The God That Did Not Fail

by Robert Royal, Encounter Books, New York, 2006, 311 pages,
$25.95 (hard cover), ISBN 1-59403-145-2

It has become popular in today's press to portray all of religion and Christianity in particular as a great evil that has caused nothing but pain and abuse to the world and its inhabitants.  Books promoting these themes are now making the best seller list, and news magazines are regularly trumpeting these themes.  Robert Royal is president of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington D.C., and this book is a response to these attacks.

The subtitle of this book is "How Religion Built and Sustains the West."  What Royal does is to explore the history of the western civilization, and what has gotten us to where we are.  He begins with what the Greeks and Romans gave us as a foundation and then shows how the concepts and precepts of Christianity have led to the positive things we enjoy.

This is a history book that puts humanism, secularism, communism, and pluralism into a meaningful context.  It is positive and ecumenical in its approach and quite interesting to read.  It also has a very useful index which allows individuals and movements to be found easily and researched for their contributions to the history of western civilization.  This is not a science book, but it is a useful tool in the ongoing battle over whether Christianity has been a positive or negative influence in the emergence of modern society.  To do this from a historical standpoint is quite helpful, and we recommend it for that purpose.


Back to Contents Does God Exist?, JulAug07.