Christopher Henry Dawson FBA (12 October 1889 – 25 May 1970) 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".
Dawson began publishing articles in The Sociological Review in 1920. His starting point was close to that of Oswald Spengler and Arnold J. Toynbee, others who were also interested in grand narratives conducted at the level of a civilisation. Dawson's first book, The Age of the Gods (1928), was apparently intended as the first of a set of five to trace European civilisation to the twentieth century. However, he did not follow this plan to a conclusion.
Dawson was a proponent of an 'Old West' theory, the later term of David Gress, who cites Dawson in his From Plato to Nato (1998). Dawson rejected the blanket assumption that the Middle Ages in Europe failed to contribute any essential characteristics. He argued that the medieval Catholic Church was an essential factor in the rise of European civilisation, and wrote extensively in support of that thesis.
His writings in the 1920s and 1930s made him a significant figure of the time, and an influence in particular on T. S. Eliot, who wrote of his importance. Dawson was on the fringe of 'The Moot', a literary discussion group, and also part of the Sword of the Spirit ecumenical group. According to Bradley Birzer, Dawson also influenced the theological underpinnings of J. R. R. Tolkien's writings.
Born in Hay Castle, England, in 1889 and educated at Winchester College and at Trinity College, Oxford, Christopher Dawson began his academic career studying modern history. Becoming a Roman Catholic shortly after his time at Oxford, Dawson consistently focused his research and writing on issues of European culture and religion. Lecturer in the History of Culture, University College, Exeter, Gifford Lecturer and first recipient of the Chauncey Stillman Chair of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University (1958–1962), Dawson was also editor of the Dublin Review.
His first publication, The Age of the Gods (1928), came after a period of thorough research, but it was his second work, Progress and Religion (1929), which first demonstrated the depth and range of his thought and drew attention to his vehement critique of the materialist tendency of the social sciences. In this latter work, Dawson critiques the strict materialism of the sociology, anthropology and history of his day which, he argues, tended to regard religion as ‘essentially a negative force’.
Dawson’s central concern was to articulate the centrality and dynamism of religion for all cultures, but particularly for European culture. He was a member of a group of writers that staffed Catholic publishers Sheed and Ward. During the 1930s he edited and contributed to their publication series entitled Essays in Order. During this time he continued with his own writing, notably The Making of Europe (1932), in which he argued the currently accepted but previously unique thesis that the so-called dark ages were in fact the most creative period in the culture of the Western world. His other publications during this period include Christianity and the New Age (1931), Medieval Religion and Other Essays (1934), as well as more personal social and political reflections, such as Religion and the Modern State (1936) and Beyond Politics (1939).
Video Title: Understand The Root Problem of Modern Politics. Source: Knowland Knows. Date Published: November 8, 2021.
Christopher Dawson regarded the tendency towards totalitarianism in modern politics as a symptom of its attempt to function as a surrogate religion.
