What I Want to Know: The Forgotten Evidence for Meaning and Hope

Christianity began on the margins of the Roman Empire, and is the foundation of Western Civilization. Christianity in the West has provided meaning and hope, social cohesion, a shared world view, and a narrative that makes sense of the world. It has now, for the most part, been replaced by materialism which has no place for meaning and hope, no mechanism to generate human social cohesion and no world but the one in which it is found. It is now time to go back to Christianity and review the things that have been forgotten and that produced meaning and hope. It is time to take seriously the study of Chinese scholars who in pursuing the secret of the greatness of Western Civilization concluded that it was all because of the culture: Christianity. Christianity produced a civilization so successful, so prosperous and so attractive, that people from all over the world have sought to move to a western country to,have "a better life". Unless there is a serious return to an examination of the evidence for meaning and hope in Christianity and a recognition that all that is regarded as of lasting value in life flows from that source, Christianity will continue to fade to the margins and the "better life" that it produced will fade along with it..