a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
b_b  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Did Christianity Create Liberalism? [book review]

You don't really need a long essay to debunk a bogus claim that Christianity has anything whatever to do with liberalism. Like any testable theory, all you need is a counter example. We have one. It's called Russia. Russia had nothing like property rights or rule of law, generally, for centuries after the rest of Europe.

In fact, I would argue that Christianity is antagonistic toward liberalism, historically speaking. The groundwork of modern liberalism was laid in the Magna Carta, which was forced on the king by nobles who threatened him with execution precisely because the king claimed he had divine right to levy taxes willy nilly. Ruling by decree from God and rule of law (the cornerstone of liberalism) are diametrically opposed to one another. Liberalism wasn't birthed by Christianity; it had to defeat it.