What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us?

by Jonathan Hill, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 2005,
ISBN 0-8308-3328-5, hardback, 192 pages

Most of us know about negative things that have been done in the name of Christianity--the Crusades, Catholic-Protestant wars, Ku Klux Klan, Branch Davidians, Jim Jones, pedophile priests, and any number of religious con-artists. Between the media and atheists, we are kept abreast of all the stupid things people do in what they claim is Christianity. We have pointed out repeatedly in this journal that what humans do has nothing to do with what Jesus Christ taught and did.

The fact of the matter is, however, that there have been massive amounts of good done by all kinds of people in the name of Jesus Christ. We know about the horrors of the inquisitions of Catholicism, but do we know about the beneficial things Catholicism has done in virtually all walks of life? What did the Baptist church and its teachings have to do with the work of Martin Luther King? What did churches and individuals do to oppose Hitler? How has the Christian system affected art, politics, music, and education? That is what this book is about.

Jonathan Hill is a graduate of Oxford University with degrees in philosophy and theology. He has compiled a positive history of Catholicism and Protestantism in this book approaching all aspects of human enterprise from the standpoint of how Christianity has influenced us and how the teachings of Jesus have molded and shaped academics. The book is well written, challenging, and ecumenical in spirit. Those with backgrounds in history will find it to be a refreshingly different approach. It has marginal apologetic value, but is well worth reading for students of apologetics.


Back to Contents Does God Exist?, NovDec06.