Book Review: Why You Think the Way You Do

Too often, people are unreflective about where their worldviews come from.  In Why You Think the Way You Do (2009) history professor Glenn Sunshine explores the emergence of the Western worldview tracing its roots back to the Roman empire, which was also when Christianity emerged.  He moved forward from the Roman empire onto medieval cultures, to the rennaisance and Protestant reformation, to the enlightenment, and on to modern society. 

Near the end of the book, Sunshine commented, "What is the key point? All of the greatest achievements of Western civilization, from the abolition of slavery to the idea of inalienable rights and the dignity and worth of each individual, from the rise of science and technology to the development of universities, from the emergence of economic theories that maximized production and raised standards of living to the ideas of representative democracies and limited government--all were the products of ideas that have roots in the Bible and a Christian worldview." If you want to see the evidence that this is true, even though modern society seems to call into question the usefulness of Christianity, I would recommend this book to you.