Christopher Henry Dawson (1889–1970)

The reader has to wait until the last chapter for Dawson to reveal his interesting Franciscan view of Christianity in daily life – a certain humility, the need for some physical labour and a respect for nature in its completeness - a view that has always had a broad appeal and which is well suited to blend with materialistic modern life and correct its deficiencies.

He refers to one of the first vernacular early English narrative poems “Piers Plowman” by William Langland, following St show more Francis in its unity of daily religion and culture, not rejecting the church hierarchy, but at the same time showing a simpler direct Christian life, with the poem being written in the late 14th century at the dawn of a modern world that brought, towns, universities, science and the finally the humanistic Renaissance.

The prior period, from the fall of the Classical world. is usually described as the Dark Ages (at least in northern Europe) but Dawson quite persuasively shows that Europe actually developed a stability and unity around the concept of “Christendom”. Christianity wasn't “something else that was happening” it was the core of European life, in fact creating a stable base for later developments.

It's an interesting story with the author travelling from the 7th century Celtic monasteries of Iona and Lindisfarne to the proto-democratic town Communes of the 14th century (that still exist essentially unchanged in present day Switzerland).

He emphasises the point that, prior to its collapse, the Roman Empire was already Christian (the conversion of Constantine) with the barbarian tribes that occupied and settled ex-Imperial Europe finding in Christianity a higher morality, learning and culture than their own. A common result was conversion to Christianity with tribal groups maintaining military and political power while the Church would provide a spiritual, cultural and literate life (in latin), based on a Western European network of monasteries.

The author shows how Christianity developed a symbiotic relationship with temporal power through the Middle Ages with the most notable event being the merger of Church and State under Charlemagne (Charles I of the Franks) and the creation of the Holy Roman Empire with the Emperor being crowned and anointed by the Church (for the first time in 751).

Danish-Scandinavian tribes eventually destroyed the Carolingian Empire and invaded the British Isles, but here again, they converted, with Canute becoming an active Christian king and missionaries of the 10th century finding success in the conversion of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to Christianity (St Adalbert in Bohemia, Hungary and Poland). The interesting point that Dawson makes, is that Christianity had reached a critical mass where “Christendom” had a generalized meaning in Europe in the same way that “Islam” had a meaning in the the Middle East and North Africa – with a clear opposition between the two.

The Europe wide concept of the “Christian Knight” grew out of a feudal system of noble/priest/peasant with the reconquest of Spain becoming a religious project that belonged to the whole of Christendom ( in the same way as the Crusades) and which succeeded. It's undeniable that a European wide Christian culture was created around the written Latin of the Church and throughout this time it was the Church either through monasteries, Cathedral schools or eventually Universities that preserved ancient Classical texts concerning mathematics, science and philosophy.

It's not fashionable to say it today, but the book makes clear that Europe is a Christian creation in the same way that the Middle East was created by Islam. show less

Good book on the roots of European Culture. Hard to follow as some of the references are a little obscure. Traces the history of Europe through the Roman age to the end of the 11th century. Detailing the influence of the Catholic Church, the Barbarians and the Greek classical culture. As a Protestant I always tended to look down on the Catholics with their icons and saint worship, but in the early days just after the fall of the Roman empire that faith was the only thing that held the torch show more of Jesus Christ and I think that as Protestants we should know this early history of the church better. show less

(final paragraph only transcribed here)
This is much the best of those of Christopher Dawson's works which I have read. The faults which mar the others are completely absent: he keeps resolutely to the point and really thinks out what he is trying to say, instead of sheltering behind polysyllabic generalities. The great merit of the book is that it correlates cultural and political history, and thus illuminates both.
(notes written 1955)

Christianity and the New Age is a short book that attempts to describe how and why Christian societies are more dynamic than non-Christian societies. The answer lies in the very nature of Christianity itself. The topic is interesting; however, the delivery is not so much. Probably only for those interested in comparative religion and/or the works of Christopher Dawson.