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Trinity Forum Conversations
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 102
Season 9
How Christianity Remade the World with Tom Holland
How Christianity Remade the World
In the context of the pagan classical world, the Christian faith was a shocking, even unfathomable inversion of the values systems and structures of the time. In that embattled context, its explosive growth was unimaginable. Today, however, Christianity is often considered boring or backwards.
How might we better discern and understand the radicalism of Christianity’s origins, its impact through the centuries, and its enduring formational power?
How might we better discern and understand the radicalism of Christianity’s origins, its impact through the centuries, and its enduring formational power?
Historian Tom Holland’s landmark book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, calls attention to these puzzles and paradoxes:
”Dominion was written as an attempt to stress test my hunch that Christianity really had been the most seismic and revolutionary development, not just really in the history of the West, but probably globally. And I'm relieved to say that I was satisfied that it had been what I was setting out to show that it had been.” - Tom Holland
We trust this conversation will fire your imagination anew, and help you see with new eyes how the inverted values and priorities of God’s kingdom continue to disrupt the patterns of the world, and shape our cultural assumptions.
This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in February, 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.
Learn more about Tom Holland.
To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society
Episode Outline
00:00 Introduction to Dominion and Tom Holland
03:09 Tom Holland's Journey to Writing Dominion
03:48 The Alien World of Classical Antiquity
06:32 The Impact of Christianity on Western Civilization
07:33 The Crucifixion and its Historical Significance
10:42 The Uncanny Character of Jesus
13:13 Early Christian Persecution and Martyrdom
16:59 Paul's Radical Teachings and their Legacy
21:37 The Doctrine of Original Sin and Human Dignity
27:51 Christianity's Influence on Modern Politics
32:17 Tom Holland's Personal Reflections on Christianity
36:38 Viewer Questions on American Politics and Christianity’s Influence on the Family, Modern Politics, and More
49:50 Tom’s Closing Thoughts and White Tiger, by Poet RS Thomas
Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
The Rest is History (podcast)
The Histories by Herodotus, translation by Tom Holland
Rubicon, Millennium, Persian Fire, Pax, Dominion, by Tom Holland
The City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
The Histories by Herodotus, translation by Tom Holland
Rubicon, Millennium, Persian Fire, Pax, Dominion, by Tom Holland
The City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
Related Trinity Forum Readings:
City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
The Strangest Story in the World, by GK Chesterton
Why God Became Man, by Anselm of Canterbury
A Practical View of Real Christianity, by William Wilberforce
Related Conversations:
The Fall, the Founding, and the Future of American Democracy, with Tracy McKenzie
The Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton & the Incarnation, with Dale Ahlquist
Lincoln in Private: Leadership Behind Closed Doors, with Ron White
Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.