“Dominion” – Tom Holland

How was it that a cult inspired by the execution of an obscure criminal in a long-vanished empire came to exercise such transformative and enduring influence on the world?…

Today, at a time of seismic geopolitical realignment, when our values are proving to be not nearly as universal as some of us had assumed them to be, the need to recognize just how culturally contingent they are is more pressing than ever. To live in a Western country is to live in a society still utterly saturated by Christian concepts and assumptions. This is no less true for Jews or Muslims than it is for Catholics or Protestants.

Tom Holland, Dominion

Dominion is a great book. I recommend it to any history buffs out there, but be prepared-it’s a bit of a project to get through. I started this book some time around December…of 2020. It’s 542 dense pages of history, philosophy, and cultural reflection. I muscled through the last 60% or so during the beginning of my sabbatical, and, while it’s probably not for everyone, I’m glad I did.

I’ve heard it described by several people as one of the most important history books of a generation. The main idea is this: Christianity is so foundational, so central to Western culture that it is inseparable from that culture. The Christian faith and traditions have literally built our society for the last 2000 years. And that evaluation comes not from a pastor or theologian, but from a secular historian that does not profess faith in Jesus Christ.

The book tracks Christianity and Christian thought through the history of the middle east, Europe and the modern world for the last 2000 years (plus a little stage-setting by looking at about 500 years before). The concept is simple: Christian beliefs and ideas shaped everything. The few movements that attempted to separate entirely from any Christianized thinking missed a host of connections to the thinking it was rejecting, and they all failed.

Theres a lot of good that is highlighted throughout the book, and there is a lot of bad that is highlighted throughout the book. That’s just the nature of history. But what struck me in Dominion was seeing what could be called a scarlet thread through history – the importance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and his call to repentance, connecting the apostles with the early church fathers with the Holy Roman Empire and the reformation and the Beatles and Angela Merkel.

From world history, that’s an important connection. But as a believer, I find it encouraging and humbling to be reminded that my faith is an ancient tradition, going back not just 2000 years to Christ but to the beginning of everything-to a God that loves us and has been making a way for us to be forgiven and restored to Him. A connection to Abraham, who was saved by grace through faith in the one who would come, Jesus Christ, just like me. A connection to David, who kept failing over and over again, but still he humbled himself and was forgiven. A connection to Daniel, who was ripped from his home and placed in a culture that didn’t respect or recognize his God, yet he remained faithful.

Throughout history Christians have gotten a lot of things wrong, just like me. Hopefully I don’t make mistakes at the level that some have, but I have had and will have my low points. We’re reminded throughout scripture that, even when I’m not good, God is. Even when I fail, God still offers forgiveness. Even if I feel alone, He is there with me. And, if I can keep my focus for more than 3 seconds on God, He will help me avoid those pitfalls and sins and grow into a better version of myself, a version that looks more like Jesus.

Christians aren’t perfect, but we serve a God that is. If I can remember to love God and love others, that love will cover over a multitude of sins.

I’m thankful that He is good and that He remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

Divinity, then, was for the very greatest of the great: for victors, and heroes, and kings. Its measure was the power to torture ones enemies, not to suffer it oneself: to nail them to the rocks of a mountain, or to turn them into spiders, or to blind and crucify them after conquering the world. That a man who had himself been crucified might be hailed as a god could not help but be seen by people everywhere across the Roman world as scandalous, obscene, grotesque…No more shocking a reversal of their most devoutly held assumptions could possibly have been imagined. Not mere blasphemy, it was madness.

Tom Holland, Dominion