Catholicism and Western Civilization

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. gives an interesting outline of his new and exciting book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization over at LewRockwell.com. The main thesis of his book, as its title suggests, is about how the Catholic faith was the driving force behind the development of what we consider today Western Civilization. As he states, "From the role of the monks (they did much more than just copy manuscripts) to art and architecture, from the university to Western law, from science to charitable work, from international law to economics, the book delves into just how indebted we are as a civilization to the Catholic Church, whether we realize it or not."

Yet sadly, as he explains in the beginning of his book, the contributions of the faith to our civilization are often ignored in the popular imagination and even among many Catholics. Hopefully this book will bring to light this now neglected aspect of historical truth.

Not only does he explain the great contributions of Catholicism to Western civilization, Woods goes to great length to refute the many myths about how the faith supposedly hindered its development. In particular, he takes on the age-old myths concerning the relationship between Catholicism and science. Contrary to popular view, according to Woods, Catholicism was a not an enemy of science but rather its greatest patron. All this despite the whole Galileo incident, which is so often cited as proof that the Catholic Church hindered scientific advancement(and indeed Woods deals with the many myths concerning this as well).

One possible problem I have found with Woods' book is how he tries to connect the development of modern-day theories of free-market economics(particularly the theories of the Austrian School) to the teachings of the Scholastics of the Middle Ages. Ray Moore of the Distributist Review took a critical view of this notion.

However, despite this flaw, Woods' book certainly is of great value to us Catholics who wish to learn about and take pride in their rich cultural heritage. It really is worthwhile reading material.