How the Catholic Church Built Civilization

“Not only did the Church work to overturn the morally repugnant aspects of the ancient world – like infanticide and gladiatorial combats – but after Rome’s fall, it was the Church that restored and advanced civilization.” – How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

In 1901, the annual Nobel Prize contest began, following the death of Alfred Nobel in 1896.  It was Alfred’s wish that his fortune be used to recognize those in several disciplines who contributed most to humanity.  Based on the current standing of Nobel Laureate Prize Winners, the overwhelming majority have come from Western countries.  With 71 percent coming from the United States alone, nearly two-thirds of all recipients were either Christian or from Christian backgrounds. 

Western Civilization is known for its democracy, individualism, property rights, free speech, and recognition of natural rights.  Led by the promises of the Magna Carta and the US Constitution, Western countries distinguish themselves by equal treatment under the law and have been the freest and most open societies on earth.  So, what made Western Civilization so special?  While the Church borrowed from the ancient world in creating Western Culture, many of its best practices and standards came from scripture and sacraments of the Catholic faith.    

In Thomas E. Woods, Jr.’s 2005 book, “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”, Woods details how Catholics made profound contributions to Western civilization.  While most are familiar with the Church's role in charity for the poor and the sick, as well as its influence in modern aesthetics, including its many cathedrals, Woods reveals the significance of Catholic thought in infinitely more areas, including Science, Economics, and Law.  During the Dark Ages, from the end of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenment, the Catholic Church not only held civilization together, but its impact made it what it is today.

The church taught the words of the ancients, translating and preserving knowledge following the fall of Rome.  While Monks developed the written word and scripts for literacy, bishops organized schools and promoted education by setting up academic programs at cathedrals.  Monasteries not only helped to form the foundation of modern education but also led to the restoration of agricultural development.   Even Charlemagne, the father of Europe, hailed the Catholic church as he restored education.    

Canon law was the first modern legal system in Europe that reconciled customs, statutes, and doctrine.  Building on the ancient Roman legal order, with Canon law as its model, the Church infused scripture, the ten commandments, and the golden rule, ensuring that legal principles were bound to Western theological concepts.  Canon law was the first to advance the concept of natural and legal rights as well as the rights of the individual.  During the discovery of the Americas, Spanish theologians first recognized Indian rights as a reflection of our common humanity, as all men were equal due to divine natural rights from the Bible.

Science was a natural discipline for the Church, with its focus on understanding the universe, as many early scientists were priests, while churches provided aid for scientific studies.  Catholic theologians first advanced the theory that the universe was created out of nothing by a divine act of God.  Since Christian faith supported reason and objective truth, it similarly supported the idea of a world based on a rational, orderly universe.   

While Adam Smith in his famous book, The Wealth of Nations, was considered the Father of Economics, it was the Spanish theologians from the 16th and 17th centuries, the Late Scholastics, who were the first to recognize the moral aspects of trade and commerce.  Their thinking on money and the economy would result in the economic theory that eventually formed the Austrian school of thought, focused on private property, public finance, money, value and price, wages, and profits.  Most notably, the Late Scholastics originated the idea of the subjective value of the consumers, which considered the utility of buyers' needs and their own judgment of goods, which would challenge the labor theory of value advocated by Marxist philosophy, which focused strictly on the cost of labor and production.    

A new thought from Christian morality brought about an expansion of public charity in its ministry to human suffering, making the catholic church the largest non-governmental provider of healthcare in the world.  Monasteries first organized medical care, initially for widows, orphans, the sick, and the poor, by dispersing alms for those in need of shelter.  Catholicism also ended the practice of infanticide, humanizing the West by recognizing the sanctity of life. 

Today, both Western culture and Christianity are under siege from the progressive left attempting to rewrite history as an anti-god, pro-humanism movement void of objective truth, calling Christianity repressive due to their dystopian views on women, gays, and abortion.   But Christianity is baked into Western culture; it's in our societal norms, cultural traditions, and historical values.