The West and the Rest

Meic Pearse (then Lecturer in Church History at the London School of Theology) explored this relationship in 2003 when he wrote a book called Why the Rest Hates the West (SPCK). The book was partly an answer to the agonised question, asked by so many after the attacks on the US of September 11th 2001 exploring the roots of the conflict. In a nutshell, his thesis was that the hatred was provoked by the moral degeneracy of Western culture.

An expert in the politics of Islam argued that an alternative factor was envy. Even within authoritarian societies officially hostile to the West, the extraordinary events unfolding in North Africa and elsewhere illustrate a longing for the freedoms enjoyed by the West, while their rich elites have long enjoyed its degenerate clubs and casinos.

In a new book, Civilisation: the West and the Rest (Allen Lane), the historian Niall Ferguson takes a historical look at the relationship. What was it about Western civilisation, he asks, that allowed it, in the past 500 years, to trump all other political systems and cultures? His answer is that the West developed six 'killer apps' that the rest lacked: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. Many of these, he acknowledges, find their roots in Christianity, specifically in Protestantism - although, of course, they have evolved far from those roots.

Ferguson is currently presenting a series on Sunday evenings on Channel Four, which he has called Civilisation: Is the West History? Each programme examines the influence, for good and ill, of one of the killer apps - apps that are, of course, being embraced, developed and exploited by countries all over the world. Can these, however, deliver peace, justice and prosperity, unless reconnected with the faith from which they grew?

An extraordinary passage in Ferguson's book quotes contemporary Chinese academics who have identified Christianity as offering 'a new "common moral foundation" capable of reducing corruption, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, promoting philanthropy and even preventing pollution'. Christianity is no 'killer app' to be exploited for utilitarian purposes, but the genius of the gospel offers genuine hope for reconciliation between the West and the Rest.