Chapters 1 and 2 on Joseph Needham and Jared Diamond
Joseph Needham and Jared Diamond lived about an ocean and a generation apart, yet they have several interesting things in common.
Both are known as scholarly researchers, who loved history. They were truly generalists with interests across several disciplines of study. Educated in the West, they then became acquainted with eastern cultures, which led them to a quest regarding the comparison of development between these cultures and the West. Witnessing the intelligence and skill of their Asian friends, they began to wonder why these people had not experienced the development and prosperity of the West. Why did -in previous centuries- the genial Chinese not develop modern science (Needham) and why did economic prosperity elude the Papua of New Guinea (Diamond)?
Diamond found that not all people and places had an equal start. The Middle East and Europe, for instance, had significant advantages in their topography, climate, and natural resources. The agricultural revolution had in such places a greater chance of success, paving the way to civilization, cities, and military power. When St. Paul addressed the philosophers of Athens, he claimed that ‘the god they did not know’ had not only made each people group, but he had also determined for each of them their times and places.1 According to the Bible, it was the Creator-God, who chose not to distribute his blessings in an equal way.
Needham, and those who continued in his quest, found a variety of causes, which related to culture, politics, and freedom that were more conducive in Europe. The biblical worldview and the ‘liberation’ of the Reformation seemed to have played a major role in providing privileges in the West.
Chapters 3 and 4 on Tom Holland and Vishal Mangalwadi
Tom Holland and Vishal Mangalwadi are historians, too. Both of them discovered the impact of biblical teaching in shaping human thinking, living, and prospering.
Holland discovered the (moral) value of the Bible when he was confronted with the brutalities, common in the empires of the Ancient Near East. When he examined his personal outrage about the way that -especially- their women and slaves were treated, he realized that, even though he had rejected the biblical claims regarding Jesus Christ, he had -unwittingly- still absorbed its moral teachings. And, he had to admit to favor its view of human dignity and the virtue of compassion for the downtrodden and the abused.
Mangalwadi was surprised and seemingly disappointed that his academic mentors in India were all convinced that truth cannot be known except through spiritual revelation. After considering the Hindu scriptures and the Quran, he saw himself forced to return to the Bible, even though he had dismissed it first. For, how could simple shepherds, farmers, and fishermen be able to communicate the revelation of Almighty God? When he could finally accept this possibility, his eyes were opened to the numerous blessings from biblical teaching in many areas of culture, in his native India, in Europe, and America. While he and his wife are seeking to put these blessings into practice among the poor in India, he is warning the West that -as she is cutting off its biblical roots- it must face the imminent loss of its many fruits. Only through another Reformation can we avoid the sun setting on the West.
Chapters 5 on 'Watching the Sunset'
So far, we have mostly focused on the sources of blessing or privilege. Nevertheless, in line with Mangalwadi’s concern we already looked at some more recent manifestations that suggest that the era of peace and prosperity in the West may be ending fairly soon.
In this last double-chapter, I want to elaborate on the processes that have been at work already. Although I have used a greater variety of resources, my primary sources have been provided by four men, who might be among those who are most vocal about racial or gender injustice, yet they share with us their concern about the recent attacks on liberty and the madness of the crowds.
Thomas Sowell is a brilliant American economist. Whereas E.F. (Fritz) Schumacher (1911-1977) subtitled his book Small is Beautiful as ‘Economics as if people mattered’, Sowell is urging us to look at people today as if their economic productivity mattered. Although he used to be in the socialist camp, he then discovered that their efforts to help the less privileged people actually resulted not only in economic loss for society, but also serious loss for those who were supposed to benefit.
Shelby Steele argues that
“the age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white guilt – and neither has been good for African Americans. Through articulate analysis and engrossing recollections, (he) sounds a powerful call for a new culture of personal responsibility." 2
Voddie Baucham is a gifted preacher, who is another critical analyst, specifically with respect to Critical Race Theory. He sees the pervasive attack on ‘Whiteness’ and ‘White privilege’ as attacks on Christianity and God. He urges the Church to stand on guard against ‘the devil’s schemes’ and ‘the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’3 What is being preached today is not another Gospel, but an anti-Gospel, meant to destroy the Kingdom of God.
Douglas Murray identifies as a gay man. He is seeking to open our eyes to the current “madness of the crowds”, by which we tend to lose a common rationality and morality, which is putting us at serious risk of losing our -formerly treasured- freedom in democracy.
Four men, who were supposed to feel oppressed in modern America. Yet, rather than jumping on the Critical bandwagon, they engaged in a critical analysis themselves and consequently found the popular madness wanting.
Those, who take the Bible seriously ought to remember that God is still in full control. Even as the evil of rejecting God and despising his many blessings seems to be ratcheted up in recent events, God still has patience with the world, giving us a chance for repentance and reformation.
We have been warned that the last days of lawlessness will be hard for all, but we are also promised that the King of kings will return to destroy all evil and restore his Righteous Rule. In the end, there will be two kinds of people: those who confess that God’s judgments are righteous and well-deserved, and others, who hate God and curse Him for his dominion.4
2. back cover of his book "White Guilt- how blacks and whites destroyed the promise of the civil rights era.
3. my reference, to Ephesians 6:11,12 (NIV)
4. Revelation 5, 15: 3,4, 16:5-11, 21.
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