Dominion

Dominion Plot Summary

Introduction

The year was 312 CE, and Constantine's army stood at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome. According to legend, the emperor saw a vision in the sky - the Christian cross with the words "In this sign, conquer." This pivotal moment would transform a persecuted sect into the dominant religion of the Western world. What followed was not simply a spiritual revolution but a complete reimagining of society, politics, and human relationships that would shape civilization for the next two millennia. This historical journey reveals how Christianity's influence extended far beyond church walls to fundamentally alter our understanding of time, morality, and human rights. From the collapse of the Roman Empire to the scientific revolution, from medieval cathedrals to modern democracies, Christianity's shadow has been both illuminating and darkening. The book explores this complex legacy without simplistic judgments, showing how religious ideas that many modern people take for granted or reject outright continue to shape our world in profound and often unrecognized ways.

Chapter 1: Ancient Foundations: From Jerusalem to Rome (30-400 CE)

The story of Christianity begins with a scandal: the crucifixion of Jesus, a Jewish preacher executed by Roman authorities around 30 CE. This form of death was considered not merely painful but utterly shameful - reserved for slaves and rebels. Yet within a few centuries, this symbol of disgrace would become the most revered emblem in Western civilization, adorning everything from imperial standards to personal jewelry. The rapid spread of Christianity across the Roman Empire represents one of history's most remarkable transformations. A small Jewish sect became, against all odds, the dominant religion of the Mediterranean world. This expansion was largely driven by the missionary work of Paul of Tarsus, whose letters constitute the earliest Christian writings. Paul's radical message - that salvation was available to all people regardless of ethnicity, gender, or social status - proved revolutionary in the hierarchical Roman world. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female," he wrote to the Galatians, articulating a vision of spiritual equality that would reverberate through the centuries. As Christianity spread, it faced intense persecution. Roman authorities viewed Christians with suspicion for their refusal to worship the emperor and their "atheism" in denying traditional gods. Martyrdom became a powerful testimony, with Christians willingly facing torture and death rather than renounce their faith. The philosopher Justin Martyr, executed in Rome around 165 CE, exemplified this commitment, declaring that Christians could be killed but not harmed. By the third century, Christianity had developed sophisticated theological frameworks. In Alexandria, the brilliant scholar Origen pioneered allegorical interpretation of scripture, while in Carthage, Tertullian articulated Christian doctrines in the precise language of Roman law. These intellectual developments helped Christianity appeal to educated elites even as it continued to attract the marginalized and poor through its message of divine love and community support. The decisive turning point came in 312 CE when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity after a vision before battle. Within decades, what had been an illegal religion became the favored faith of the empire. The Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, convened by Constantine, established core doctrinal standards that would define orthodoxy for centuries to come. Christianity's triumph was sealed in 380 CE when Emperor Theodosius made it the official religion of the Roman Empire. This remarkable journey from persecuted sect to imperial religion fundamentally altered Western civilization. Christianity introduced revolutionary concepts: the dignity of every human being, the moral obligation to care for the vulnerable, and the radical notion that spiritual truths transcended social hierarchies. The faith that began with an executed Jewish teacher would go on to shape everything from law and ethics to art and philosophy across the Western world for the next two millennia.

Chapter 2: Medieval Christendom: Faith as Social Order (500-1300)

As the Western Roman Empire collapsed under barbarian invasions in the fifth century, Christianity faced an existential crisis. Rome fell in 476 CE, but the Church emerged as the primary institution maintaining continuity with classical civilization. Monasteries preserved ancient learning while bishops often became the de facto rulers of former Roman cities. This period saw Christianity transform from a religion within an empire to the defining cultural force of an emerging "Christendom." The conversion of pagan peoples became a central mission. Pope Gregory the Great sent missionaries to Anglo-Saxon England in 597, while Irish monks established monasteries across continental Europe. Most dramatically, the Frankish king Charlemagne forcibly converted the Saxons in the late eighth century, offering them a stark choice: baptism or death. By 800 CE, when Charlemagne was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by the pope, the foundations of a new Christian civilization had been established across Western Europe. The relationship between spiritual and temporal authority defined the medieval period. The "Investiture Controversy" of the eleventh century saw Pope Gregory VII challenge the Holy Roman Emperor's right to appoint bishops, culminating in the emperor's humiliating penance at Canossa in 1077. This conflict represented the first great European revolution, establishing the principle that spiritual authority stood independent of, and in some ways superior to, secular power. The resulting separation between church and state would become a distinctive feature of Western civilization. Intellectual life flourished within this Christian framework. Cathedral schools and the first universities emerged, dedicated to reconciling faith with reason. Scholars like Peter Abelard pioneered critical thinking methods, while Thomas Aquinas synthesized Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy. The period also saw remarkable artistic achievements, from Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals to illuminated manuscripts, all expressing Christian cosmology through beauty and craftsmanship. Yet medieval Christianity also revealed darker tendencies. The First Crusade, launched in 1095 to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim rule, demonstrated how religious fervor could justify extreme violence. Within Europe, religious minorities faced increasing persecution. The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 required Jews to wear distinctive clothing, while suspected heretics faced interrogation by newly established inquisitorial procedures. These developments reflected Christianity's growing intolerance of religious diversity as it became more institutionally powerful. By 1300, Christendom had developed distinctive social, political, and intellectual structures that would shape European civilization for centuries. The medieval synthesis of faith and reason, the legal concepts derived from canon law, the tension between spiritual and temporal authority, and even the persecution of perceived enemies of the faith would all leave enduring legacies. Christianity had transformed from a religion of the marginalized into the comprehensive framework through which medieval Europeans understood their world and their place within it.

Chapter 3: Reformation Ruptures: The Fracturing of Unity (1300-1650)

The sixteenth century witnessed the most profound religious upheaval in European history since Christianity's adoption as the Roman imperial religion. When Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor, nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, he intended to spark academic debate about indulgences. Instead, he ignited a revolution that would permanently fracture Western Christianity and transform European society. Luther's core theological insights - salvation by faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the supreme authority of scripture - challenged the Catholic Church's institutional power at its foundations. "A simple layman armed with the Scripture," Luther declared, "is greater than the mightiest pope without it." His translation of the Bible into German democratized access to scripture, while the newly invented printing press ensured his ideas spread rapidly across Europe. When summoned to recant at the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther's defiant response - "Here I stand, I can do no other" - symbolized the new emphasis on individual conscience over institutional authority. The Reformation quickly diversified beyond Luther's initial vision. In Switzerland, reformers like Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin developed more radical versions of Protestantism. Calvin's Geneva became a model Protestant city, with strict moral discipline and a complete rejection of Catholic ritual. Meanwhile, more radical groups like the Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and advocated complete separation of church and state. The English Reformation followed its own distinctive path, driven initially by Henry VIII's desire for a divorce but eventually producing unique Protestant traditions. The Catholic Church responded with its own Counter-Reformation, clarifying doctrine at the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and establishing new religious orders like the Jesuits to combat Protestant influence. Rather than healing the religious divide, these developments hardened confessional identities. Europe became divided between Protestant north and Catholic south, with religious minorities facing persecution in both regions. The resulting tensions erupted in devastating conflicts like the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which ravaged central Europe. Beyond Europe, the age of exploration brought Christianity into contact with civilizations across the globe. Spanish conquistadors destroyed indigenous American religions while imposing Catholicism. Jesuit missionaries adapted Christian teachings to Chinese and Japanese cultural contexts with varying success. These encounters raised profound questions about universal religious truth and cultural difference that would shape Christian thought for centuries. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, marked a turning point in European history. By acknowledging the permanent religious division of Europe, it effectively ended the medieval ideal of a unified Christendom. More importantly, it established the principle that sovereign states, not religious authorities, would determine the international order. The modern system of nation-states was born from the ashes of religious warfare, setting the stage for the secular political order that would gradually emerge in subsequent centuries.

Chapter 4: Reason and Revolution: Christianity Challenged (1650-1900)

The century and a half following the Peace of Westphalia witnessed a profound intellectual revolution that challenged Christianity's role in Western civilization. The Enlightenment, emerging first in England and the Netherlands before flourishing in France, promoted reason, science, and human autonomy over religious authority and tradition. This "Age of Reason" did not necessarily reject religion outright, but it fundamentally reframed the relationship between faith and society. Scientific discoveries played a crucial role in this transformation. When Isaac Newton explained the mechanics of the universe through mathematical laws, he believed he was revealing God's rational design. Yet his work inadvertently contributed to a view of the cosmos as a self-regulating machine that functioned according to natural laws rather than divine intervention. The Italian scientist Galileo's earlier conflict with the Catholic Church over heliocentrism became emblematic of the perceived tension between scientific inquiry and religious dogma, though the reality was more complex than later accounts suggested. Enlightenment philosophers developed varied approaches to religion. Some, like Baruch Spinoza, rejected the personal God of Judaism and Christianity in favor of a pantheistic view that identified God with nature itself. Others, including many leading French philosophes, embraced deism - the belief in a creator who established natural laws but did not intervene in human affairs or require worship. Voltaire famously attacked religious intolerance while maintaining that "if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him" to maintain social order. The nineteenth century presented Christianity with unprecedented challenges as industrialization, scientific advances, and new philosophical currents transformed Western society. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, published in 1859, undermined literal readings of Genesis and suggested a universe governed by chance rather than divine purpose. Meanwhile, biblical scholars applied historical-critical methods to scripture, questioning traditional authorship and supernatural elements. These intellectual developments coincided with rapid urbanization and industrialization that disrupted traditional community structures where religious practice had flourished. Christianity responded to these challenges with remarkable diversity. Liberal Protestants embraced modern biblical criticism and sought to reconcile faith with science, often emphasizing Jesus's ethical teachings over supernatural claims. Catholic intellectuals developed Neo-Thomism to engage with modern philosophy, while the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) reasserted papal authority through the doctrine of papal infallibility. More conservative believers across denominations rejected modernist compromises, insisting on biblical inerrancy and traditional doctrines. This period also saw Christianity's continued global expansion through missionary efforts, particularly in Africa and Asia. The political revolutions of this era further transformed Christianity's relationship with society. The American and French Revolutions established new models of church-state relations, from America's constitutional separation to France's more antagonistic secularism. Christian activists played crucial roles in social reform movements, from the abolition of slavery to women's rights, while others resisted changes they saw as threatening traditional values. By 1900, Christianity remained powerful but increasingly operated within a pluralistic context where it needed to persuade rather than command.

Chapter 5: Global Faith: Christianity in the Modern World (1900-Present)

The twentieth century brought even more profound challenges to Christianity. Two world wars shattered optimistic views of human progress and raised difficult theological questions about evil and divine providence. The Holocaust forced Christians to confront centuries of anti-Judaism within their tradition. Communist regimes in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China actively persecuted religious believers, while Western Europe experienced dramatic secularization in the post-war period, with church attendance plummeting and religious influence on public life declining. In America, Christianity remained more vibrant but increasingly polarized. The civil rights movement, led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., demonstrated Christianity's potential for social transformation through its message of universal human dignity and nonviolent resistance. Yet the subsequent decades saw growing division between progressive Christians emphasizing social justice and conservatives focusing on traditional moral values, particularly regarding sexuality and gender. By the early twenty-first century, white evangelical Protestants had become a crucial political constituency, while mainline Protestant denominations experienced significant membership decline. Meanwhile, Christianity underwent a dramatic demographic shift. As European Christianity contracted, explosive growth occurred across Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia. By 2000, more Christians lived in the global South than in the traditional heartlands of Europe and North America. Pentecostal and charismatic forms of Christianity, emphasizing direct spiritual experience and supernatural gifts, became the fastest-growing religious movements worldwide. In South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu's leadership in the anti-apartheid struggle and the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Commission demonstrated Christianity's continued relevance to political transformation. Technology and globalization created new connections among diverse expressions of faith. Migrants carried their religious practices to new countries, establishing Nigerian churches in London or Korean congregations in Los Angeles. The internet enabled instant sharing of sermons, music, and theological discussions across continents. Global Christian networks addressed issues from poverty to climate change, often working across denominational lines that had historically divided them. The relationship between Christianity and other religions also evolved. After centuries of competition and conflict, many Christians now engaged in interfaith dialogue while maintaining their distinctive beliefs. Pope Francis praying alongside Jewish and Muslim leaders symbolized this new approach. In regions like sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, Christians and Muslims lived as neighbors, sometimes peacefully coexisting, sometimes in tension. Looking forward, global Christianity faces significant challenges: navigating political and cultural differences among believers; addressing economic inequality within and between churches; responding to environmental crises; engaging with technological change; maintaining spiritual vitality while adapting to diverse contexts. Yet its continued growth and evolution suggest that, far from being merely a relic of Western history, Christianity remains a dynamic force shaping the twenty-first century world in ways that would have been unimaginable to its earliest followers.

Chapter 6: Enduring Legacy: Christian Values in Secular Societies

Christianity's most enduring legacy may be its profound influence on Western values and assumptions, many of which have become so thoroughly secularized that their religious origins are often forgotten. From human rights to scientific inquiry, from democracy to social welfare, Christian concepts have been transformed, contested, and sometimes rejected, but rarely entirely escaped. The very concept of universal human rights has deep Christian roots. The belief that all humans are created in God's image provided a foundation for human dignity that transcended social hierarchies. Early Christians scandalized Roman society by treating slaves, women, and foreigners as spiritual equals. Later, abolitionists like William Wilberforce explicitly cited Christian principles in their campaigns against slavery. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted in 1948, its assumption of inherent human dignity reflected Christian anthropology, even as it was expressed in secular language acceptable to diverse societies. Modern science, often portrayed as Christianity's opponent, actually emerged from a Christian intellectual context. The medieval university system, created by the Church, provided institutional foundations for scientific inquiry. The belief in a rational Creator suggested nature would follow comprehensible laws. Early scientists like Newton saw their work as revealing God's design. While conflicts certainly occurred, particularly around evolution, the relationship between Christianity and science has been more symbiotic than antagonistic. Democratic values also show Christian influence. The Protestant emphasis on individual conscience contributed to concepts of religious freedom and limited government. Catholic social teaching developed principles of subsidiarity and solidarity that influenced European Christian Democratic parties. Martin Luther King Jr. explicitly grounded civil rights activism in Christian theology. Even secular democracy's emphasis on human equality and dignity reflects concepts with Christian origins. Perhaps most fundamentally, Christianity transformed Western conceptions of time and progress. The linear Christian narrative - creation, fall, redemption, final judgment - replaced cyclical pagan views of history. This teleological perspective, secularized during the Enlightenment, underlies modern concepts of progress and development. Even those who reject Christianity often retain its assumption that history has direction and purpose. These influences don't mean Western values are exclusively Christian or that Christianity always supported progressive developments. The religion has been invoked to defend slavery, patriarchy, and authoritarianism. Yet Christianity's complex legacy remains embedded in Western civilization's foundations, continuing to shape assumptions about human nature, social responsibility, and moral purpose even in increasingly secular societies. As philosopher Jürgen Habermas noted, modern secular societies continue to draw on moral intuitions with religious origins, even as they translate them into secular language.

Summary

The story of Christianity's transformation of Western civilization reveals a profound paradox: a religion that began by rejecting worldly power became history's most influential cultural force. From its origins as a persecuted Jewish sect to its global presence today, Christianity has continuously evolved, shaping and being shaped by the societies it encountered. Its influence extended far beyond theology into politics, science, art, and social values. The separation of religious and secular authority, concepts of human rights, linear views of history, and even modern individualism all have roots in Christian thought, often in ways unrecognized by secular societies that have inherited these concepts. This historical journey offers crucial insights for understanding our present world. First, it reminds us that seemingly secular values often have religious foundations that continue to influence their application. Second, it demonstrates religion's remarkable capacity to both resist and adapt to cultural changes, suggesting that predictions of religion's demise are premature. Finally, it reveals how ideas can transform societies more profoundly than armies or economies. As we navigate an increasingly pluralistic global society, appreciating this complex legacy - neither uncritically celebrating nor dismissively rejecting it - provides essential context for addressing contemporary challenges of religious diversity, secularization, and cultural identity in a world still living in Christianity's shadow.

About Author

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Tom Holland

Tom Holland is an English historian and author. He has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, on many subjects from vampires to history.Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens' College, Cambridge, and afterwards studied shortly for a PhD at Oxford, taking Lord Byron as his subject, before interrupting the post graduate studies and moving to London.He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio 4. His novels, including Attis and Deliver Us From Evil, mostly have a supernatural and horror element as well as being set in the past. He is also the author of three highly praised works of history, Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium.He is on the committee of the Society of Authors and the Classical Association.

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