Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Back on October the seventh, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a speech with the Acropolis prominent in the background, praised the role that was played by ancient Greece in the development of democracy and the formation of the Western world. In contrast to a narrative that's been advanced in recent decades, Rubio did not apologize for the history of the West. Instead, he held it up as an example for the West to recover and for the rest of the world to follow.
He described the story of the West this. Way quote for thousands of years the civilization that built what stands behind me has captivated the imagination of the Western world. Generations of our statesmen, artists, and philosophers have looked to it. They've looked to it with wonder. They've looked to it with awe.
End quote. Rubio went on to credit philosophers like Plato and Aristotle for shaping how we think about math, science, and medicine. He explained Plutarch's influence on our founding fathers and America's founding documents. He praised the war heroes of the West for. Being willing to die for their cause, but not for worshipping death.
Like in other civilizations, the speech was an encouraging reminder that, despite what too many have learned in school, our Western inheritance is actually something to be proud of.
However, Rubio also failed to adequately describe the most important influence that made the Western world. Of course, he was speaking to a Greek audience from a sacred location from Greek history, and at a few points, Rubio did allude to Christian culture and theology. Greek culture, he said, paved the way for. The gospel, Greek philosophy, he said, provided a foundation for the philosophy of Augustine, Aquinas, and others. He described the Christian martyrs and cathedrals as being part of the great tradition that began in Greece.
However, to describe Rubio's portrayal of Christianity and Greek thought as understated is itself an understatement. In fact, if Christianity were only a small element in the largely Greek secular history of the West. Last. The West would be just another brutal pagan world among all the others, as Joseph Licanty noted. Though the ancient Greeks and Romans played key roles in the formation of the Western world, Christianity introduced mercy, compassion, and universal human dignity.
As Licanty put it, "The concepts of virtue and justice appear nowhere in Rubio's account of the achievements of the West and of the American political order. There are references to heroism and honor and duty, but there." From any moral or religious context, there's a nod to Christianity and the Empire of Christiandom, but no hint of the civilizing impact of the Christian gospel on the Greco-Roman world. To suggest, as Rubio did, that it was the virtues of pagan Greece rather than Christ called to love our neighbors and enemies and to care for the weak. Is what we have to thank for the West is to get everything precisely backwards. World history is filled with strong and powerful cultures.
Ancient Greece and Rome are clear examples of that. But what made the West the West was the transforming power of the teachings of Jesus and the truths of the Bible, especially the radical idea that every human has dignity and value.
However imperfectly it has been applied, it was the idea that first changed Europe and then the rest of the world, built social reform movements as well as hospitals and schools, and birth freedoms unheard of in pagan societies. The story of the West is not the story of Greece with the dash of Christianity. No, it's the The other way around. All that's admirable in Western civilization came from Christianity, from its Jewish roots, and from those who followed Jesus Christ in both word and deed. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with other people, go to Breakpoint.org. If you're ready to go deeper in Christian worldview formation, it may be time to consider the Colson Fellows program.
Colson Fellows take time over ten months to study how Christianity is so much more than a private God and me only faith. It's a way of seeing and comprehending all reality. The result is a more confident, courageous faith that's equipped for our cultural moment. If you're ready to learn more, join us on a live informational webinar on Thursday, November 12th at 1 p.m. Register today at colsoncenter.org/webinar.
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