The Tender Root Beneath the Western World: The Book that Built The World - Part 3

The Bible's Unseen Hand in Western Institutions

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Hospitals. Human rights. Literacy. Even your Saturday off. Most of us never stop to ask where these things came from. We assume them. Inherit them. Enjoy them. But they didn’t just appear.

The Roots of Mercy

Their roots go deeper than hard fought policies. They are blessings of our Western civilization, for sure. But many of them can be traced right back to a single source: the Bible.

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A Quick Word, Please

(Readers may want to know that I am in the middle of a series of essays on the phrases, prayers, and collects of the great English Anglican reformer Thomas Cranmer. Hunt for them on The Anglican. I have about seven published. But I need to do more research on the last part of the series: The Comfortable Words. Stand by for that. But in the meantime, feast your eyes (joking) on five quick essays on the Bible and its impact on our modern world. This is essay #3.)

Comments are welcome!

Also, now would be a good time to consider upgrading your subscription to a Paid level. It is the ultimate cure for FOMO.)

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From the earliest centuries, Christians took Scripture’s commands seriously—care for the sick, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, protect the widow and orphan. These were not optional suggestions. They were acts of obedience.

More than that, they were reflections of God’s character.

That’s why the first hospitals weren’t founded by governments but by churches and monasteries. Compassion wasn’t a program. It was discipleship. In the fourth century, St. Basil opened a complex in Cappadocia that included not only medical care but housing for the poor, a hospice, and a leper colony. It became the blueprint for Christian charity—and for what we now call the hospital.

First Responders

Sociologist Rodney Stark put it plainly:

“Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violence and ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services.”

(The Rise of Christianity, p. 43)

The early Christians didn’t wait for Rome to fix the brokenness.

They entered it,
clothed it,
nursed it,
and called it family.
The church didn’t lobby for better social programs.
They became them.

Teaching, Resting, and Reading: The Bible’s Social Ripple

Education, too, was driven by biblical conviction. Where the Bible is central, literacy follows. Missionaries taught people to read so they could read the Word. In places like Ethiopia, Armenia, and the British Isles, written language itself developed alongside evangelism.

The same Bible that commanded rest also gave rise to the concept of the weekend. “Six days shall you labor,” said the Lord to Israel, “but the seventh is a Sabbath.” That idea—that time isn’t a possession to be maximized but a gift to be honored—formed the ethical bedrock of labor laws. Even the notion that the worker is worth his wages has its source in Scripture.

Where Rights Really Come From