The Formation of Christendom - Christopher Dawson

Together with its sequel The Dividing of Christendom, this book was the fruit of the Harvard lectures that Christopher Dawson delivered as the first occupant of the Charles Chauncey Stillman Chair of Roman Catholic Studies from 1958-1962. Here, as in all his works, he sees religion as the dynamic element of culture. This work traces the formation of Christian culture from its roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition through the rise and fall of medieval Christendom, and ends with an epilogue in which the author reflects on the defining characteristics of Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular. In the introductory section of this work, Dawson highlights the importance of language in the origin and development of civilization. Christina Scott, the author’s daughter and first biographer, summarises Dawson’s ideas on this point in her work A Historian and his World: "In the beginning was the word: language was the gateway to the human world and was the single factor that distinguished man from the animal kingdom." Language, as Dawson wrote, "enables man to think, to create a new world of imagination and reason." In parts two and three Dawson traces the beginnings of Christian culture in the first centuries after Christ through to the decline of medieval unity. Some of the tantalizing chapter headings include The Christian and Jewish Idea of Revelation, The Foundation of Europe: The Monks of the West, The Carolingian Age, Feudal Europe and
více informací