As argued by Larry Siedentop in Inventing the Individual Greek and Roman societies before Christ were based on “the assumption of natural inequality”.

Societies and families were hierarchical where only the few wealthy and privileged men were free to do as they wished.

SLAVES

This was a time when “there was no question of women, slaves or foreign born being included in public life”.

Siedentop, referring to the writings of Christ’s disciple Paul, highlights how concepts like the inherent dignity of the person, the importance of free will and the right to liberty and freedom radically changed the nature of Western societies.

Christianity also introduced concepts like moral agency and conscience. There is good and evil in the world and human nature is such that all are capable of sin but with the birth of Christ there is a strong moral code and the possibility of forgiveness and redemption.

Qualities sadly lacking in politics and social media today where any transgression is immediately pounced upon without any concern about how unfair such condemnation is.

There’s no doubt Australia’s cricket captain Tim Paine was wrong to be involved in sexting but to destroy his sporting career lacks Christian forgiveness and charity.

It’s no accident Western, liberal democracies like Australia are shining beacons in a world characterised by oppression and dictatorial leaders and governments. In China ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs are forced into “re-education” camps and imprisoned.

Many African States are embroiled in tribal conflicts where innocents are slaughtered and in communist dictatorships like Russia corrupt leaders impose an unforgiving oligarchy where opposition figures were poisoned and imprisoned.

DICTATOR

While there’s no doubt, in Victoria under Dictator Dan in particular, citizens have suffered because of intrusive and unnecessary government regulations and restrictions as a result of COVID-19, by comparison, we still enjoy a significant degree of liberty and freedom.

The great English poet and cultural critic TS Eliot makes the point Christianity is such an integral and significant part of Western culture that “if Christianity goes, the whole of culture goes”.

Even those who don’t believe in the Bible are heirs to a religion that informs and underpins their way of life.

Julia Gillard, an atheist and when prime minister, stressed the Bible’s value when she argued it “formed such an important part of our culture” and “it is impossible to understand Western literature without that key of understanding the Bible stories and how Western literature builds on them”.

Much of the West’s literature, art, music and architecture can only be fully appreciated and understood in the context of religion.

Great European composers including JS Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Handel and more recently Ralph Vaughan Williams and John Tavener composed music drawing on the life of Christ.

Australia’s novelist Tim Winton is quoted as saying “I am a Christian and I write novels” and the Nobel Prize winning author Patrick White often deals with Christian concepts like temptation and guilt, suffering a redemption and the search for a transcendent and spiritual sense of life.