The Book That Made Your World — Book Review
Every man has a right to live — says who?
— From Dayo, as she experiences and learns. Welcome to The Mind Palace!
Sometimes, thinking about nation-building in Nigeria feels like naive thinking. To want to build a Nigeria is to live in fantasy. Yet, I went ahead to read The Book That Made Your World: How The Bible Created The Soul of Western Civilization by Vishal Mangalwadi.
The book argues that the Bible made the West the humane, prosperous and developed West that it is — as it aptly states— but where the book really takes you is the how. I’m not sure I’ve read many books whose titles so fitly and succinctly (lol) describe the content of the book.
Short Take
5 stars for research; 5 stars for persuasion; 5 stars for the defence of language and the ability of words to convey truth; and 5 stars for history. Great book. Definitely buying, definitely re-reading. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I Got Pilled, Let’s Go
The book takes you through some post-colonial Indian history (because the book started off as a response to a Hindu critic of Christianity in India), fundamental Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic beliefs and their psychological and sociological effects on cultures and societies.
We know that India and Islamic civilizations got a headstart in science, medicine and mathematics (if you didn’t, now you know) but why didn’t these societies champion a technological revolution or a humane civilization? China produced paper but how come the West alone was transformed by paper? How come some nations are characteristically selfish while some are trusting?
The saying that goes, “as a man thinketh, so is he” rings true. Every action we take stems from a set of beliefs. Every country may have the brains and the minds to accomplish great things but because we believe differently, we would have different lifestyles, different achievements, and different notions of what is considered good and evil, or moral and immoral.
Turns out Hinduism and Buddhism teach a need for silence (Shoonya) in order to transcend the pain and materialism of this world, and according to this book, the belief in the doctrine of Shoonya resulted in the intellectual decline of India — if the world we live in is bad, why study it to manipulate it to good?
This is in significant contrast to the Christian doctrine that the made world is good and we ought to dominate it by tilling the ground and every other form of manipulation. Other worldviews taught men to observe hence primitive sciences and insights from Buddha but Christianity taught men to do something about our materialistic world not transcend it.
Another topic of discussion was that of humanity and compassion. Every man has a right to live — says who? Apparently, this is a worldview that originated from and was popularized by the Christian West, and it stays because it makes for an orderly society. No culture or society believes it is self-evident that all men are equal except those built on Judeo-Christian foundations.
I was shocked to learn about the untouchables, the lowest level in the Hindu caste system. The appalling treatment of the untouchables (what a name) persists because the belief in karma re-enforces that they [the untouchables] lived a bad life in their past lives and are now re-incarnated into this caste as penance for their bad deeds; any help given to them only prolongs their suffering, and so, they are better off not helped.
I could go off on the redefinition of who a hero was from a man who fought wars in a faraway land to receive fame, penance and more (hence Jihad and the Crusades) to a person who sacrifices for another; or the eradication of female infanticide practised in the Greco-Roman world; or the development of languages in colonies to advance literacy and self-governance against the desires of slave masters and those who profited from it; or, finally, to the abolishment of the slave trade itself but that would make this review needlessly long.
Rating
Whether or not you agree with Vishal Mangalwadi, you have to appreciate the extensive research done. I rate this book a solid 5-stars because I enjoyed every page. This is the best book I have read this year not necessarily because I agree with it but because it was enlightening and thorough.
After reading this book, I can’t unsee the need for a collective frame of thought and the power of education. So, now I’m left to read more to answer the question, “what social re-engineering does Nigeria need for economic and social prosperity?”
The Book That Made Your World is a book that is well worth your time. You should read it.
Stay learning,
Dayo
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