Is Christianity a Western Religion? (Full series)

Oh East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth.”
-Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”

Is Christianity a Western religion? That may not strike us as a significant question, may not register as something necessary to establish as true or false.  But there are two reasons why it is important to dispel the illusion that Christianity is a “Western” religion.

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Is Christianity a Western Religion? 12: Pillars of Western Values

Is Christianity a Western religion? Does it share values with the West, and/or with America in particular?

If we examine founders of Western thought, and if America in particular is to be seen as a culmination or premiere epitome of Western values, then Christianity is an affront to the very country that represents Western values.
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Is Christianity a Western Religion? 9: Was it “Born” in Greek Culture?

Is Christianity a Western religion? Wasn’t it born in Greek culture?

The New Testament may have been written in Greek, for a Greek audience, using Greek ideas to persuade a Hellenistic culture, (Greek being a foundational culture of the West), but Christianity sought to challenge this Western culture more than it sought to appeal to it, therefore confronting Western culture with a transcultural, transpolitical “counterculture”, a body of belief and practice very alien to its own.
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_A Shot of Faith To The Head_: Bad Title, Great Book: Part 2: “Science Has Shown There is No God”

_A Shot of Faith To The Head_: Bad Title, Great Book: Part 2: “Science Has Shown There is No God”

An official statement from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences:
“Science is a way of knowing about the natural world. It is limited to explaining the natural world through natural causes. Science can say nothing about the supernatural. Whether God exists or not is a question about which science is neutral.”
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