Apologetics: History

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Jay F Guin

AFRICAThe history of the world weighs heavily in favor of Christianity, even when we consider the many missteps taken in the name of Christianity, such as the Crusades, slavery, and the Inquisition.

I had intended to write a post on this subject, but I’ve found several excellent articles already on the Internet that I could not easily better.

Social and Historical Impact of Christianity

The Impact of Christianity

A Review of How Christianity Changed the World

World Christianity: Its History, Spread & Social Influence

However, where the state did not finance or choose missionaries (i.e., British and American colonies), missionaries were more likely to critique both the colonial state and white settlers. Thus missionaries mobilized campaigns against slavery, forced labor, and the opium trade, and for indigenous land rights, and punishment of settlers and officials who abused indigenous peoples (see chapters 2, 3, 4, 9, and 14).[27] That said, most missionaries were not political activists. They thought their primary role was to convert people. Most backed into political agitation reluctantly and primarily when abuses interfered with their ability to convert people.[28]

Missionaries also tried to reform behaviors they considered immoral in their host societies (e.g., foot binding, sati,[29] female infanticide, female genital cutting, child marriage, polygamy, and indigenous slavery) (see chapters 2, 4, 8, 14, 15, and 16).[30] In the process they introduced many of the organizational forms and tactics that are prominent in modern social movements.[31] These mission-led campaigns created powerful reactions (see chapter 2).[32] …

Missionaries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries also had a transformative role on mass education, mass printing, public health, nationalism, democracy, and religious transformations.

This is a great, scholarly article, much longer and more detailed than a typical blog post. It brilliantly puts an end to allegations that colonialism was a product of Christianity. In fact, Christian missionaries often worked against colonial authorities.

You might also enjoy this summary article in Christianity Today: “The Surprising Discovery about Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries.”

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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3 Responses to Apologetics: History

  1. Ray Downen says:
    June 16, 2014 at 12:42 pm

    Jay, you list the crusades as a mistake. You may suppose it would have been better to have Islam in charge in Europe beginning back then. I think it would have been a tragedy of the worst kind.

  2. Jay Guin says:
    June 16, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    Ray,

    The defense of eastern and western Europe by the Christian armies is not generally referred to as a Crusade. The Crusades were incursions into the Holy Land in an effort to recapture Jerusalem or other Palestinian territories from Islamic control.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades

    http://www.history.com/topics/crusades

    The Fourth Crusade is particularly notorious —

    The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable. Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found. Though the Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics. The Crusaders vented their hatred for the Greeks most spectacularly in the desecration of the greatest Church in Christendom. They smashed the silver iconostasis, the icons and the holy books of Hagia Sophia, and seated upon the patriarchal throne a whore who sang coarse songs as they drank wine from the Church’s holy vessels. The estrangement of East and West, which had proceeded over the centuries, culminated in the horrible massacre that accompanied the conquest of Constantinople. The Greeks were convinced that even the Turks, had they taken the city, would not have been as cruel as the Latin Christians. The defeat of Byzantium, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became an easy prey to the Turks. The Fourth Crusade and the crusading movement generally thus resulted, ultimately, in the victory of Islam, a result which was of course the exact opposite of its original intention.[43][44]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_crusade

    This was Christian Catholics pillaging Christian Orthodox.

  3. Jay Guin says:
    June 16, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    Ray,

    I should also say that the defense of Europe against Islamic invaders is quite another thing. Those were defensive wars. And highly instructive ones at that.

    I’m not a pacifist, although I’m also not interested in running around the world “nation building” and otherwise seeking to impose Western values by the sword. I mean, we’ve managed to nearly destroy the last vestiges of Christianity in Iraq — for what?

    But I digress. The next time we debate pacifism, I’ll be sure to bring up Charles Martel.

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