【经济学人】寻找历史中的基督教|2016年11月5日|总第723期

IN THE early years of the Enlightenment, a few brave philosophers challenged the Christian order—an apparently hopeless task. But their efforts paid o ff , and tomes have since been written, by authors from Diderot to Richard Dawkins, about the triumph of secular man. What, after all, has Christianity ever done for us?

在启蒙运动的前几年，几位勇敢的哲学家挑战了基督教秩序——显然，这是一项毫无希望的任务。但是他们的努力奏效了，自此，从狄德罗（狄德罗（Denis Diderot ，1713年10月5日 —1784年7月30日），生于郎格勒。平民出身，法国启蒙思想家、唯物主义哲学家，作家，百科全书派的代表人物。）到理查德·道金斯（理查德·道金斯（Richard Dawkins，1941年3月26日－），英国著名演化生物学家、动物行为学家和科普作家，英国皇家科学院院士，牛津大学教授，是当今仍在世的最著名、最直言不讳的无神论者和演化论拥护者之一，有“达尔文的罗威纳犬”（Darwin's Rottweiler）的称号。），这些作家开始撰写一本关于凡人的巨著。那么基督教究竟为我们做了什么贡献？

• Triumph： n 巨大的成就

• paid off  ：取得成功

• Secular ：a 世俗的

Rather a lot, argues Nick Spencer in an excellent new book, “The Evolution of the West”. Mr Spencer, who is research director at Theos, a religious think-tank in London, picks up from Larry Siedentop’s epic work from 2014, “Inventing the Individual”—a reassertion of how much the Western world owes to Christianity. It is not a popular thesis but, like a prophet crying in the post-modern wilderness, Mr Spencer provokes reflection that goes far beyond the shallow ding-dongs of the modern culture wars. He wants to make sure Westerners know where they came from as a way to illuminate where they are going.

尼克·斯宾塞在他的知名新著《西方的革命》中认可了基督教的卓越贡献。斯宾塞先生是伦敦一家宗教性的智囊团——“领英”的研究室主任，他借鉴了拉里·西登托普2014年的长篇巨著《发现个体》，此书重申了基督教对西方世界的影响。这不是一个热门的话题，但是，就像一个在后现代旷野哭泣的先知，斯宾塞先生激起的反响远远超越了浅显激烈的现代文化战争。他想让西方人清楚他们是从哪里来的，同样也照亮他们未来的路。

• Reassertion： n 再主张

Starting with the ancient world, he takes the reader on an extravagant journey to meet, among many others, Augustine of Hippo and John Locke as well as Thomas Piketty. The author believes that the fact that Christianity became the religion of the European establishment has blinded people to what a revolutionary doctrine it was (and is). And he clearly believes it can still play a role. The Christianisation of Europe, he says, was not a bunch of reactionary