Background
Dawson, Christopher Henry was born on aug 31 1968 in Hay, Wales. Son of Henry Philip and Mary mcgee dawson
( No one who would seek to think deeply about the Middle ...)
No one who would seek to think deeply about the Middle Ages and its role in the formation of the modern world may neglect this book. There is simply no other like it. Medieval Essays is the mature reflection of one of the most gifted cultural historians of the twentieth century. Christopher Dawson commands the substance and the breadth of cultural history as few others ever have. He ranges from the fateful days of the late Roman Empire to the final destruction of Byzantium, from the rise of Islam to the flowering of western vernacular literature, from missions to China to the caliphs of Egypt, from the tragedy of Christian Armenia to complex religious realities of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Spain, from philosophy to literature, theology to natural science. The very breadth of his canvas makes the precision of his judgments and the vitality of his analyses all the more remarkable. PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION: The Times Literary Supplement said of the original edition: "These essays, though concerned with topics derived from a remote past, are designed to display the relevance of those topics to the problems and controversies of the present." The judgment is yet truer today. Few, if any, studies of the Middle Ages are more significant for understanding the cultural dynamics of the twenty-first century. Fortunately, few are as readable, illuminating, or challenging. "Count it a blessing that the works of Christopher Dawson are now being reissued on a regular basis. Dawson, who died in 1970, wrote with a grace of style, breadth of knowledge, and courage to generalize in defense of the proposition that there is such a thing as Christian civilization, and that we cannot understand our modern moment apart from Christendom. . . . Dawson is among the most sure cures for the disease of historical amnesia."―First Things "Dawson is the historian of culture with his eyes ever surveying the whole historical process, marking the great changes, and interpreting their significance."―Spectator "A handy sampler of Dawson's view of history. He writes with the smooth mixture of clarity, scholarship and happy metaphor that characterizes good British historians, and the imperturbability of a man content with a limited patience."―Time
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813210178/?tag=2022091-20
( In a time of remarkable but selective amnesia in the We...)
In a time of remarkable but selective amnesia in the West reflected perhaps most dramatically in the denial of the Christian roots of Europe in the first drafts of the European constitution, Understanding Europe is as relevant today as it was on its first appearance in 1952. Christopher Dawson wrote of the uneasiness that characterized twentieth-century Western civilization in the aftermath of two disastrous global conflicts and the attempt to build a new secular civilization on impersonal economic forces. He desired a unified Europe, but one unified by a common Christian religion. Recognizing the emphasis on economic utility and mass productivity in European culture, Dawson argued that a renewed study of Christian faith and culture was essential in order to recover the deeper sense of European unity. In Understanding Europe, Dawson expresses a desire for Europe to rediscover and renew its foundational Christian sources in order to recover a deeper sense of integrity. This edition includes an introduction by George Weigel.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813215447/?tag=2022091-20
( Foreword by Christina Scott and Introduction by Mary Do...)
Foreword by Christina Scott and Introduction by Mary Douglas Progress and Religion was perhaps the most influential of all Christopher Dawson's books, establishing him as an interpreter of history and a historian of ideas. It has been described as a brilliant work of synthesis, for in this single volume he outlined his main thesis for the history of culture, which was his life's work. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, and history formed the backdrop for the key idea of his thought―namely, that religion is the soul of a culture and that a society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture. To Dawson, a return to the Christian culture that had formed Western civilization was the only remedy for a world adrift. Dawson was writing in a period between the two great wars of the twentieth century, a time when some thought that the idea of progress had finally been discredited by the carnage and barbarism of the First World War. Progress and Religion was clearly intended to challenge the doctrine of progress, the rather naïve but persistent belief that 'in every day and in every way the world grows better and better.' Dawson argued that Western civilization was at a turning point and confronted with two real choices: reappropriate a vital Christian culture or move increasingly toward more dangerous and alienated expressions of consumerism and totalitarianism. In Progress and Religion, he contends that no culture could truly thrive if cut off from its religious roots. PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION: "Progress and Religion is undoubtedly a brilliant book. Its argument is closely reasoned, admirably presented, lucidly expressed. Its standpoint is original and suggestive, profound and illuminating. Without exaggeration, it may be regarded as one of the books of our generation."―The Manchester Guardian, 1929 "A book of vast learning . . . a theme which invites the consideration of a stately procession of the greatest names in the history of the world's thought."―The Scotsman, 1929
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813210151/?tag=2022091-20
(In this volume Christopher Dawson outlines his main thesi...)
In this volume Christopher Dawson outlines his main thesis for the history of culture, which was his life's work. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion and history form the backdrop for the key idea of his thought - namely, that religion is the soul of a culture and that a society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture. To Dawson, a return to the Christian culture that had formed Western civilization was the only remedy for a world adrift.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044RW6ZC/?tag=2022091-20
( The essays presented in this volume are among the most ...)
The essays presented in this volume are among the most wide-ranging, intellectually rich, and diverse of Christopher Dawson's reflections on the relations of faith and culture. In them, he explores the contact between the spiritual life of the individual and the social and economic organization of modern culture. His focus ranges from the passing of industrialism to the Catholic understanding of the human person, to Islamic mysticism, to a Christian account of sexuality. Dawson argues that modern Western culture is unique in its tendency to ignore its spiritual roots and its once close contact with nature and tradition, and to substitute for them an impersonal economic and materialist organization of mass society. In these essays, he warns against the increasingly secular preoccupations of modern sociological accounts of European culture and insists that they require the supplement and corrective of theology and philosophy. But he is equally insistent on the dangers of a false spiritualism that ignores emerging sociological insights. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Widely praised as one of the most important Catholic historians of the twentieth century, Christopher Dawson, in all of his writings, masterfully brings various disciplinary perspectives and historical sources into a complex unity of expression and applies them to concrete conditions of modern society.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813215439/?tag=2022091-20
( The Crisis of Western Education, originally published i...)
The Crisis of Western Education, originally published in 1961, served as a capstone of Christopher Dawson's thought on the Western educational system. Long out of print, the book has now been updated with a new introduction by Glenn W. Olsen and is included in the ongoing Works of Christopher Dawson series. In all of his writings, Dawson masterfully brings various disciplinary perspectives and historical sources into a complex unity of expression and applies them to concrete conditions of modern society. Dawson argued that Western culture had become increasingly defined by a set of economic and political preoccupations ultimately hostile to its larger spiritual end. Inevitably, its educational systems also became increasingly technological and pragmatic, undermining the long standing emphasis on liberal learning and spiritual reflection which were hallmarks of the Christian humanism that created it. In this important work on the Western educational system, Dawson traces the history of these developments and argues that Western civilization can only be saved by redirecting its entire educational system from its increasing vocationalism and specialization. He insists that the Christian college must be the cornerstone of such an educational reform. However, he argued that this redirection would require a much more organic and comprehensive study of the living Christian tradition than had been attempted in the past. Dawson had reservations about educational initiatives that had been developed in response to this crisis of education. Among them, he expressed doubts about newly emerging great books programs fearing that they would reduce the great tradition of a living culture to a set of central texts or great ideas. In contrast, he insisted that a Christian education had to be concerned with "how spiritual forces are transmitted and how they change culture, often in unexpected ways." This would require an understanding of the living and vital character of culture. As Dawson saw it, "culture is essentially a network of relations, and it is only by studying a number of personalities that you can trace this network." Dawson offers a diagnosis of modern education and proposes the retrieval of an organic and living culture which alone has the power to renew Western culture. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Widely praised as one of the most important Catholic historians of the twentieth century, Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) was author of numerous books, articles, and scholarly monographs. He was lecturer in the History of Culture, University College, Exeter; Gifford lecturer; Charles Chauncey Stillman Chair of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University from 1958 to 1962; and editor of the Dublin Review. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "There are a handful of books that I wish I could get colleagues in the field of education to read, and this is one of them. The reissuing of Dawson's accessible The Crisis of Western Education (originally published 1961) is still relevant and, sadly, still being ignored. Dawson's insights are masterfully presented by his unusual use of the tools of sociology, cultural history, and religious studies. . . . Most impressively, throughout the work Dawson, better than most, defines and chronicles the process of secularization in the West and its influence, especially within education. . . . This helpful and insightful book is a unique blend of cultural history, philosophy, and deeply informed Christian thinking about the flow of Western history and what has happened to education within that heritage."―Robert M. Woods, Journal of Education and Christian Belief
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813216834/?tag=2022091-20
( Christopher Dawson was one of the most profound histori...)
Christopher Dawson was one of the most profound historians of his day, with an acute understanding of the ideas and culture movements behind the making of Western society. The Movement of World Revolution, originally published in 1959, explores many of the themes Dawson considered most important in his lifetime: the religious foundation of human culture, the central importance of education for the recovery of Christian humanism, the myth of progress, and the dangers of nationalism and secular ideologies. Dawson's concern was not so much a solution to the political, social, or economic problems of his day, but rather an understanding of the present as it had evolved from the past as well as the charting of a path into the future. In this work, Dawson argued that the modern period was "not a metaphysical age, and in the East no less than in the West men are more interested in subsistence and coexistence than in essence and existence." Dawson believed a reduction of culture to material and technological preoccupations would ultimately end in an impoverishment of life. His solution was a return to a renewed Christendom, one not marked by an alliance with secular powers but rather arising out of an organic, spiritual foundation. The Movement of World Revolution is remarkably prophetic in anticipating many of the contemporary struggles about the role of religion in the modern state. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) is recognized as one of the most important Catholic historians of the twentieth century, authoring numerous books, articles, and scholarly monographs. Dawson was lecturer in the History of Culture, University College, Exeter; Gifford lecturer; and Charles Chauncey Stillman Chair of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University from 1958 to 1962. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: "With a vision and flexibility not always apparent in cultural historians, Dawson dedicates the same ample scholarship and perceptive intelligence to the West's relations with non-Western peoples in a period of violent world-wide revolution. By doing so he deepens our understanding of the changes shaking the world and widens our vision of the tasks before us. . . . This study of the movement of ideas that made Europe enables Dawson to give a far deeper and more satisfying account of the West's impact on the outside world than is possible in the usual brisk history of Western colonialism and Eastern change."―New York Times Book Review
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813220076/?tag=2022091-20
( In this new edition of his classic work, Religion and t...)
In this new edition of his classic work, Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, Christopher Dawson addresses two of the most pressing subjects of our day: the origin of Europe and the religious roots of Western culture. With the magisterial sweep of Toynbee, to whom he is often compared, Dawson tells here the tale of medieval Christendom. From the brave travels of sixth-century Irish monks to the grand synthesis of Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, Dawson brilliantly shows how vast spiritual movements arose from tiny origins and changed the face of medieval Europe from one century to the next. The legacy of those years of ferment remains with us in the great cathedrals, Gregorian chant, and the works of Giotto and Dante. Even more, though, for Dawson these centuries charged the soul of the West with a spiritual concern -- a concern that he insists "can never be entirely undone except by the total negation or destruction of Western man himself."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385421109/?tag=2022091-20
( In this seminal work, described by the Times Literary S...)
In this seminal work, described by the Times Literary Supplement as "impressive alike by the authority of its learning and the originality of its argument," Christopher Dawson concludes that the period of the fourth to the eleventh centuries commonly known as the Dark Ages is not a barren prelude to the creative energy of the medieval world. Instead, he argues that it is better described as "ages of dawn," for it is in this rich and confused period that the complex and creative interaction of the Roman empire, the Christian Church, the classical tradition, and barbarous societies provided the foundation for a vital, unified European culture. In an age of fragmentation and the emergence of new nationalist forces, Dawson argued that if "our civilization is to survive, it is essential that it should develop a common European consciousness and sense of historic and organic unity." But he was clear that this unity required sources deeper and more complex than the political and economic movements on which so many had come to depend, and he insisted, prophetically, that Europe would need to recover its Christian roots if it was to survive. Glenn Olsen has noted that Dawson's point "was that the spread and history of Christianity had provided the narrative which had formed Europe and taken out of this narrative, Europe could hardly be spoken of as existing." In a time of cultural and political ambiguity, The Making of Europe is an indispensable work for understanding not only the rich sources but also the contemporary implications of the very idea of Europe. PRAISE FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION: "The Dark Ages lose their darkness, and take on form and significance. Thanks to the author's erudition and marshalling of facts, we begin to have a notion of what it is all about."―Aldous Huxley, The Spectator "Each chapter is a condensed philosophical survey of an important historical movement which profoundly influenced the course of civilization. Each chapter might stand alone, but taken in connections with the others it serves to round out a majestic picture of the slow development of a new order."―Commonweal
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813210836/?tag=2022091-20
(In scope and in vision Dawson's conception of history ran...)
In scope and in vision Dawson's conception of history ranks with the work of men like Spengler, Northrop, and Toynbee. This classic Dawson work is a conspectus of his thought on universal history in all its depth and range. Containing thirty-one essays selected from his writings it gives a clear and fascinating picture of his achievement in helping to widen our perspective of world history and in identifying the central determinative importance of religion for the formation of culture.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188292679X/?tag=2022091-20
Dawson, Christopher Henry was born on aug 31 1968 in Hay, Wales. Son of Henry Philip and Mary mcgee dawson
Student, Winchester College, 1903-1904;
student, Trinity College, Oxford, 1908-1911;
Bachelor, Trinity College, Oxford
Master of Arts, Trinity College, Oxford.
Lecturer history culture, University College, Exeter, England, 1930-1936;
Forwood lecturer in philosophy religion, Liverpool, England, 1934;
Gifford lecturer, Edinburgh U., Scotland, 1947-1948;
Stillman chair Roman Catholic studies, Harvard University, 1958.
( In this seminal work, described by the Times Literary S...)
( In a time of remarkable but selective amnesia in the We...)
( Foreword by Christina Scott and Introduction by Mary Do...)
( In this new edition of his classic work, Religion and t...)
( In this new edition of his classic work, Religion and t...)
( The essays presented in this volume are among the most ...)
( Christopher Dawson was one of the most profound histori...)
( The Crisis of Western Education, originally published i...)
( No one who would seek to think deeply about the Middle ...)
( Religion and Culture was first presented by historian C...)
(Christopher Henry Dawson FBA was a British independent sc...)
(In scope and in vision Dawson's conception of history ran...)
(In this volume Christopher Dawson outlines his main thesi...)
(Hardback, ex-library, with usual stamps and markings, in ...)
(Important Dawson volume in beautiful condition throughout.)
(Very rare signed volume in v. gd. condition)
(First American Edition.)
Fellow British Academy.
Married Valery Mills, August 9, 1916. Children: Juliana, Christina Dawson Scott, Philip.