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How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (full hour)
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Description: In the ancient world, crucifixion was seen as the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. Yet it was a victim of crucifixion who would become the centerpiece of a religion whose influence has reverberated throughout history. We talk with Tom Holland.
Segment Guests:
Tom Holland
Tom Holland is the author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. He's an award-winning historian of the ancient world, a translator of Greek classical texts, and a documentary writer. He is the author of six other books, including Rubicon, recipient of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and Persian Fire, winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. He lives in London.
From the crucifixion of Jesus to the birth of modern morals, this "marvelous" account from an award-winning historian shows how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination (The Economist).
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable. It was this that rendered it so suitable a punishment for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-had been a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. Our morals and ethics are not universal. Instead, they are the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the world.