Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind by Tom Holland (PDF)

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If great books encourage you to look at the world in an entirely new way, then Dominion is a very great book indeed . . . Written with terrific learning, enthusiasm and good humour, Holland’s book is not just supremely provocative, but often very funny’ Sunday Times History Book of the YearChristianity is the most enduring and influential legacy of the ancient world, and its emergence the single most transformative development in Western history. Even the increasing number in the West today who have abandoned the faith of their forebears, and dismiss all religion as pointless superstition, remain recognisably its heirs. Seen close-up, the division between a sceptic and a believer may seem unbridgeable. Widen the focus, though, and Christianity’s enduring impact upon the West can be seen in the emergence of much that has traditionally been cast as its nemesis: in science, in secularism, and yes, even in atheism. That is why Dominion will place the story of how we came to be what we are, and how we think the way that we do, in the broadest historical context. Ranging in time from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC to the on-going migration crisis in Europe today, and from Nebuchadnezzar to the Beatles, it will explore just what it was that made Christianity so revolutionary and disruptive; how completely it came to saturate the mind-set of Latin Christendom; and why, in a West that has become increasingly doubtful of religion’s claims, so many of its instincts remain irredeemably Christian. The aim is twofold: to make the reader appreciate just how novel and uncanny were Christian teachings when they first appeared in the world; and to make ourselves, and all that we take for granted, appear similarly strange in consequence. We stand at the end-point of an extraordinary transformation in the understanding of what it is to be human: one that can only be fully appreciated by tracing the arc of its parabola over millennia.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐An insightful book on the influence that Christianity has had on our society and furthermore how it has escaped the throes of religion and been exported throughout the world. Makes you think about the assumptions we make about other societies (such as ancient Rome) and to be vary of assuming the framework of thought was at all the same! I wish though to hear the other side of the coin: which implicit assumptions have we in the west imported from other societies?

⭐I got a bit over 200 pages into this book and quit. This reads like a meandering set of observations that reference some undisclosed religious history class. No explanation is given for most every observation. Just about every bit of text is presented as if the reader just knows an intimately detailed history of Christianity and religious influence in the western world over the last two millennia. And most every observation comes off as purely subjective based on some vaguely referenced name or historical point.I’m fairly well familiar with Abrahamic religious history, but I certainly can’t claim absolute expertise in all historical points. If you really want to know what he is referring to then read something else. If you want one person’s explanation of a longer history without reference in the text, then go for this. I for one found myself grasping for context with a thousand fleeting references that provide little substantiation beyond extending a shallow dialogue within some phantom lecture hall.Just for example, a section on Henry IV has the king rebuffing the pope and then simultaneously asking for his blessing in nearly the same sentence–and that is used and referenced as evidence for papal supremacy without any further context. There is no story. No explanation of what happened leading up to the king’s prostration. Just a simple: this was done; and now you know why the pope ruled. What?!?! Were there any battles? Armies formed? How long did this take? Were there mitigating circumstances? Why was the pope on the other side of the Alps?I normally love reading nonfiction by good authors who properly explain an event. This is not an example of that.

⭐Classic Holland – incredibly researched and densely written. Packed with incredible anecdotes and and brilliant observations. Totally joyride.

⭐I found this book to be a wonderful review of western civilization as influenced by Christianity. I felt better educated after reading it. Every important historical person I had ever heard of, plus many I had never heard of, are in this book. And why they are important.

⭐Este libro traza el cambio de paradigma de la sociedad Occidental bajo la influencia de la vida de Jesucristo y el judaísmo que le precedio y como los valores judeo cristianos forman la base de la cultura occidental y han permeado todas las estructuras de nuestra vida.Easy to read but still comprehensive. Certainly made me see things In a new light. Would recommend to anybody interested In the history of christianity.

⭐Typical Holland book, easy to read and fascinating insight on every page. Don’t let this one pass you by. Mr. Holland kept glued to his book until the end.

⭐Well written comprehensive and compelling narrative on the evolution of what is a consensus view of morality.A great read.

⭐This is an interesting read, with lots of fascinating and out of the way information. It is also very readable. I was, however, left with real misgivings about it. There were two aspects to this.First, in those areas where I have more specialized knowledge, the author’s treatment seemed to me poor, and it led me to wonder what he might have done in other areas of his discussion with which I was less familiar. For example, his discussion of ideas about human rights by the UN treated it as if it was simply continuous with older Christian ideas about natural law. This is really not the case: the story is a lot more complex. Second, Marx’s ideas were presented by stressing the parallels in his work with religious ideas. This is an idea that has been much discussed; but it is superficial as a reading of Marx and, in the end, not really helpful in understanding the character of Marx’s work.Second, my real worry – and why I think that the book is, in the end, rather silly – was that the author tends to treat almost everything that has come up during the course of Western intellectual history as ‘Christian’. The problems with this are that, on the one side, for an idea to have content, it has to rule out other things; but for Holland to call something ‘Christian’ becomes almost without content just because what he includes is so promiscuous. On the other, it means that when, say, early Quakers objected to slavery, this is taken as Christian – despite the fact that it is not clear what is specifically ‘Christian’ about it. The doctrinal basis of it would hardly pass any test of Christian orthodoxy. While those who avowed Christianity up to that point (including, indeed, what we know of Jesus’s own attitudes) did not seem to see there as being anything incompatible between Christianity and slavery as an institution, at all.I think that Holland is probably correct that there is a sense in which secular Western people have been influenced by specifically Christian ideas in ways that they are not aware of. This was certainly my experience, when I discussed a range of issues, over many hours, with a Muslim historical sociologist of religion. But these issues, it seems to me, have to be discovered by way of the exploration of differences with others with different backgrounds, rather than by way of proceeding as Holland does.All told, this is a worthwhile read for those who like serious, long but readable books. But it is something to be treated with considerable caution.

⭐In a nutshell – Christianity is so deeply embedded in the West/Western mind, that most of us have ceased to be able to see how fundamental are the moral foundations it provides to everything we take for granted.What’s so interesting about Holland is that he lost his faith when younger but, through his work on late Antiquity, has come to see just what an extraordinary revolution in human thought Christianity actually heralded. He has seen how fundamentally it changed social, moral and political order. And how the modern West is utterly complacent about it – at worst, even hostile.This thesis is entirely compelling and the evidence abundant. Slightly dry at points but overall fascinating, hugely varied (from Classical Antiquity and the strangeness – to modern eyes – of the ancient world) and wholly compelling.Strongly recommended – I have distributed copies to various friends already.

⭐Have been looking forward to this book for a long time as I pre-ordered it. I’m only a few pages in… and am very impressed so far!! Written in a simple and engaging manner. I’m still in the preface which begins with a discussion of the crucifixion of Jesus (which I wasn’t expecting!). Lots of interesting background historical information about this event. I plan to coming back and keep updating my review as I progress through the book.

⭐During the 2007 UK Parliamentary debate on the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade it was pointed out that not a single bishop of the Church of England had supported abolition. Indeed, many of them retained slaves right until 1833, when owning slaves was also made illegal. The Bishop of Exeter was remunerated to the sum of thirteen thousand pounds (a huge sum for those days) for the 665 slaves he owned. (See the appendix to William Hague’s biography of Wilberforce). Although Holland does not mention this particular fact, he is certainly evenhanded in pointing out the many barbaric aspects of Christian history in a book which is replete with his signature vignettes. However, although I enjoyed this book (as I have his previous ones), for me it is somewhat spoiled by a rather unconvincing thesis which he continues to flog throughout. I am sure that if Holland or any of us were to travel back in time to a far more Christian Europe of several centuries ago (for example, the half way point of Christianity, say around the year 1000), we would find the moral and ethical framework utterly alien and deeply shocking. And this would have remained the case for many of the following centuries. The fact that we would find it less alien and shocking than, say, Mexico in 1100, or the present day Islamic State, somewhat misses the point. I realize that Holland’s thesis is that our present ethical World view (at least in so- called “Western” developed democracies) is essentially built on Christianity, and to some extent he must have a point, but he massively overdoes it. Perhaps our World view (including, for example, that slavery is in all cases wrong) would not have come about without Christianity. On the other hand this view point might have developed centuries earlier. It is impossible to say. What is clear is that it is unthinkable without the Enlightenment, and that there are much better explanations for why we now overwhelmingly believe slavery and torture are absolute wrongs (unlike the “good” Christian bishops of early nineteenth century England) and, increasingly, that minorities should not be subject to hatred and discrimination. These explanations are set out eloquently in Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now, backed with a truly impressive stack of evidence, both statistical and otherwise.

⭐Remarkably well researched and presented. Gives a complete history of how Christianity has provided us with a heritage that is within the very fabric of our society and culture today.

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