Alvin J. Schmidt - Under the influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

To my cherished sons, Timothy John and Mark Alvin. May they and their descendants continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine as did so many of their Christian predecessors since the time of Christ

Summary Charts

Chapter 1 Early Christianity Under Roman Emperors 40-43

Chapter 2 Mores of Human Life 71

Chapter 3 The Morality of Sex and Marriage 92

Chapter 4 * The Role and Status of Women 120-21

Chapter 5 Development and Maintenance of Christian Charity

and Compassion 145

Chapter 6 Origin and Development of Hospitals 164

Chapter 7 Milestones in Education: Christianity's Influence 188

Chapter 8 Perspectives of Labor and Economics 214

Chapter 9 Christian Advocates of Scientific Knowledge 240

Chapter 10 Liberty and Justice 268

Chapter 11 Some Prominent American Abolitionists 288

Chapter 12 Christian Art and Architecture 310

Chapter 13 The Progress of Music During the Christian Era 339

Chapter 14 Some Literary Hallmarks 369

Chapter 15 The Christian Connection to Common

Words and Symbols 390

Chapter 15 Christian Derivation of Expressions and Sayings 400

Charity hospital for children Frontispiece

Martyrdom of St. Stephen 20

Martyrdom of Perpetua 29

Emperors Decius and Diocletian 31

Fish symbols 38

Fishermen retrieving castaway infants 50

Thumbs Down on Gladiators 61

Emperor Constantine the Great 64

Adulterous Woman 81

Two illustrations of the woman at Samaria 96

Mosaic of Helena 106

Women at the Polls in New Jersey 114

Foot binding 118

St. Francis Teaches Charity 129

Julian the Apostate 133

John Pounds' School for Ragged Children 135 at Portsmouth

Flower Girl 143

Scripture Reader in a Night Refuge 156

Domus Sancti Spiritus 158

Dorothea Lynde Dix 161

Justin Martyr 173

King Alfred Visiting a Monastery School 174

Catherine of Siena 178

Friedrich Froebel 180

Louis Braille 182

Robert Raikes and poor children 184

Billingsgate Landing the Fish 195

Max Weber 200

Martin Luther 201

John Calvin 204

Christopher Columbus before 209 Isabella and Ferdinand

Captain John Smith 212

Francis Bacon 220

Nicolaus Copernicus and Frauenburg Cathedral 225

Johannes Kepler 228

Kepler's second scientific law 229

George Washington Carver in his laboratory 234

Louis Pasteur treating a patient 239

Bishop Ambrose rebukes Emperor Theodosius 250

King John sings the Magna Carta 252

Reading the Declaration 255 Before Washington's Army

San Vitale Church 275

A Sale of Slaves in the United States 277

William Wilberforce 280

Statue of Elijah Lovejoy 282

Harriett Beecher Stowe 284

Ad for Uncle Tom's Cabin 282

Marble sculpture of the Good Shepherd 294

Two versions of Pieta 297

Mainz Cathedral 299

The apse of St. Apollinare 302

Chartres Cathedral 305

Gate Church of the Resurrection 306

Praying Hands 309

Guido of Arezzo 317

The "Guido Hand" 318

Bach's keyboard and pedals 323

Mozart Singing His Requiem 327

Eusebius 349

Erasmus 355

Illustration for The Pilgrim's Progress 359

Illustration for A Christmas Carol 364

The Departure of St. Augustine of Hippo 378 from Milan

Chi-Rho cross 388

Altar to "the Unconquerable Sun God" 391

Greek cross 392

Foreword

In what some have called this "post-Christian" era, new books on Jesus of Nazareth regularly appear in which there is less Christ and more caricatureall in the name of supposed scholarship. As for the Christianity Jesus founded, there is a similar tendency either to ignore its contributions to our world or to stress negative aspects of church history that also developed whenever believers belied their beliefs. It has become "politically correct" to fault Christianity for authoritarianism and repression, a faith that promoted fanaticism and religious warfare while impeding science and free inquiry.

With the increasing secularization of society and the current emphasis on multiculturalismespecially in matters religiousthe massive impact that Christianity has had on civilization is often overlooked, obscured, or even denied. For this and many other reasons, a powerful response is long

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

overdue, not only in the interests of defending the faith, but more urgently, to set the historical record straight. This book delivers that compelling response.

What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe fired a fine opening salvo in the struggle to reclaim the massive heritage Christianity bequeathed civilization, but the present volume by Dr. Alvin J. Schmidt wins the battle. A now retired professor of sociology at Illinois College, Schmidt carefully documents how Christianity has dramatically improved our world across twenty centuries in so many varied facets of our>culture.

Even knowledgeable believers will be amazed at how many of our present institutions and values reflect a Christian origin. Not only countless individual lives but civilization itself was transformed by Jesus Christ. In the ancient world, his teachings elevated brutish standards of morality, halted infanticide, enhanced human life, emancipated women, abolished slavery, inspired charities and relief organizations, created hospitals, established orphanages, and founded schools.

In medieval times, Christianity almost single-handedly kept classical culture alive through recopying manuscripts, building libraries, moderating warfare through truce days, and providing dispute arbitration. It was Christians who invented colleges and universities, dignified labor as a divine vocation, and extended the light of civilization to barbarians on the frontiers.

In the modern era, Christian teaching, properly expressed, advanced science, instilled concepts of political and social and economic freedom, fostered justice, and provided the greatest single source of inspiration for the magnificent achievements in art, architecture, music, and literature that we treasure to the present day.

These pages document it all, showing with meticulous care how so many of our current institutions originated and developed within the church, and how so many "greats" in all branches of human culture were Christian. The author carefully warns, however, that the current climate of secularism and pluralism is now fogging many of these facts. That is all the more reason for the reader to watch how this book dispels such mist in the name of historical truth.