Christopher Dawson

You can give men food and leisure and amusements and good conditions of work, and still they will remain unsatisfied. You can deny them all these things, and they will not complain so long as they feel that they have something to die for.

Christopher Dawson


As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism.

Christopher Dawson


Humanism and Divinity are as complementary to one another in theorder of culture, as are Nature and Grace in the order of being.

Christopher Dawson


The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language.

Christopher Dawson


And so, today, if the state can no longer appeal to the old moral principles that belong to the Christian tradition, it will be forced to create a new official faith and new moral principles which will be binding on its citizens.

Christopher Dawson


This freedom of political discussion on the highest level is something which Western civilization has in common with that of classical antiquity, but with no other.

Christopher Dawson


It is impossible for us to understand the Church if we regard her as subject to the limitations of human culture. For she is essentially a supernatural organism which transcends human cultures and transforms them to her own ends.

Christopher Dawson


No society lies nearer to the cyclonic path of the forces of world change than the United States, and few societies are more intellectually aware of the nature of the issues that have to be faced.

Christopher Dawson


Unlike other peoples the United States found their origin in a deliberate act of corporate self-assertion, and ever since the Revolution every little American has been taught to associate himself personally with this creative act.

Christopher Dawson


The present age has seen a great slump in humanist values.

Christopher Dawson


The modern dilemma is essentially a spiritual one, and every one of its main aspects, moral, political and scientific, brings us back to the need of a religious solution.

Christopher Dawson


The intercourse between the Mediterranean and the North or between the Atlantic and Central Europe was never purely economic or political; it also meant the exchange of knowledge and ideas and the influence of social institutions and artistic and literary forms.

Christopher Dawson


Man can know his world without falling back on revelation; he can live his life without feeling his utter dependence on supernatural powers.

Christopher Dawson


If man limits himself to a satisfied animal existence, and asks from life only what such an existence can give, the higher values of life at once disappear.

Christopher Dawson


For humanism also appeals to man as man. It seeks to liberate the universal qualities of human nature from the narrow limitations of blood and soil and class and to create a common language and a common culture in which men can realize their common humanity.

Christopher Dawson

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