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Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World Audio CD – Unabridged, October 29, 2019

by Tom Holland (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 1,259 ratings
#1 Best Seller in History of Christianity
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A historian of antiquity shows how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable. It was this that rendered it so suitable a punishment for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion-an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus-had been a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. Our morals and ethics are not universal. Instead, they are the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Concepts such as secularism, liberalism, science, and homosexuality are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed. From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo, Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the world.
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  1. Print length
    1 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Hachette B and Blackstone Publishing
  4. Publication date
    October 29, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.7 x 1.8 x 6.1 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1549154966
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1549154966
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Editorial Reviews

Review

undefined--David Bentley Hart, author of The Experience of God-- "Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of The Reformation: A History and Christianity: The First 3000 Years"

Terrific: bold, ambitious and passionate.-- "Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World"

This extraordinary book is vintage Tom Holland: history boldly and elegantly retold, with fascinating interconnections traced to create a narrative that cannot fail to stimulate, for it leads to a never-ending question.-- "Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of The Reformation: A History and Christianity: The First 3000 Years"

Tom Holland is fun to read, monstrously erudite, wickedly joyful, and ahead of the established consensus, on average, by 4 years, three months, and 2 days.-- "Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan"

"Terrific: bold, ambitious, and passionate."

-- "Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads"

About the Author

Tom Holland gained the top degree at Cambridge before earning his PhD at Oxford. He is the author of the novels The Bone Hunter, Slave of My Thirst, and Lord of the Dead, and several nonfiction history books, including Rubicon, Persian Fire, and The Histories, a new translation of Herodotus. He wrote and presented Islam: The Untold Story, a documentary commissioned for Channel 4 in Britain based on In the Shadow of the Sword. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette B and Blackstone Publishing
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 29, 2019
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Unabridged
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1549154966
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1549154966
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 1.8 x 6.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 1,259 ratings

About the author

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Tom Holland

Tom Holland

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Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, a panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000; In the Shadow of the Sword, which covers the collapse of Roman and Persian power in the Near East, and the emergence of Islam; and Dynasty, a portrait of Rome's first imperial dynasty.

He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics. His biography of Æthelstan, the first King of England, was published in 2016 under the Penguin Monarchs series, and his biography of Æthelflæd, England’s Forgotten Founder, was a Ladybird Expert Book published in 2019. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to ‘the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome’.

Holland is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Making History. He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries, for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from ISIS to dinosaurs.

He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors and is Chair of the British Library’s PLR Advisory Committee.

@holland_tom

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4.7 out of 5 stars
1,259 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise the book's scholarly approach to tracing Christianity's two-thousand-year history and its deep dive into Western thought. Moreover, the writing is methodical and engaging, with one customer noting how it captures the reader's attention. Additionally, the book maintains a fast pace without lagging, and one review highlights its elegant treatment of people and transformations. However, some customers find the depth of the book somewhat shallow.

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46 customers mention "Scholarly content"44 positive2 negative

Customers praise the book's scholarly approach, appreciating its great sweep of history and philosophy, and how it masterfully traces the development of Christianity over two thousand years.

"Tom Holland has written a superb overview of the impact of Christianity on the West...." Read more

"This book will take your hand and walk you through the history of the world and the silver thread of Christianity’s influence on it all...." Read more

"...That doesn't happen often. The book explores rarely cited history to enable the reader to consider the actions of men of religion who perpetrate the..." Read more

"An excellent tour-de-force through Western history. Accurate, well thought-out, well supported arguments, and best of all: a page-turner!..." Read more

43 customers mention "Writing quality"37 positive6 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the book, finding it engaging and methodical, with one customer noting it's a mind and imagination grabbing read.

"If you like Tom Holland's writing you will like this book. It's engaging and well written...." Read more

"...Beautifully written, narrative form, broad bibliography, and knows the counter points masterfully. Took me over a year to digest (not speed reading)...." Read more

"...The kindle edition enables a profound reading experience. References can be readily followed and then followed further...." Read more

"An excellent tour-de-force through Western history. Accurate, well thought-out, well supported arguments, and best of all: a page-turner!..." Read more

28 customers mention "Value for money"28 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well worth the effort and money, with one customer noting it's worth more than one read.

"Good read" Read more

"...Good read, highly interesting, and well worth your $$$. This is a really good price for what you're getting...." Read more

"LOVE this book...." Read more

"...This is a long book, but it is a good book to read" Read more

18 customers mention "Christianity"14 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's deep dive into Christianity and sweeping history of Western thought, with one customer noting its non-partisan approach to church.

"...with the thesis of this book, he recognizes clearly how profoundly Christian he really is, in the sense that the unspoken values that permeate..." Read more

"...walk you through the history of the world and the silver thread of Christianity’s influence on it all...." Read more

"Christianity is a subject that needs to be studied and this is a nice place to start" Read more

"...The book is not a history of Christianity. He mentions theologians like Irenaeus, Anselm, Origen, Marcion, and Pelagius...." Read more

6 customers mention "Pacing"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's pacing, describing it as a fast-paced tour-de-force that doesn't lag.

"...I'd say that is true. It's a big book but relatively fast paced in it's coverage of two thousand years of the development of today's protestant..." Read more

"This is a superb history of the early Church. It is encompassing and seems to be a nice companion to Eusebius History of the Church...." Read more

"The breadth of this work is incredible...." Read more

"...combines first rate scholarship and detail with movement which does not lag but does not hesitate to explore illuminating elements which others have..." Read more

6 customers mention "Style"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's style, with one noting its elegant portrayal of people and transformations, while another highlights how it captures both the beauty and ugliness of Christianity.

"...of information, and for the most part it’s written in an engaging, breezy style which keeps it moving forward...." Read more

"Artistic book! The author writes artistic sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Very readable if the reader first knows some context...." Read more

"...However, the writer presents the facts, people and transformations very elegantly, objectively and at the same time wittily. I learned a lot!..." Read more

"...Christianity with its beauty and ugliness truly reported from the pre- Christian world to the Bibical story, from the plundering barbarians to how..." Read more

5 customers mention "Depth"0 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the depth of the book, with some finding it somewhat shallow and dull, while others consider it required reading.

"This book is somewhat deep. But is definitely a worthwhile read." Read more

"...It gets preposterous at times in order to make it fit his theme – Spinoza was Christian in form, Marxism was Christian in form, Islam is Christian..." Read more

"...It is not a beginner's book...." Read more

"...So far, he hasn't. The book, so far, is a discursive, somewhat shallow work that shows occasional flashes of insight but is otherwise kind of dull...." Read more

Required reading. Plan to read in chunks overtime!
5 out of 5 stars
Required reading. Plan to read in chunks overtime!
This book will take your hand and walk you through the history of the world and the silver thread of Christianity’s influence on it all. Beautifully written, narrative form, broad bibliography, and knows the counter points masterfully. Took me over a year to digest (not speed reading). I am so much better for it!
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Donna Robinson
    5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening look at how the modern church developed through the centuries
    Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    If you like history, and are interested in how church history ( Protestant and Catholic) changed the world.
    Characterized by a published review as "a galloping look at history". I'd say that is true. It's a big book but relatively fast paced in it's coverage of two thousand years of the development of today's protestant church and their stormy, often war-torn history with the Roman Catholic church, down to modern times.
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  • David Lindsay
    5.0 out of 5 stars Western Values are Christian Values
    Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020
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    Tom Holland has written a superb overview of the impact of Christianity on the West. He argues we in the West are moored to our Christian past and our morals and ethics derive from Christianity. Holland believes that Christian values permeate Western culture and thinking. If anything, Christianity's influence has been underestimated. Holland claims that many beliefs that we take for granted have Christian origins. He argues that George W. Bush was mistaken in assuming that Muslims shared a Christian worldview and such values are universal.

    Holland does not fully explain what he means by Christian values. Jesus spoke repeatedly about inequality and injustice. He spent a lot of his time helping the poor and society’s outcasts. He wanted his followers to love their enemies. The Bible suggests that God is closer to the poor than to the rich. Matthew 25 states the key test for a disciple is treating the poor and the hungry as if they were Jesus. Professor Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School believes that Christians are meant to direct their energies towards the renunciation of violence, the sharing of possessions, and overcoming ethnic divisions. Holland discusses the impact of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, who were both students of the Bible. They preached a message of non-violence and forgiveness.

    Saint Paul claimed that Christ's church was open to all, slave and free, Greek and Jew, male and female. He taught that everyone is equal before God and we should love one another. These were revolutionary ideas in the Roman world and we still struggle with them today. Holland argues that because God loves each of us unconditionally, we are in turn meant to love and respect our fellow man. Holland discusses the Beatles and he claims that songs like “All You Need is Love” and “Imagine” express Christian beliefs.

    Holland has written extensively about Rome, ancient Greece, and Islam. He claims that the more he studied classical antiquity the more alien he found it. Holland concluded that his values were distinctly Christian. Christianity became the dominant religion in Western Europe because of the Romans. Pagan Rome was a barbaric place. It was depraved and violent. The Romans entertained themselves by having criminals eaten alive by wild animals. Rome was also corrupt and materialistic, with only the rich having any rights. Julius Caesar is fondly remembered by classical scholars but he carried out genocide in Gaul. The Romans tended to destroy societies that got in their way. The Romans and Greek philosophers like Aristotle did not care about the poor and the downtrodden, they viewed them as losers. Aristotle justified slavery as natural, claiming some humans were slaves by nature, lacking the moral reason to be regarded as the equals of free men. Christianity must have seemed an attractive option for many ordinary people in the ancient world.

    Holland does not believe that God exists but he was raised a Christian. He claims that we in the West have retained our Christian morals and ethics even though many of us have stopped believing in God. The book is not a history of Christianity. He mentions theologians like Irenaeus, Anselm, Origen, Marcion, and Pelagius. It helps to have some knowledge of Christian history to understand their significance.

    When the Britain Empire occupied a country it would usually be forced by Christians to ban practices they considered barbaric. In India, Hindu widows would sacrifice themselves by sitting atop their deceased husband's funeral pyre. The British banned this practice because of pressure from Christian evangelicals. William Wilberforce was a devout Christian, who forced the British Parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807. The Bible did not seem to condemn slavery, but British Christians knew it was wrong. As Western culture has become more liberal we have embraced behavior that the Bible specifically forbids, like divorce, working on the Sabbath, and homosexuality. We are now making our own rules, but they are still rooted in the gospels.

    In 2002, the World Humanist Congress affirmed “the worth, dignity, and autonomy of the individual.” Holland views this as a quintessentially Christian idea that finds no parallel in the ancient world, or in other parts of the world today. Humanists believe “that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others.” Holland argues that the source of humanist values is not to be found in science or reason but in Christianity.

    Holland suggests that Western secular liberals are deluding themselves in believing that Western views on human rights are universally shared. Western Liberals have insisted that Afghans should embrace gender equality. Holland claims that "To be a Muslim was to know that humans do not have rights. There was no natural law in Islam. There were only laws authored by God." For some Islamic scholars, such as Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi the idea of equality between men and women, or between Islam and other religions, is “a monstrous blasphemy”. There is no such thing as “human rights” only the laws of Allah; any attempt to impose those human rights on Islamic countries is infidel heresy and will lead to friction.

    Holland discusses the dark side of Christian history. Over time, he writes, Christians “have themselves become agents of terror. They have put the weak in their shadow; they have brought suffering, and persecution, and slavery in their wake.” He notes, for example, that the efforts of missionaries to bring Christianity to Africa were undermined by a “colonial hierarchy” in which black people “were deemed inferior.” But he also argues that the very standard by which we condemn colonizers is itself Christian.
    166 people found this helpful
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  • mike
    5.0 out of 5 stars Something Stronger Than Power
    Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    We all take for granted the impact that Christianity has made on the world, whether one believes it is a good thing or a bad thing, and often assume it was nothing more than a shift in power. Dominion not only recognizes the real, grassroots changes that Christianity brought about and how it provided the infrastructure for what the modern world now takes for granted, but also shows how there was something deeper than power at play in the work of the Church.
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  • Jason Carter
    4.0 out of 5 stars Christianity's enemies are profoundly Christian in many ways
    Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Tom Holland is no Christian, in that he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was raised on the third day, and later ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. On the other hand, consistent with the thesis of this book, he recognizes clearly how profoundly Christian he really is, in the sense that the unspoken values that permeate western society are inherently Christian values formed in the milieu of 2000-plus years of Christian expansion. Most interestingly, he argues that for almost 1000 years, the very weapons used by the church's bitterest enemies were more often than not first expounded by St Paul and then forged in the fires of various Christian revolutions since the age of the Apostles.

    Imagine a mining town that develops over the centuries its own foundry, factories, and logistics networks centered around the mineral wealth of the mines. The town grows into a city built on this wealth. All of the glory of the city flows from this fountain. As do many of its ills. Periodically, some of the townspeople rise up against those ills--the smog, the corruption, the byproducts dumped into the nearby streams. When fights break out, those same townspeople use swords forged in the city factories (and in later years, rifles, cannons, and tanks) to wage their warfare, never recognizing the irony of their utter dependance on the very thing they are fighting.

    Such, in many ways, is Holland's view of Western Civilization. Christianity's inner strength relies on a paradox in that the weaknesses of Christendom are really only correctable by first taking for granted its underlying assumptions.

    "For two thousand years, though, Christians have disputed <that power was the driving force of history>. Many of them, over the course of this time, have themselves become agents of terror. They have put the weak in their shadow; they have brought suffering, and persecution, and slavery in their wake. Yet the standards by which they stand condemned for this are themselves Christian; nor, even if churches across the West continue to empty, does it seem likely that these standards will quickly change. 'God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.' This is the myth that we in the West still persist in clinging to. Christendom, in that sense, remains Christendom still."

    Nietzsche was and is perhaps the philosopher who saw this most clearly, recognizing that if God is really dead, the Will to Power was a much more consistent ethic than caring for the weak and poor. Hitler took this and ran with it, and for a few years the 20th century got a glimpse of the pre-Christian world--one that cared not for the weak and poor, but for power and glory.

    The modern woke secularists rely on these same underlying Christian assumptions to attack the church that seems to be the source of many of their grievances. They do not realize the Pandora's box they may be opening.
    49 people found this helpful
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  • Caleb
    5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
    Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    If you like Tom Holland's writing you will like this book. It's engaging and well written. I, like many others, have been amazed to discover just how singular Christianity has been in shaping the west, and how just how different pagan Rome was before and after the birth of Christ. Enjoy
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  • John Luvender
    5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading. Plan to read in chunks overtime!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    This book will take your hand and walk you through the history of the world and the silver thread of Christianity’s influence on it all. Beautifully written, narrative form, broad bibliography, and knows the counter points masterfully. Took me over a year to digest (not speed reading). I am so much better for it!
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    John Luvender
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Required reading. Plan to read in chunks overtime!

    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2025
    This book will take your hand and walk you through the history of the world and the silver thread of Christianity’s influence on it all. Beautifully written, narrative form, broad bibliography, and knows the counter points masterfully. Took me over a year to digest (not speed reading). I am so much better for it!
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    3 people found this helpful
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  • JdR
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good quality book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I bought this thinking it was a different book to his UK version of a similar name. It's not, though it has a nicer contents page.

    Tom Holland is objective.

    The book itself was in pristine condition.
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  • Daniel Martins
    3.0 out of 5 stars Um bom livro, mas com viés político desnecessário que o prejudica
    Reviewed in Brazil on March 21, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    O livro é bom, porque deixa claro que o Cristianismo teve um impacto sem igual no mundo. Nossa moralidade sexual, compaixão e direitos naturais são heranças cristãs. O problema do livro é que o autor nem sequer tenta separar suas avaliações de sua visão de mundo progressista. Critica a condenação de Paulo às relações homossexuais como hipócrita, ataca Donald Trump com base em alegações progressistas e exalta as militâncias de esquerda americanas. O livro não perderia nada sem isso. Pelo contrário, a avaliação teria sido bem mais imparcial e séria sem as opiniões políticas do autor.
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  • Vincent Mathew
    5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing by Tom Holland
    Reviewed in Canada on May 17, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Its a real page turner. It does well on the impossible task of summarizing 2000 years of Christian history and also has some good summary of the Jewish religion.
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  • Joe Ellis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
    Reviewed in Australia on December 17, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This is an enlightening read.
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  • Joseph Myren
    5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME
    Reviewed in Canada on May 23, 2023
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    AWESOME
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