It may be objected that the New Testament is less gory that the Old. But Christ no more forbad slavery, rape, torture and genocide than did the Ten Commandments. Christians in power engaged in orgies of persecution of one another, of non-believers, of witches and of Jews. Indeed, the true Judaeo-Christian tradition was the 1,600-year tradition of Christians murdering Jews. What civilisation Judaism and Christianity possess came from the outside. They did not reform themselves, which is why calls for a Muslim reformation so spectacularly miss the point. Civilisation came from the battering that religion took from the Enlightenment, from sceptics, scientists, mockers and philosophers, who destroyed their myths and exposed the immorality of their taboos.
Precisely so. Left to its own devices, Christianity in the West would be indistinguishable from Islam in the Middle East.
Which is why we will want to be careful what we say during the public mourning that follows this week’s likely schism of the Anglican Communion, the global federation of state churches founded by England in its colonies during its great age of exploration. It will indeed be a sad day, the end of an indispensable part of the construction of the West.
But let’s be clear: The Anglican Communion’s role was that of a vector, not a primary actor. It is true that England brought the Christian religion, but England brought also the ideals of the Magna Carta — and it is those which have prevailed, not the Church of England.
India, for instance, remains primarily Hindu — but it has a Western-style legal system, and it is a commonplace for its lawyers to take their education in England. It was the Enlightenment that tamed religion, not religion that tamed mankind.