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DAWSON AND THE CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY CHRISTOPHER DAWSON, Dynamics of World History. Wilmington: ISI Books, 2002. Pp. 512. $29.95/$16.95.
The republication of this work is the third edition of Dynamics of World History. This volume represents a range of Christopher Dawson's writings initially printed between 1921 and 1955. Originally, this work was edited with the introduction to the 1958 edition written by John J. Mulloy. Included in the original, as well as this edition, is the standard-setting essay, "Continuity and Development in Christopher Dawson's Thought." While the essay has become the "Afterword," it would be wise to examine immediately after reading the new introduction by Seaton Hall's associate professor of History, Dermot Quinn, which does an outstanding job of bridging the gap between the time of Dawson and our own.
Dynamics of World History consists of two major divisions: "Toward a Sociology of History" and "Conceptions of World History." There are five subsections under the major two. These subsections offer an assortment of perspectives on a variety of topics. Some of the essays are reflective pieces focusing on the work of other historians, some are considerations of the way that the Christian faith shapes the way Christians do historical studies, and others are specific examples of Christopher Dawson thinking about an era or an issue within that era.
Quinn rightly comments that
The reissuing of Dynamics of World History is thus part of a wider reexamination of the thought of a major Christian writer. In an academy dominated by modernism and post-modernism, it may also represent an effort to recover an older, realist tradition of historical scholarship, a tradition that does not treat the past as an illusion or tool of some hegemonic myth, (xii)
Sound and frequently insightful, Dawson's prose is refined. It is with apparent ease that Dawson moves within and across several disciplines including religion, philosophy, history, and the social sciences. Simply put, "He was an historian at home among anthropologists, sociologists, cultural critics, philosophers, and theologians" (xiii).
In truth, much of Dawson is uncannily relevant to contemporary times and historical studies. This is true in part because Dawson was, indeed, "worldly but not world weary, he had the sharpest eye for human folly, for modern man's self-worship, for the constant,...