Religion has served to unite humanity through its transcendent legitimacy, and Christianity and Judaism, in particular, have driven the development and economic growth of Western civilization. However, religion sometimes leads to conflict and inequality, and its influence can be both positive and negative.
Because religion is endowed with transcendent legitimacy, it is unquestionable and a powerful unifying force for humanity. People have turned to religion to pray for abundance, and those who follow the norms of these religions have been able to trust each other and work together. But beyond uniting people, religion can also influence their thoughts and behaviors. Until the Middle Ages, Western nations were weaker than their Eastern counterparts, but the rise of Western nations in the modern era is attributed to the influence of Christianity, and the influence of Jews on the American economy is attributed to Judaism.
To understand the impact of religion, it’s important to understand the history of religion. After a thousand years of dominance in Europe, Catholicism began its rise to power after the death of Jesus, when it was declared the state religion of Rome. Catholicism then became the dominant religion in Europe, and what remained of Eastern Rome after the fall of the Western Roman Empire became the Papal States of the Vatican. As the Middle Ages began, the power of the pope became stronger than that of a king, and life revolved around religion. People got all their information from the Bible, and knowledge outside of the Bible was considered unimportant. People were baptized and followed the rituals of Catholicism, including performing rituals every Sunday. In the Middle Ages, everything was under the influence of Catholicism, including science and literature. In this way, Catholicism became a system that controlled people’s behavior and ruled over them.
It was the beginning of the Renaissance that broke away from this control. The Renaissance was a cultural revival that moved away from a god-centered society back to the human-centered life of the Roman era. During the Renaissance, people’s views of religion began to change. During this time, Catholicism became corrupt and emphasized form over substance, such as selling indulgences, so Martin Luther and Jean Calvin started the Reformation, and Christianity was born. They were originally Catholics, but they declared their independence from Catholicism and created their own version of Christianity. Martin Luther gained the support of the peasants by criticizing taxation and arguing that all humans, including the Pope, were equal before God. While Martin Luther was supported by peasants and local lords, Jean Calvin’s Reformation was supported by merchants and the middle class.
Jean Calvin argued for predestination, the idea that God determines everything, and believed that a person’s job is a divinely appointed vocation. He emphasized that a person must be faithful to the job he or she has been given in order to gain assurance of God’s salvation. These arguments convinced merchants that it was good to work hard and accumulate wealth, and laid the spiritual foundation for modern capitalism. In his 1904 essay Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism in Protestantism, the German economist Max Weber argued that the fundamental spirit of modern capitalism in the West stems from Protestantism. Christianity, he argued, fostered the development of corporations and contracts, and the accumulation of wealth for reinvestment.
Some may argue that the development of Western civilization began with the Renaissance, not Christianity. But while it’s true that the Renaissance spurred the creation of a wide variety of art, it didn’t change people’s fundamental values. Even during the Renaissance, artists were mainly patronized by wealthy aristocrats and created the works they wanted. The Reformation, on the other hand, completely changed people’s values and thinking. People now found a superficial reason to work hard and were able to live a life of satisfaction with their jobs. The Reformation focused on spiritual transformation rather than material achievements, and this had a profound impact on the rest of human history. After the Reformation, people broke free from the oppression of Catholicism and began to develop scientific thought and methods, which made the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions possible. At this time, the Christian spirit of vocational vocation successfully led to industrial restructuring.
The United States was greatly influenced by the Reformation. The United States was founded by Christians who immigrated for religious freedom, and it is now one of the most powerful countries politically and economically. The American presidential oath of office and the custom of swearing in front of a Bible in court are examples of Christian influence. According to surveys, 60% of U.S. citizens consider religion very important, and the country has a culture of giving and high rates of orphan adoption. As such, Protestantism has played an important role in the development of the United States.
Jews are also considered a successful people due to the influence of Judaism. Although Jews make up only about 16 million of the world’s population, 93 Nobel Prize winners are Jewish, as are 20 percent of American lawyers, half of New York’s secondary school teachers, and 30 percent of Ivy League faculty. Judaism is a religion that follows the rules of the Old Testament and emphasizes economic activity and wealth accumulation. In the Talmud, the Jewish guidebook, there are proverbs such as “There is no door that money does not open.” These religious values have likely had a huge impact on the success of the Jewish people.
Of course, religion doesn’t always have a positive impact. Even after the Industrial Revolution, not everyone was happier, and there were economic crises like the Great Depression. There were also fierce interfaith battles, and many people were punished for blasphemy to escape the oppression of medieval Catholicism. Religion also plays a role in modern conflicts, such as the Islamic extremist group IS.
Religion not only gives people a sense of spiritual security, but it also has a profound effect on their mindset and behavior. Religion has helped humans form large communities and has been a driving force in people’s lives. Christianity and Judaism have united and guided their followers, and have been the driving force behind their faithfulness, which has given them power in the world. These qualities of religion may be what makes Christianity the most powerful religion in the world.
