Katharine Tarvainen
St. Gregory the Great Writing Group (co-leader) & St. Bede Writing Group
When the word “revolution” is mentioned today, images of tanks, toppled statues, and perhaps even guillotines may pop into our heads. In his book Dominion, historian Tom Holland explores the transformative power of a centuries-old revolution that was so successful that its enduring influence “has come to be hidden from view.” This revolution did not begin with bombs or bayonets but with a different means of intimidation: a crucifixion.
Dominion is not a theological treatise either for or against Christianity, nor is it a comprehensive, scholarly history of Christianity itself. Rather, as Holland writes in the book’s preface, it is an attempt “to trace the currents of Christian influence that have spread most widely, and been most enduring into the present day.” Dominion is separated into three sections—Antiquity, Christendom, and Modernitas—each containing chapters focused on Christianity’s impact at different places and times, ranging from pre-Christian Athens all the way to the United States in 2015. The result is a fast-paced, sweeping, nonfiction epic exploring the “Christian revolution” and how its success was so complete that we no longer feel the shock of what a scandal it once was. “It is the incomplete revolutions which are remembered,” Holland argues, “The fate of those which triumph is to be taken for granted.”
Despite its six hundred-plus pages, Dominion is no dry, academic tome, but reads almost like an adventure story thanks to Holland’s engaging writing style. Listeners of the popular podcast The Rest Is History, which Holland cohosts, will recognize his thoughtful, enthusiastic, and often humorous tone in Dominion as well. Whether readers find themselves in the Colosseum with early Christian martyrs, the soaring cathedrals and abbeys of the Middle Ages, or the mud-drenched trenches of the Somme, the people and places of the past are brought to vivid life in Dominion. This also means that the reader will sometimes come face-to-face with some of the more grisly and violent episodes of history. These scenes are not gratuitous, and Holland’s detailed descriptions are effective in illustrating the gruesome realities of martyrdom, war, and other horrors. However, sensitive readers, as well as those wondering if this book might be a good choice for a history-loving teen, should be aware of these occasional graphic descriptions.
Some of the most interesting chapters in Dominion cover the first centuries of Christianity and detail just how subversive it was in its earliest days. The Romans were no strangers to the concept of self-sacrifice, but the idea that “criminals” could achieve the same glory as mighty Roman warriors was, to them, “liable to seem so ludicrous, so utterly offensive, as to verge on the incomprehensible.” Holland drives this point home with the example of a slave named Blandina whose “heroism had put even her fellow martyrs in the shade.” Indeed, her mistress was condemned to the same fate, yet “did not merit being named.” While today we might find it natural to root for the underdog, the fact that Christians viewed the lowly Blandina and her horrific death as an example of strength and power was utterly bewildering to the Roman authorities: “That a slave, ‘a slight, frail, despised woman,’ might be set among the elite of heaven . . . ahead of those who in the fallen world had been her immeasurable superiors, was a potent illustration of the mystery that lay at the heart of the Christian faith.” In the story of Blandina, as with dozens of others throughout Dominion, Holland takes the faith and worldview of his subjects seriously, making no attempt to pass judgement or apply anachronistic twenty-first-century assumptions to a bygone age. Indeed, one of the great strengths of Dominion is that it prompts the reader to examine those assumptions more closely through a new lens.
As Holland digs into the landscape of Western civilization, the reader begins to see that the various epochs and upheavals of the last two thousand years may not have been the world-shattering earthquakes we once believed them to be. Rather, in some way or another, they all took their shape from the original seismic eruption of the Christian revolution. For example, our modern understanding of human rights, especially in America, most likely aligns with the claims of our Enlightenment-era forefathers: that they “existed naturally within the fabric of things, and had always done so, transcending time and space.” However, as Holland points out, “The concept of human rights, mediated as it had been since the Reformation by Protestant jurists and philosophes, had come to obscure its original authors.” These assumptions about the rights of man, Holland explains, were not natural, nor were they from classical antiquity, but were in fact “an inheritance from the canon lawyers of the Middle Ages.” Throughout Dominion, Holland offers us many such revelations and invites the reader to hold them up against our own assumptions. The later chapters about our modern age are particularly thought-provoking, as Holland teases out the thread of Christian influence present in everything from the Great War to the Beatles to the #MeToo movement: “The trace elements of Christianity continued to infuse people’s morals and presumptions so utterly that many failed even to detect their presence.”
Dominion is an excellent addition to any history lover’s shelf, even those who might be wary of picking up a book about Christianity. Holland’s engaging prose and historical, rather than theological, viewpoint make Dominion a fascinating and approachable read, regardless of one’s personal beliefs. However, Holland’s style may also strike some readers as too sensational or gruesome at times. While Dominion does not pretend to be a comprehensive or academic study, it is still well researched and those who are curious will find its impressive bibliography to be a great jumping-off point for further reading. As with many of the best history books, Dominion allows the reader to take a closer look at our past to better understand our present. Indeed, after reading this book, even those who are “doubtful of religion’s claims” may be surprised to find that their values and instincts are, in fact, “thoroughly Christian.”