The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.

The Victory of Reason How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success WRITTEN BY Rodney Stark PUBLISHED BY Random House, 2005 ISBN: 1400062284, Hardcover, pp. 304, $35.95 CND 

Moses (Exodus 3:5) describes Bezalel and Oholiab as skilled in "embroidering, the making of variegated cloth of violet, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen thread, weaving, and all other arts and crafts". Over a millennium later, the Roman soldiers at Christ's crucifixion cast lots for his garment, considering it a prize because "it was of one piece, woven from the top throughout." Woven, doubtless, by His mother. Little did they know what a treasure they held in their hands. Not only was it a beautiful garment in itself, but it was seamless - a symbol of the unity of the faith.

This without mentioning the Person to Whom it belonged.

The Victory of Reason (Random House, N.Y., 2005) by Rodney Stark is a book about the economic history of Western Europe. The thesis is that capitalism is responsible for the affluence of the West, and that capitalism is an offspring of Christianity, traceable back at least to St. Augustine.

It outlines many developments significant for material progress, with considerable emphasis on the manufacture of cloth. Hence my reference above to the Old Testament's mention of such things, going back a long time before St. Augustine. We ought not to short-change our ancestors. No one that I know of has written a book about how many skills have been lost over the centuries. The only one I remember from school is that we no longer know how to make stained glass as beautifully as it was made in medieval times. The Greeks had an amazing talent for carving marble. The old Romans had a superior recipe for cement. No one has ever matched the architecture of the medieval cathedrals.

Dr. Stark gave me one interesting insight. He speaks of how well the later medievalists learned to "full" cloth, that is, shrink and tighten it to make it strong. I had often read, for example, about how "the high priest tore his garments." It had not occurred to me that perhaps garments were easier to tear in the old days. If I tried to tear my garments, I'd still be tugging at them long after I had forgotten why I wanted to tear them in the first place.

The subtitle of Dr. Stark's book is How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success. He speaks of "faith in reason" as being the basis of scientific progress, and he is right to claim that Christianity endorses reason. I see him as making a slight but crucial error, however, as if he had looked at the phrase, "faith and reason," and misread it as "faith in reason." That step is made all the more slippery by the great truth that faith in reason is a necessary prerequisite for a futureful exploration of the universe and its wonders.

But the Church speaks of "faith and reason," two different things. The Church believes in reason; she also believes in God, and she believes in God long before she believes in reason. God is not just above reason; He is the Creator of reason. What the Church teaches is "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth (John Paul II, Fides et ratio). Dr. Stark is trying to fly on one wing.

So what are we to say about material progress if we take both faith in God and faith in reason into account? Pope Paul VI addressed the question of human progress in Evangelii nuntiandi and said, "Between evangelization and human progress there is neither opposition nor separation". In other words, we can have both the Gospel and human progress or we can have neither.

Jesus Christ has a recipe for material progress which is 100 percent paradoxical: "You who have left all and followed me will have a hundred-fold in this life (my emphasis), and, in the next, life everlasting." To see that play out in practice, look at the life of anyone who has heeded his words. The ancient St. Anthony in the desert who died at the age of 106. Our own Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who began with nothing and ended with houses all over the world. The medieval St. Francis of Assisi left all to make "Lady Poverty" his bride, and had 4,000 followers in 10 years and houses all over Europe.

Incidentally, St. Francis' father was a cloth merchant.

If capitalism is the stuff of success, why are these wealthy nations of ours so enamoured of sterility (through contraception and prenatal infanticide and homosexuality) that they are well on their way to passing out of existence. That hardly qualifies as success.

PS: Halfway into the book, the author cites a date in modern history. Instead of labelling it A.D. (Anno Domini: In the year of our Lord), he calls it C.E. (Common Era). Besides being an empty phrase, C.E. stands condemned by "He that denies me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in heaven."