{"product_id":"9781497651401","title":"Dynamics of World History","description":"In scope and in vision Christopher Dawson’s historiography ranks with the work of men like Spengler, Northrop, and Toynbee. Several major themes run through Dawson’s work, but perhaps his most unique contribution was his insistence on the importance of religion in shaping and sustaining civilizations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReligion, Dawson believed, is the great creative force in any culture, and the loss of a society’s historic religion therefore portends a process of social dissolution. For this reason, Dawson concluded that Western society must find a way to revitalize its spiritual life if it is to avoid irreversible decay. Progress, the real religion of modernity, is insufficient to sustain cultural health. And an ahistorical, secularized Christianity is an oxymoron, a pseudo-religion only nominally related to the historic religion of the West.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDawson maintained that the hope of the present age lay in the reconciliation of the religious tradition of Christianity with the intellectual tradition of humanism and the new knowledge about man and nature provided by modern science. \u003ci\u003eDynamics of World History\u003c\/i\u003e shows that though such a task may be difficult, it is not impossible.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"ISI Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47131079934192,"sku":"9781497651401","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781497651401_p0.jpg?v=1763707983","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781497651401","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}