A
influência irresistível do cristianismo
Secular liberals
dismiss Christianity as a fairy tale, but their values and their view of
history remain essentially Christian. The Christian story tells of the son of
God being put to death on a cross. In the Roman world, this was the fate of
criminals and those who challenged imperial power. Christianity brought with it
a moral revolution. The powerless came to be seen as God’s children, and
therefore deserving of respect as much as the highest in society. History was a
drama of sin and redemption in which God – acting through his son – was on the
side of the weak.
Modern progressive
movements have renewed this sacred history, though it is no longer God but
“humanity” – or its self-appointed representatives – that speaks for the
powerless. In many ways, the West today is more fiercely self-righteous than it
was when it was professedly Christian. The social justice warriors who denounce
Western civilisation and demand that its sins be confessed and repented would
not exist without the moral inheritance of Christianity.
—
John Gray, em resenha de "Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind",
de Tom Holland
