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6 Modern Myths About Christianity & Western Civilization
When did you last encounter a myth? Maybe watching a movie, touring a museum or browsing the sci-fi section of your local bookstore? To contemporary men and women, myths seem mere relics of a premodern era--legendary stories of capricious gods, heroic deeds and lost cities. The physical and social anxieties that gave rise to myths have been dealt with more productively in our century by science, government and art. Right? "Not at all," says Philip Sampson. In 6 Modern Myths he shows that all societies, even sophisticated and skeptical societies like ours, nurture myths that distort both science and history to further cultural goals. Such myths are important guides to a society's understanding of itself. How often have you heard the story, for example, of plucky Galileo, armed merely with a telescope and reason, doing battle with a superstitious church only to be condemned as a heretic and harshly imprisoned? Even though most of the "facts" commonly assumed to be true about this story are just not so, the romanticized myth of Galileo boldly marches forward. Sampson dispels this myth and five others--that the rise of Christianity led to ecological crisis, that missionaries have oppressed native peoples, that Darwin's evolutionary ideas were embraced by scientists but vilified by religious leaders, that the church was responsible for persecution of witches, and that Christianity teaches the repression of bodily pleasures--all woven nearly inextricably into the fabric of Christianity and Western civilization. To tease apart historical fact from cultural fiction Sampson tells different stories, rich in historical detail, fascinating characters and surprising twists. 6 Modern Myths offers you a historical tapestry that unsettles conventional wisdom and provides an enlightening look at the complexities of truth.
197 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 9, 2016
What an eye-opener! Christians are always made to squirm under the criticism and blame heaped upon the faith from the moderns and post-moderns in high places. Their view of history is the accepted one, reproduced without thought or research in textbooks, documentaries, and news reports since the mid-19th century. Read what really happened in the areas of the "persecution" of Galileo, the popularization of Darwinism, missionary oppression of natives, suppression of sexuality, persecution of witches and responsibility for ecological problems. No more cowering!!
August 6, 2011
Philip Sampson describes six myths that "everybody knows" are true but upon closer examination turn out to be fiction. Myths "present values and beliefs to us a though they were facts or history, and they use stories to do so" (p.13). One myth that appears in many guises in the modern world is that of the warfare between science and religion. The stories that are shaped by this myth invariably have as their villain the Church, as an institution immersed in superstition and ignorance, a bigoted opponent of reason and scientific progress.
The Galileo story is presented as a clear example of this conflict. We are told that the Bible says that everything moves around the earth but Galileo's observations showed that the earth moves around the sun. Because he stood his ground, so the story goes, he was tortured by the Inquisition, condemned as a heretic, and wasted away in a prison cell.
Reality, however, is quite different. First of all, it was Aristotle, not the Bible, that taught the everything moves around the earth. The Roman Catholic Church was reading certain Biblical passages through Aristotelian lenses and has since admitted that mistake. When one allows the Bible to speak for itself and recognize when it uses phenomenological language, one finds no conflict with observational evidence.
Second, the idea that the earth revolves around the sun did not originate with Galileo, but with Copernicus, in 1543, 90 years before Galileo was condemned in 1633. In fact, during Galileo's lifetime there was still insufficient evidence to choose between Copernican and Ptolemaic (geocentric) theories. So while Galileo believed that the earth did in fact move around the sun, his observations could not prove it. And we don't see a climate of repression of new ideas by the Church. On the contrary, alternative hypotheses were freely discussed. In fact, according to Cardinal Bellarmine, who is sometimes portrayed as the villain in the story, Copernicus' model made "excellent good sense" (p. 38). Then why was he condemned?
In a 1632 book which contrasted the standard Aristotelian cosmology with heliocentrism, he in effect called Pope Urban VIII, the very pope who had befriended him, a simpleton for not agreeing with him. But was he then tortured by the Inquisition, imprisoned for months in a dank prison cell and left to die a broken, lonely man in exile? No. Although summoned to Rome in his old age, detained, and forced to renounce heliocentrism, he was given his own rooms and servants. And then he was allowed to return home with his pensions from the Church intact. "Galileo's condemnation was the result of the complex interplay of untoward political circumstances, political ambitions, and wounded prides" (p. 39).
A similar theme of bigotry and oppression on the part of Christianity is portrayed in the story of Christian missionary activity. A virtual identification is made between the activities of the missionaries and the evils of colonialism, implicating the former in all the atrocities and exploitation of the colonists. A third story, that of the persecution of witches in early modern times, is yet another where blame is directed towards a "cruel and intolerant" Christian church. Sampson separates fact from fiction in showing in both cases that reality was quite different. Like the story of Galileo, that of missionary oppression has its origins in eighteenth-century Enlightenment anticlericalism. By shifting the blame for colonial exploitation away from Enlightenment and evolutionary ideologies and to Christianity, "the modern mind gains an alibi for its part in the oppression of native people and covers up its complicity in wide-scale human misery" (p. 112). Regarding the witch-hunting story, between 90 and 99 percent of the deaths reported by the popular story are fictional, and it was lay authorities, not the Inquisition or Puritan ministers, who were behind most of the prosecutions. The death rate was actually lower in countries like Spain in Italy, where the Inquisition was strongest, because by demanding evidence and higher standards of proof, it actually acted as a brake on lay courts and popular zeal.
Sampson argues that contrary to the claims of popularizers of modernism, this worldview is sustained and held up as our hope for the future, not by reason and facts, but by stories. In order to deflect attention away from the failings of modernism, these stories have to create villains, usually played by representatives of Christianity, in order for the hero to shine by contrast. To do so, however, the stories have to play fast and loose with historical facts, sometimes by exaggerating them, sometimes by simply fabricating them.
He argues that postmodernism also utilizes stories to illustrate its worldview. However now the players are different. The story of witch-hunting no longer pits reason versus superstition as the modernist story has it. Instead we see issues of power struggle between competing social groups: mystical, independent, and free women on the one hand, and misogynist male rationalists on the other. Here religion, at least less rational forms of it such as mysticism and paganism, is on the side of the hero and science is moved to the role of villain. Nonetheless the selective use of facts and their embellishment is the same.
The modern and postmodern arguments both have aspects to commend them, but they are incomplete and fail as overarching explanatory worldviews, and that is why they inevitably distort history in order to appear more complete than they are. Sampson concludes by suggesting the Christian metanarrative, a story solidly rooted in history, one that engages us like no other story because we have the priviledge of knowing the Author, and being a part of His Story.
The Galileo story is presented as a clear example of this conflict. We are told that the Bible says that everything moves around the earth but Galileo's observations showed that the earth moves around the sun. Because he stood his ground, so the story goes, he was tortured by the Inquisition, condemned as a heretic, and wasted away in a prison cell.
Reality, however, is quite different. First of all, it was Aristotle, not the Bible, that taught the everything moves around the earth. The Roman Catholic Church was reading certain Biblical passages through Aristotelian lenses and has since admitted that mistake. When one allows the Bible to speak for itself and recognize when it uses phenomenological language, one finds no conflict with observational evidence.
Second, the idea that the earth revolves around the sun did not originate with Galileo, but with Copernicus, in 1543, 90 years before Galileo was condemned in 1633. In fact, during Galileo's lifetime there was still insufficient evidence to choose between Copernican and Ptolemaic (geocentric) theories. So while Galileo believed that the earth did in fact move around the sun, his observations could not prove it. And we don't see a climate of repression of new ideas by the Church. On the contrary, alternative hypotheses were freely discussed. In fact, according to Cardinal Bellarmine, who is sometimes portrayed as the villain in the story, Copernicus' model made "excellent good sense" (p. 38). Then why was he condemned?
In a 1632 book which contrasted the standard Aristotelian cosmology with heliocentrism, he in effect called Pope Urban VIII, the very pope who had befriended him, a simpleton for not agreeing with him. But was he then tortured by the Inquisition, imprisoned for months in a dank prison cell and left to die a broken, lonely man in exile? No. Although summoned to Rome in his old age, detained, and forced to renounce heliocentrism, he was given his own rooms and servants. And then he was allowed to return home with his pensions from the Church intact. "Galileo's condemnation was the result of the complex interplay of untoward political circumstances, political ambitions, and wounded prides" (p. 39).
A similar theme of bigotry and oppression on the part of Christianity is portrayed in the story of Christian missionary activity. A virtual identification is made between the activities of the missionaries and the evils of colonialism, implicating the former in all the atrocities and exploitation of the colonists. A third story, that of the persecution of witches in early modern times, is yet another where blame is directed towards a "cruel and intolerant" Christian church. Sampson separates fact from fiction in showing in both cases that reality was quite different. Like the story of Galileo, that of missionary oppression has its origins in eighteenth-century Enlightenment anticlericalism. By shifting the blame for colonial exploitation away from Enlightenment and evolutionary ideologies and to Christianity, "the modern mind gains an alibi for its part in the oppression of native people and covers up its complicity in wide-scale human misery" (p. 112). Regarding the witch-hunting story, between 90 and 99 percent of the deaths reported by the popular story are fictional, and it was lay authorities, not the Inquisition or Puritan ministers, who were behind most of the prosecutions. The death rate was actually lower in countries like Spain in Italy, where the Inquisition was strongest, because by demanding evidence and higher standards of proof, it actually acted as a brake on lay courts and popular zeal.
Sampson argues that contrary to the claims of popularizers of modernism, this worldview is sustained and held up as our hope for the future, not by reason and facts, but by stories. In order to deflect attention away from the failings of modernism, these stories have to create villains, usually played by representatives of Christianity, in order for the hero to shine by contrast. To do so, however, the stories have to play fast and loose with historical facts, sometimes by exaggerating them, sometimes by simply fabricating them.
He argues that postmodernism also utilizes stories to illustrate its worldview. However now the players are different. The story of witch-hunting no longer pits reason versus superstition as the modernist story has it. Instead we see issues of power struggle between competing social groups: mystical, independent, and free women on the one hand, and misogynist male rationalists on the other. Here religion, at least less rational forms of it such as mysticism and paganism, is on the side of the hero and science is moved to the role of villain. Nonetheless the selective use of facts and their embellishment is the same.
The modern and postmodern arguments both have aspects to commend them, but they are incomplete and fail as overarching explanatory worldviews, and that is why they inevitably distort history in order to appear more complete than they are. Sampson concludes by suggesting the Christian metanarrative, a story solidly rooted in history, one that engages us like no other story because we have the priviledge of knowing the Author, and being a part of His Story.
October 17, 2015
Sampson’s exposé of these six myths sends a strong message that by reconfiguring historical accounts, authors and thinkers can powerfully influence our perception about both the past and the present. Sampson’s overall concern is to refute the myth that modern secular science has emerged as champion over the repression and ignorance of religion. He has even sought to pin a motive to these secular thinkers: they have crafted religion-against-progress tales in order to divert attention from the even greater atrocities that secular science has enabled within the last century.
It seems that Sampson has bitten off more than could be adequately chewed in a volume of this limited size. First, he faces the challenging task of sorting through what should be considered authentic expressions of Christian traditions, and what are merely distortions of Christianity, which secular moderns have used as red herrings. Second, he attempts to cover complex and disputed historical issues in a few pages to demonstrate his point. Inevitably, such a survey will result in a mix of laudable biblical truths, historical insights, but also cringe-worthy overgeneralizations, and even outright misstatements. For example, he states that “[Cotton Mather] certainly did nothing to stimulate the prosecutions [of witches]” (140, emphasis mine). Yet contemporary sources contain statements that would tell a different story. Also, in arguing the point that the Bible emphasizes the “biunity” of male and female, Sampson incorrectly reports Scripture as saying that “both [male and female] equally are created from the dust of the earth,” when Scripture records only Adam as having been formed from the ground (121). Finally, he fails to adequately support his subthesis about the motive for these myths—that secular thinkers invented them to provide an alibi for the science-enabled atrocities of the 20th century. This statement he merely asserts with little argumentation (153).
Overall, 6 Modern Myths provides a helpful resource for students seeking to understand how historical episodes may be manipulated to advance powerful myths. It also helpfully contributes to the discussion of the science-versus-religion agenda. But readers who are already predisposed against religion will probably find Sampson’s research to appear biased and cursory.
It seems that Sampson has bitten off more than could be adequately chewed in a volume of this limited size. First, he faces the challenging task of sorting through what should be considered authentic expressions of Christian traditions, and what are merely distortions of Christianity, which secular moderns have used as red herrings. Second, he attempts to cover complex and disputed historical issues in a few pages to demonstrate his point. Inevitably, such a survey will result in a mix of laudable biblical truths, historical insights, but also cringe-worthy overgeneralizations, and even outright misstatements. For example, he states that “[Cotton Mather] certainly did nothing to stimulate the prosecutions [of witches]” (140, emphasis mine). Yet contemporary sources contain statements that would tell a different story. Also, in arguing the point that the Bible emphasizes the “biunity” of male and female, Sampson incorrectly reports Scripture as saying that “both [male and female] equally are created from the dust of the earth,” when Scripture records only Adam as having been formed from the ground (121). Finally, he fails to adequately support his subthesis about the motive for these myths—that secular thinkers invented them to provide an alibi for the science-enabled atrocities of the 20th century. This statement he merely asserts with little argumentation (153).
Overall, 6 Modern Myths provides a helpful resource for students seeking to understand how historical episodes may be manipulated to advance powerful myths. It also helpfully contributes to the discussion of the science-versus-religion agenda. But readers who are already predisposed against religion will probably find Sampson’s research to appear biased and cursory.
September 28, 2017
With as much reading as I do, the fact that I read this one twice speaks volumes (at a high volume to boot). Not only is the content excellent and his elucidation of the subjects easy to follow but he offers citations to various works which make is great for follow up research. Very much worth reading.
June 9, 2025
a balanced review of social/historical issues that doesn't absolve the church or Christians of responsibility while still correcting the cultural narratives that have strayed from what historical evidence actually supports.
June 16, 2017
Very good book that really illustrates how history is more nuanced and angular than what is commonly thought.
December 20, 2022
This book does a good job of explaining what a myth is and its role throughout time. The author emphasizes that while myths are not historical, they are not pure fiction; they are stories that convey truth about ourselves.
He then gives a clear, no-hype description of and, more importantly, the understanding of six modern myths: (1) Galileo, (2) Darwin, (3) environmental stewardship, (4) missionaries, (5) our human bodies, and (6) witch burning. He cites various versions of the stories and then debunks the Church versus the Enlightenment hype, pointing out factual errors. He does this because although myths are not expected to be accurate, these stories are today often presented as history. He concludes by explaining how, despite the "triumph" of reason during the Enlightenment, their stories twist history to convey their version of the truth. The modern myths convey the truth of reason's power and do explain something about ourselves but distort facts to make religion the ignorant opposition, a scapegoat for all things evil. He suggests this is not only to cast religion in a bad light but also to misdirect attention from the failings of the modern age, such as the loss of man's purpose, eugenics, industrial raping of the environment, colonial enslavement of native peoples, distorted sexuality, and oppression of women.
Finally, the author mentions postmodern versions of these stories. Often we now hear them told slightly differently so that nothing, not even reason, is absolute. These stories distance themselves from the bad consequences of the Enlightenment worldview, but rather than recovering the truth, they throw out the truth found in reason too. Now the stories often reject that truth altogether and propose several "soft" versions of truth in natural or pagan spirituality. The author feels that biblical stories, whether historical or not, convey the truths about ourselves and our world.
Note, while I enjoyed the subject and message of this book very much, it was at times dense. The difference between myth and story is easy to gloss over, whereas the author is trying to make important distinctions.
He then gives a clear, no-hype description of and, more importantly, the understanding of six modern myths: (1) Galileo, (2) Darwin, (3) environmental stewardship, (4) missionaries, (5) our human bodies, and (6) witch burning. He cites various versions of the stories and then debunks the Church versus the Enlightenment hype, pointing out factual errors. He does this because although myths are not expected to be accurate, these stories are today often presented as history. He concludes by explaining how, despite the "triumph" of reason during the Enlightenment, their stories twist history to convey their version of the truth. The modern myths convey the truth of reason's power and do explain something about ourselves but distort facts to make religion the ignorant opposition, a scapegoat for all things evil. He suggests this is not only to cast religion in a bad light but also to misdirect attention from the failings of the modern age, such as the loss of man's purpose, eugenics, industrial raping of the environment, colonial enslavement of native peoples, distorted sexuality, and oppression of women.
Finally, the author mentions postmodern versions of these stories. Often we now hear them told slightly differently so that nothing, not even reason, is absolute. These stories distance themselves from the bad consequences of the Enlightenment worldview, but rather than recovering the truth, they throw out the truth found in reason too. Now the stories often reject that truth altogether and propose several "soft" versions of truth in natural or pagan spirituality. The author feels that biblical stories, whether historical or not, convey the truths about ourselves and our world.
Note, while I enjoyed the subject and message of this book very much, it was at times dense. The difference between myth and story is easy to gloss over, whereas the author is trying to make important distinctions.
April 27, 2014
It is increasingly in vogue to champion sharp rhetoric about Christianity or even about the evils of Western civilization in general. Lenin said, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth". Myths concerning these 6 particular topics are widely circulated and accepted as truth simply because of they are widely circulated and accepted as truth. Philp Sampson has gone to great lengths to document the origins of these myths by documenting the heart of the matter with historical research. The detail in this book is thorough, to the point where these myths are more than exposed, but blown apart into smithereens.
March 30, 2013
Here's another myth - a glowing review from a professor of history at Wheaton college is a good thing. Some insights of interest in this book, mostly annoying overbearing Christian fanatic biases. 1- the bible is an ancient text therefore not myth vs 2- Evolution is myth . Woeful fluff.
January 20, 2012
A thoughtful examination of 6 things "everyone knows."
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews