition (a Jewish-Christian group advocating conservative mores to the social marketplace), and why I even reluctant to join those who want to label all things Catholic as apostate, idolatrous, or useless.
In fairness, my response here is not a review, but a review of reviews. At 200+ pages, this book sounds like an approachable, I may look into reading.
As we say in corrections, "Thanks for the intel., Snow!"
