In Dominion, Holland doesn't set out to provide a comprehensive chronicle of Christianity- although he does end up discussing a lot of events and characters throughout Church history in the course of arguing his central theme. Nor does he concern himself with theology, per se. Rather, Holland's focus is the effect which Christ, His Gospels, and those who followed them, had upon our world. It is his contention that the world- specifically the Western world- has been not so much influenced by Christianity, as formed by it. He reached this conclusion while doing research for earlier books on the peoples of ancient Greece and Rome. Studying the crude eugenics practiced by the Spartans, for example, or the casual brutality of Roman emperors, Holland found that, while fascinated by them, he could recognise nothing of his own beliefs and values in their thought processes. And he realised that the lens through which he views the world, his foundational moral principles, are intensely and undeniably Christian in origin and nature.
"For a millennium and more, the civilisation into which I was born was Christendom. Assumptions that I had grown up with- about how a society should properly be organised, and the principles that it should uphold- were not bred of classical antiquity, still less of 'human nature', but very distinctly of that civilisation's Christian past."
Dominion emphasizes just how revolutionary Christianity was at the time of its inception, not so much in its claims of a man who was also God- that had been heard before, both in myths of the past and about a number of kings/Caesars who claimed to be divine. But these individuals- real and imagined- were always triumphant heroes (like Hercules). Christianity revered a Saviour who had been executed in the most shameful, demeaning of ways- crucifixion- a death reserved for slaves and low criminals. The very idea would disgust and repel any Roman citizen; it would seem like arrant madness to them. Holland quotes the words of Justin: "The mystery of the cross, which summons us to God, is something despised and dishonourable." For a man subjected to this shameful end to be held up as any kind of icon would have been unthinkable- madness- to the minds of any civilisation of the time.
“The paradox that weakness might be a source of strength, that a victim might triumph over his torturers, that suffering might constitute victory, lay at the heart of the Gospels. Voltaire, when he sketched a portrait of Calas broken on the wheel, could not help but evoke in the imaginings of his readers the image of Christ on the cross. The standards by which he judged Christianity, and condemned it for its faults, were not universal. They were not shared by philosophers across the world. They were not common from Beijing to Cayenne. They were distinctively, peculiarly Christian.”
Even atheism, Holland points out, did not form in a vacuum; the standards which it measures itself against are all Christian in nature.
Christianity is also, according to Holland, the foundation for the very concept of equality, found in verses such as Galatians 3:26-29: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Contrary to what the Declaration of Independence avers ("We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.") these truths, as Holland points out, did not seem to be particularly self-evident to any of the civilizations predating Christianity:
“That all men had been created equal, and endowed with an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, were not remotely self-evident truths. That most Americans believed they were owed less to philosophy than to the Bible: to the assurance given equally to Christians and Jews, to Protestants and Catholics, to Calvinists and Quakers, that every human being was created in God’s image. The truest and ultimate seedbed of the American republic–no matter what some of those who had composed its founding documents might have cared to think–was the book of Genesis.”
Holland is not himself a believer- he tends to refer to the "Christian myth"- but acknowledges the immeasurable impact which Christianity has had upon the world. While I, as a believing/practicing Christian find this lack of belief to be unfortunate, it no doubt lends credence to his arguments since he has no personal axe to grind. He does not hesitate to point out the times and events in which Christians have not acquitted themselves well, briefly running through a lot of Church history, warts and all. But ultimately his conclusion is that Christianity has, on balance, been a force of good in the world and whether we acknowledge- or even realise- it, our Western moral compass is unwaveringly pointed at Christian theology. I personally find this attitude refreshing, as many academics seem to lack the intellectual honesty to admit to this truth. Obviously I'm not a completely impartial observer, but it's always exasperated me when, despite all available evidence, people try to make out that Christianity has been a cause of evil in the world. It seems to me that even a casual perusal of history, ancient and more modern, would disprove this notion. Humans have, and always will be, the source of acts of evil due to what is known in Christian circles as the 'total depravity of man'. Has the Christian church- in various forms- ever perpetrated these acts of evil? Of course, because it is made up of humans. But the call of Christianity has always been one to Christlikeness: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5). The striving for this, however imperfectly, has undeniably and irrevocably shaped the societies in which we live. This is not to excuse the church when it has done wrong, but to point out that no other system or religion has ever resulted in the rights and freedoms we enjoy in the West. To deny the central role which the spread of Christianity played in this is to deny reality.
Tom Holland's book is well written and well researched; it's not hard to tell that he is also a fiction writer because his words flow eloquently and tell a compelling story; this is no dry history lesson. He also argues his points very convincingly: even when I thought that he was reaching a bit- such as suggesting that The Beatles were influenced by Christian principles- after considering his reasoning I would often concede (grudgingly) that he might have a point. All in all, Dominion was a very informative and thought provoking read, one which I'll no doubt revisit in the future.