Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization

Western civilization is becoming increasingly pluralistic, secularized, and biblically illiterate. Many people today have little sense of how their lives have benefited from Christianity’s influence, often viewing the church with hostility or resentment.Under the Influence is a topically arranged Christian history for Christians and non-Christians. Grounded in solid research and written in a popular style, this book is both a helpful apologetic tool in talking with unbelievers and a source of evidence for why Christianity deserves credit for many of the humane, social, scientific, and cultural advances in the Western world in the last 2,000 years. Photographs and timelines enhance each chapter.Some unrecognized contributions of Christianity include: * Bringing sanctity to human life by opposing the Greco-Roman practices of abortion, infanticide, child abandonment, and suicide * Raising the level of sexual morality and giving dignity to family life * Giving freedom and dignity to women * First founding hospitals in the 4th century * Originating universities and higher education * Bringing dignity and honor to labor * Spawning and developing modern science * First condemning slavery and inspiring its abolition * Producing major contributions to art, architecture, music, and literature