Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind

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His bestselling books include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire, which won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom; In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World; Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind.

It was released to positive reviews, although some historians and philosophers objected to some of Holland's conclusions. His bestselling books include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic , which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire , which won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom ; In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World ; Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar ; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind . It’s well known that the abolition of slavery owes much to evangelicals and Quakers; it’s less well known that one of the first to make the case against it on Christian grounds was Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century, though the equality of slave and master was already given in Christianity. But those dismissive of religion, for which I have some sympathy, should understand that many of their valued concepts of equality, emancipation and liberalism originate in Christianity.Humanists will not, I think, be gratified to be reminded that “humanism derives ultimately from claims made in the Bible: that humans are made in God’s image; that his Son died equally for everyone; that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. fascinating detail and the narrative is held together with a novelist's eye for character and theme -- Tim Stanley * History Today * A brilliant meditation on how Christianity in its Latin and Protestant forms entirely changed the way humans conceive life and their relationship to each other -- Helen Thompson * New Statesman * An absorbing survey of Christianity's subversive origins and enduring influence is filled with vivid portraits, gruesome deaths and moral debates .

The powerless came to be seen a God’s children and therefore deserving of respect as much as the highest in society.

Spartan warriors such as Leonidas whose people practiced eugenics and trained their children to kill undermenchen. In balance to these negatives, there were many instances of truly magnificent people who shed life's pleasures and comfort and devoted themselves to spreading the word of God. However, I think Holland could have looked to more contemporary non-Christian cultures to highlight differences. Krafft- Ebing , German scientist raised a Catholic he took for granted the primacy of Christian marriage as a lifelong institution He stated that “Christianity raised the union of the sexes to a sublime position by making woman socially the equal of man and by elevating the bond of love to a moral and religious institution.

It should be read as an enjoyable introduction to both Christian history and a challenge to reflect on why we think the way we do - a challenge that is all the more interesting knowing that Holland himself had previously thought that our values owed more to pre-Christian classical values than Christian ones and all the more poignant when we consider how part of his reflection occurred whilst walking through a ruined town in Syria only lately liberated from Islamic State fighters who had been crucifying and taking slaves. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000; In the Shadow of the Sword, which covers the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, and the emergence of Islam; and Dynasty, a portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty. Even St Paul might join the critics to some extent - whilst Holland quotes him in Romans 2:15 - "God's law is written in their hearts" as something as a theme that leads to departure from scripture and religious laws, most interpretations rather see this as Paul explaining that right and wrong have always been discernible to some extent by nature - hence the emphasis on natural law moral philosophy within the Catholic Church. He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors and is Chair of the British Library’s PLR Advisory Committee.Would he overcome his fairly superficial childhood objections to religion based on dinosaurs and join his godmother?

He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors; as Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee and was on the committee of the Classical Association. Jonathan Sumption, writing for The Spectator, opined the book was "sustained with all the breadth, originality and erudition that we have come to associate with Holland’s writing.The author has a rare gift for narrative and a lively sense of drama with his message delivered directly through the lives of Christians as much as via complex theological debates. As he says, “the trace elements of Christianity continued to infuse people’s morals and presumptions so utterly that many failed even to detect their presence. Lynch mobs’, lawmen and increasing recruits to the Ku Klux Klan created a hostile environment across the US. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to ‘the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome’. For example, he mentions Hinduism and the practice of sati in the context of how secularism was introduced to India.