A review by miguelf
Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, by Tom Holland

2.0

It would seem reviews for this book are bound to be polarized: it’s in the love it or hate it mold. Put me in the latter category: the experience here was akin to reading a book written by a squirrel with its tail on fire writing about selected historical events over the past 2,500 years. Yes, the author starts from 500 BC and goes to the present in order to build a story about water being wet – that Christianity has had a significant effect on Western thought.  This wasn’t the book I thought I was going to read, but hopefully one day I’ll be able to find a book that is a wide-ranging coherent criticism / explanation of how Christianity influenced history (with an emphasis on how it’s mostly been detrimental).  Towards the end of this there are long-ish sections on both Tolkein’s LoTR and also the Beatles.  Apparently ‘Hey Jude’ needs to be thrown on the pile: I felt second-hand embarrassment on the author’s behalf for having to wade through this particular example.