New Testament and Western Culture

New Testament and Western Culture

Christianity has its roots in the Middle East and is therefore technically not a "Western" religion. However, due to the infusion of Hellenistic Greek philosophy with New Testament theology, the religion spread northward and westward from its birthplace. Greek moral and political philosophies blended easily and within a few centuries totally redirected the course of European history. While the Christian religion remained essentially underground during the first few centuries of its existence, as soon as the Roman emperor Charlemagne embraced it, the religion became the central and formative factor in European history since the first millennium of the Common Era. From commissioned works of art to the design of massive cathedrals to the religious revivalism in the United States, the New Testament has left an uncompromising mark on Western civilization. The New Testament: its allegories, its imagery, and its cosmology, first redefined the character of Europe, replacing indigenous pagan traditions there with the Christian faith. After the Middle Ages, Christians also imposed the religion based on the New Testament on the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, and what would be the Americas. Therefore, the theology and moral philosophy of the New Testament cannot easily be separated from its various political and military manifestations. As a cultural phenomenon, Christianity and the New Testament on which it is based have become indelible forces in Western art, literature, history, politics, economics, and overall worldview.

Few persons today have not seen an image of Jesus crucified, whether on a piece of jewelry or on a painting. The artworks of European masters commonly depict New Testament images and stories, from a bloody Jesus wearing a crown of thorns to the raising of Lazarus from the dead, to cherubs and archangels heralding the coming of the apocalypse. Often the New Testament imagery is blended with classical mythological imagery. Therefore, the New Testament stories have greatly impacted the face of Western pictorial art. In addition to paintings and sculptures, New Testament iconography has also influenced the ways that poets and writers have approached their crafts. Some books directly depict New Testament allegories, while others incorporate New Testament themes within their pages. Many works of literature also draw on the impact that the New Testament had on Western history and culture: some books directly criticize Christianity while others glorify it. Concepts like death and redemption; grace and forgiveness; and betrayal are by no means unique to the Christian New Testament but have definitely taken on deeper meaning because of the entrenchment of the Bible in Western culture in general. The New Testament and Christianity have also greatly influenced Western architecture, especially in the design of churches. These edifices characterize Western culture in the same way that mosques characterize Muslim culture.

In addition to the ways that the New Testament has influenced art and literature, the Christian gospels have changed the nature of politics in the Western world. The New Testament both influenced Western political philosophy and it influenced the geo-political landscape of the Western World. Greek political philosophy, which is related to New Testament political philosophy, has dominated the way that Americans perceive their governmental systems. The ways the Western justice systems work were in part based on New Testament thought in the same way that Christian morality influences public opinion of leaders and citizens. Christianity has also undoubtedly influenced the geo-political landscape in the Western world. For example, Christianity quickly became the adopted official religion of the European continent. The teachings of the New Testament became so important as to fuse matters of Church and state in the Holy Roman Empire. Similarly, disputes over New Testament theology and metaphysics led to two of the most decisive incidents in the history of the world: the schism between the eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, and the Protestant Reformation. Also, since the New Testament seduced the leaders of great empires and nation-states, its underlying philosophies and theologies have altered the ways that leaders rule and the ways citizens behave and perceive their governments. The philosophical teachings of the New Testament have been interpreted in differing ways and misinterpreted in countless other ways. However, certain core concepts such as "turning the other cheek," have made their way into the consciousness of most persons living in the Western world. Interpretations of the New Testament have also led to actual legislation.