Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom.

Dawson has been called “the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century”. The 1988–1989 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

Date of birth:
12th October, 1889
Date of death:
25th October, 1970
"Every society rests in the last resort on the recognition of common principles and common ideals, and if it makes no moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its members, it must inevitably fall to pieces."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Society
"As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Religion
"Moreover, behind this vague tendency to treat religion as a side issue in modern life, there exists a strong body of opinion that is actively hostile to Christianity and that regards the destruction of positive religion as absolutely necessary to the advance of modern culture."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Positive
"Law describes the way things would work if men were angels."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Men
"As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Good
"This freedom of political discussion on the highest level is something which Western civilization has in common with that of classical antiquity, but with no other."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Freedom
"You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Food
"And so, today, if the state can no longer appeal to the old moral principles that belong to the Christian tradition, it will be forced to create a new official faith and new moral principles which will be binding on its citizens."
― Christopher Dawson
Topic(s): Faith

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