Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

By Tom Holland

It may seem churlish to complain that a six hundred+ page book set in 9-point type was too short or not expansive enough. Holland’s central point in the book— the intellectual consequences of belief in the incarnation, God choosing to be human, to take on the role of the lowest of the low, as a sacrifice to save the weak, the helpless, and the undeserving is well covered and worth every page. I would have liked more. How did the expectation of emulation, the requirement of discipleship as well as belief, inflect on “Christendom”? How does Christianity’s propensity to be distorted by, but also to sanctify, societies’ belief systems compare with other belief systems? These were touched on, but I would like more. Twenty pages of bibliography should help. Next stop Nietzsche.