13 Quotes by Vishal Mangalwadi

In the wake of the Reformation, it was the Bible that reorganized Europe as modern nation-states. Developing vernaculars through Bible translation was only the first step towards linguistic nation-states. The Bible also provided the theological justification for fighting to build independent nation/states such as Holland.

The idea of ‘government of the people, for the people, by the people’ became possible only because the people’s mother tongue became the language of learning and governing.

Biblical nationalism was different from Germany’s secular nationalism. The former was God-centered rather than culture-or race-centered. Being a product of God’s promise and law, it had to remain self-critical and repentant. Old Testament characters like Moses, Daniel, Nehemiah, and several of the prophets powerfully exhibited this peculiar, repentant nationalism.

The pioneers of modern education made character formation a primary function of education because they accepted the Judeo-Christian ideas.

And Christian compassion is another factor that made the West the best civilization in history. Let us examine it next.

God’s friendship gave such a value and meaning to his life that he had something to sing about.

For Jesus, as for the psalmist, God’s Word was the lamp for his feet and the light for his path.45 The Bible is not merely a handbook of private piety. It is the very foundation of Western civilization.

It is true that the Christian West used its technological superiority to colonize much of the world, and that technology has created serious dangers for the environment as well as for humanity. Nevertheless, it is ideological blindness to ignore the fact that technology functioning within a biblical framework has been one of the chief instruments of human emancipation.

The Bible created the modern world of science and learning because it gave us the Creator’s vision of what reality is all about. That is what made the modern West a reading and thinking civilization. Postmodern people see little point in reading books that do not contribute directly to their career or pleasure. This is a logical outcome of atheism, which has now realized that the human mind cannot possibly know what is true and right.