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Scholars discussed in this chapter believe the West rose mostly because of inherent qualities of its culture. In general， those who emphasize internal factors – as opposed to external ones， like climate， geography， or interactions with other peoples – tend to emphasize cultural values and beliefs， in particular those stemming from the Christian religion， which for centuries formed the core of Europe’s value system. Even historians who give the most explanatory weight to institutions or technology in answering the “how” question， typically resort to cultural underpinnings when trying to address the “why” question.
Christian Europe： uniquely dynamic （Christopher Dawson） In a series of writings beginning in 1922 and culminating with his Religion and the Rise of Western Culture （1950）， Christopher Dawson traced the rise of the West to medieval Europe when， in his interpretation， the “barbarian” cult of heroism and ideal of aggression fused with the Christian cult of saintliness and ideal of self-renunciation. The elements of this dualism struggled for mastery not merely within society but within people’s heart and conscience， creating conditions of extraordinary dynamism， constant soul-searching and self-criticism， and ultimately world-changing innovation. The West rose， according to Dawson， for distinctive cultural reasons.
Christopher Dawson （1889–1970） spent his early years in Hay Castle， Wales， his mother’s ancestral home， an ancient ruin dating to the twelfth century. He later recalled： “What I felt most at Hay was the feeling of an antiquity – the immense age of everything， and in the house， the continuity of the present with the remote past.”1 When he was seven， his family moved to his father’s estate in Yorkshire. The family prayed together every morning， and both father and mother taught the precocious child a variety of subjects， both spiritual and secular. After a miserable experience at two private schools on account of poor health and athletic inability， Dawson had more success with a private tutor before entering Oxford University in 1908. He fell head over heels in love with a Catholic girl in 1909， converted to Catholicism in 1914， and married her two years later. After brief stints in the law before， and in military intelligence， during World War I， he settled into a life of independent research， freelance writing， and occasional university teaching.
Extremely learned in both the classics and religious subjects but also in sociology， history， and economics， Dawson early on vowed to devote his life to understanding and explaining how cultures flourish and deteriorate. Using an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach， he found in each society’s religious life the key to understanding its successes and failings， its rising and declining. He conceived of human history as unfolding in stages across Eurasia over several thousand years beginning with the emergence from 4500 to 2700 BC of isolated river-valley civilizations – in Egypt， Mesopotamia， northern India， and northern China. These societies came to be dominated by priestly castes， centralized economies， and theocratic god-kings. In the next age， from 2700 to 1100 BC， intercultural diffusion and mutual influencing flourished across Afro- Eurasia， as dozens of new societies emerged along the margins of the core areas of civilization. The great classical cultures and most of the world religions appeared next – the third age – from the Athenian city-states and the Roman Empire in the west to the Gupta Empire and Imperial China in the east. In the fourth age， according to Dawson， great cultures flourished across Eurasia –medieval Christendom， Byzantium， the Islamic civilization， and Tang and Song China. Devastating invasions in the 1200s–1400s， however， stunted the development of China， Persia， India， and the Near East， leaving only Western Europe unscathed. 西方兴起之辩（第一章）
西方的奇迹
本章提及的学者认为，西方兴起的原因是其内在的文化特质。重视内因的人通常否定环境，地理，人类的互动等外因的影响，特别关注源于基督教的文化价值观和信仰，几个世纪以来这些价值观和信仰最后成为了欧洲价值体系的核心。一些历史学家用制度或科技作为原因解答“如何兴起”的问题，然而在试图解决“为什么兴起”的问题时基本上会借助文化作为支撑。
信奉基督教的欧洲：格外活跃（克里斯托弗·道森）1922年，克里斯托弗·道森的各类作品开始出现，1950年以《宗教和西方文化兴起》而告终。他认为，西方兴起可追溯到欧洲中世纪，那时英雄主义残暴的行为和侵略主义的理想融合了基督教圣洁的风尚和自我牺牲精神；这种二元结构的基本观念不仅在社会内部争夺控制权，甚至深入到人的内心和意识中，结果社会变得异常活跃，人们不断自省，自我批判，出现了颠覆世界的创新活动。道森认为西方兴起受特定文化因素的影响。
克里斯托弗·道森（1889-1970）早年生活在他母亲的祖屋威尔士干草城堡，这座古迹可以追溯到十二世纪。据他后来回忆，“在干草城堡感受最深的就是古老——一切都经历了无穷的岁月，走进屋子，可以感受到远古到现在从未停滞。七岁时，全家人搬到了他父亲在约克郡的庄园。每天早上全家人一起祈祷，而且父母亲传会教授这个聪慧的孩子各科的知识，宗教的和世俗的皆有。因为身体差，缺乏运动才能，在两所私立学校都经历了不幸，后来在1908年进入牛津大学前，道森在一位家庭教师的指导下小有成就。1909年他疯狂地爱上了一个信天主教的姑娘，于是在1914年转而信奉天主教，两年后与她结婚。由于短暂地学习了法律和军事情报学，在一战期间，他习惯性的生活就是，做历史研究，自由写作，偶尔去大学教课。
道森不仅精通典籍和宗教，还有社会学，历史学和经济学，早年就立志倾尽一生了解并说明文明兴衰交替的方式。通过运用跨学科和跨文化的方法，发现了每个社会的宗教生活是了解社会成败和兴衰更替的关键。
他把人类历史看作是几千年来欧亚大陆的阶段性演变；首先，从公元前4500年到前2700年，埃及，美索不达米，印度北部和中国北部出现了孤立河谷文明。随后祭祀阶层，集权经济和神权至上的国王逐渐在这些社会中占主导地位；下个时代从公元前2700到前1100年，在文明核心区的边缘出现了几十个新社会， 与此同时，亚非大陆不同文化传播迅速，互相影响也增强。随后从西方的雅典城邦和罗马帝国到东方的笈多王朝和帝制中国出现了伟大的古典文化和大多数世界宗教，即历史的第三世纪。道森认为，在第四世纪欧亚大陆上的中世纪基督教世界，拜占庭和伊斯兰文明以及中国唐朝和宋朝的伟大文明繁荣发展。然而13世纪到15世纪之间毁灭性的侵略阻止了中国，波斯，印度和近东的发展进程，只剩下西欧毫发未损。
【作者简介】潘冰新（1993.2- ），女，漢族，河南开封人，硕士研究生在读，现就读于首都师范大学外国语学院，英语笔译专业。
Christian Europe： uniquely dynamic （Christopher Dawson） In a series of writings beginning in 1922 and culminating with his Religion and the Rise of Western Culture （1950）， Christopher Dawson traced the rise of the West to medieval Europe when， in his interpretation， the “barbarian” cult of heroism and ideal of aggression fused with the Christian cult of saintliness and ideal of self-renunciation. The elements of this dualism struggled for mastery not merely within society but within people’s heart and conscience， creating conditions of extraordinary dynamism， constant soul-searching and self-criticism， and ultimately world-changing innovation. The West rose， according to Dawson， for distinctive cultural reasons.
Christopher Dawson （1889–1970） spent his early years in Hay Castle， Wales， his mother’s ancestral home， an ancient ruin dating to the twelfth century. He later recalled： “What I felt most at Hay was the feeling of an antiquity – the immense age of everything， and in the house， the continuity of the present with the remote past.”1 When he was seven， his family moved to his father’s estate in Yorkshire. The family prayed together every morning， and both father and mother taught the precocious child a variety of subjects， both spiritual and secular. After a miserable experience at two private schools on account of poor health and athletic inability， Dawson had more success with a private tutor before entering Oxford University in 1908. He fell head over heels in love with a Catholic girl in 1909， converted to Catholicism in 1914， and married her two years later. After brief stints in the law before， and in military intelligence， during World War I， he settled into a life of independent research， freelance writing， and occasional university teaching.
Extremely learned in both the classics and religious subjects but also in sociology， history， and economics， Dawson early on vowed to devote his life to understanding and explaining how cultures flourish and deteriorate. Using an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach， he found in each society’s religious life the key to understanding its successes and failings， its rising and declining. He conceived of human history as unfolding in stages across Eurasia over several thousand years beginning with the emergence from 4500 to 2700 BC of isolated river-valley civilizations – in Egypt， Mesopotamia， northern India， and northern China. These societies came to be dominated by priestly castes， centralized economies， and theocratic god-kings. In the next age， from 2700 to 1100 BC， intercultural diffusion and mutual influencing flourished across Afro- Eurasia， as dozens of new societies emerged along the margins of the core areas of civilization. The great classical cultures and most of the world religions appeared next – the third age – from the Athenian city-states and the Roman Empire in the west to the Gupta Empire and Imperial China in the east. In the fourth age， according to Dawson， great cultures flourished across Eurasia –medieval Christendom， Byzantium， the Islamic civilization， and Tang and Song China. Devastating invasions in the 1200s–1400s， however， stunted the development of China， Persia， India， and the Near East， leaving only Western Europe unscathed. 西方兴起之辩（第一章）
西方的奇迹
本章提及的学者认为，西方兴起的原因是其内在的文化特质。重视内因的人通常否定环境，地理，人类的互动等外因的影响，特别关注源于基督教的文化价值观和信仰，几个世纪以来这些价值观和信仰最后成为了欧洲价值体系的核心。一些历史学家用制度或科技作为原因解答“如何兴起”的问题，然而在试图解决“为什么兴起”的问题时基本上会借助文化作为支撑。
信奉基督教的欧洲：格外活跃（克里斯托弗·道森）1922年，克里斯托弗·道森的各类作品开始出现，1950年以《宗教和西方文化兴起》而告终。他认为，西方兴起可追溯到欧洲中世纪，那时英雄主义残暴的行为和侵略主义的理想融合了基督教圣洁的风尚和自我牺牲精神；这种二元结构的基本观念不仅在社会内部争夺控制权，甚至深入到人的内心和意识中，结果社会变得异常活跃，人们不断自省，自我批判，出现了颠覆世界的创新活动。道森认为西方兴起受特定文化因素的影响。
克里斯托弗·道森（1889-1970）早年生活在他母亲的祖屋威尔士干草城堡，这座古迹可以追溯到十二世纪。据他后来回忆，“在干草城堡感受最深的就是古老——一切都经历了无穷的岁月，走进屋子，可以感受到远古到现在从未停滞。七岁时，全家人搬到了他父亲在约克郡的庄园。每天早上全家人一起祈祷，而且父母亲传会教授这个聪慧的孩子各科的知识，宗教的和世俗的皆有。因为身体差，缺乏运动才能，在两所私立学校都经历了不幸，后来在1908年进入牛津大学前，道森在一位家庭教师的指导下小有成就。1909年他疯狂地爱上了一个信天主教的姑娘，于是在1914年转而信奉天主教，两年后与她结婚。由于短暂地学习了法律和军事情报学，在一战期间，他习惯性的生活就是，做历史研究，自由写作，偶尔去大学教课。
道森不仅精通典籍和宗教，还有社会学，历史学和经济学，早年就立志倾尽一生了解并说明文明兴衰交替的方式。通过运用跨学科和跨文化的方法，发现了每个社会的宗教生活是了解社会成败和兴衰更替的关键。
他把人类历史看作是几千年来欧亚大陆的阶段性演变；首先，从公元前4500年到前2700年，埃及，美索不达米，印度北部和中国北部出现了孤立河谷文明。随后祭祀阶层，集权经济和神权至上的国王逐渐在这些社会中占主导地位；下个时代从公元前2700到前1100年，在文明核心区的边缘出现了几十个新社会， 与此同时，亚非大陆不同文化传播迅速，互相影响也增强。随后从西方的雅典城邦和罗马帝国到东方的笈多王朝和帝制中国出现了伟大的古典文化和大多数世界宗教，即历史的第三世纪。道森认为，在第四世纪欧亚大陆上的中世纪基督教世界，拜占庭和伊斯兰文明以及中国唐朝和宋朝的伟大文明繁荣发展。然而13世纪到15世纪之间毁灭性的侵略阻止了中国，波斯，印度和近东的发展进程，只剩下西欧毫发未损。
【作者简介】潘冰新（1993.2- ），女，漢族，河南开封人，硕士研究生在读，现就读于首都师范大学外国语学院，英语笔译专业。