it is only as a result of the Christian revolution that we now tend to distinguish between a secular and a sacred realm. As modern people, we think of the public, tangible, everyday operations of the world—the realm of science, commerce, politics, and so on. We then contrast this with the personal, inward realm of “religion”.

why do we recoil so instinctively from such an imposition of force? Once again, the crooked line testifies to the straight…

“The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror before me, the wails of millions pierce my heart, and chill my blood. I remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip, the deathlike gloom overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman, the appalling liability of his being torn away from wife and children, and sold like a beast

Such arguments carried the day and 400 men, women and children, were dragged to 400 crosses. Thus was upheld the wisdom of the ancients, the greater good of the empire, and the terrorising of the masses. Deterrence was the goal and crucifixion a major tool. Sometimes the injustice of it all was the very point being made. To see “the slaves’

It’s in the accusation that a viewpoint is “on the wrong side of history”. Apparently, history is headed somewhere—somewhere that can be known in advance. Somewhere better. Such a belief in progress is not a human universal by any stretch. In previous cultures, it was the past that was viewed as better than the present. After all, the past was

All that we see in nature is difference. Compare any two people concerning any one attribute and what will you conclude? This one has more than that one. This, of course, is the definition of unequal. To insist that two people are equal really, when every human trait betrays inequality, raises the question: Equal how? Where is this magical realm

In order to pursue the kingdom without the King, we have had to dethrone the person of Christ and install abstract values instead.

Eventually this foolish message became the most influential in human history. Now the idea of humble sacrifice has gone from shameful to glorious. Now we consider equality, compassion, freedom and all the WEIRD values this book explores as obvious.

Douglass is able to call his former enslaver both an “agent of hell” and a brother. This is a sophisticated view of both humanity and evil—a view born of the Christianity which both Douglass and Auld professed, but which in actuality confronted them so differently. When the truth of Christ is brought to bear (rather than borrowed as a bulwark for