A World History
Simon Montefiore’s best-selling book The World: A Family History of Humanity is both an ambitious undertaking and a fascinating read. In a little over 1200 pages Montefiore’s history provides an overview of the rise, notable conquests, palace intrigues, and fall of the world’s major ruling families. The historical survey even includes royal families from the Far East—China, Korea, and Japan—which are often excluded by Western writers.
Although the book covers thousands of years of history, Montefiore provides intimate, sometimes salacious, details of the ruling families that show the personal strengths and weaknesses of these pivotal figures of history. After years of painstaking research, Montefiore dives deep into the characters, egos, and driving forces of both the men and women who shaped the world’s geopolitical trajectory.
As I worked my way through thousands of years of history, a number of themes consistently emerged, regardless of the time period. From the Stone Age to the modern world, Montefiore shows that the nature of human beings has remained essentially the same. Scientific technology may have progressed but human behavior remains primitive. Examples of humankind’s barbaric nature litter the pages of human history right up to the present era. In antiquity, autocratic rulers wielded and maintained power through violence and fear, and, by and large, the same tactics hold true in today’s world. The lack of reverence for individual life has been a constant refrain throughout our time on earth. Kings as well as queens have murdered their children without hesitation or remorse. Enemies, as well as allies, have been brutally slaughtered without compassion or mercy. This was the modus operandi of tyrants millennia ago, and continues to be the blueprint for today’s autocrats.
Sadly, Christian rulers are not exempt from utilizing violent savagery to accomplish their goals. The first Christian emperor Constantine murdered his eldest son and boiled his wife, Fausta, alive. Many historians suggest that his conversion to Christianity was more a political move than a heartfelt commitment to the teachings of Jesus.
The Emblem of Christ Appearing to Constantine / Constantine's conversion, oil on panel painting by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622
Through the centuries Christian rulers have been, for the most part, more interested in attaining and keeping power than following Jesus. Montefiore’s research concludes that “Power is always the lodestar of faith.” The thirst for power guides rulers, not religious commitment. Rulers use and manipulate the church for their own personal advantage. (America’s Founding Fathers were well aware how religion can be manipulated by demagogic rulers and constructed a wall of separation between Church and State to safeguard both.) We see it clearly in today’s political landscape as well. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a supposedly Orthodox Christian, has simply taken a page out of the ancient totalitarian ruler’s playbook in his unjustified and brutal war in Ukraine.
Another recurrent theme reveals that religious superstition has played a large role among royal families, regardless of whether the rulers were Christian or of another religion. Too often religious belief focused on the supernatural and mystical, while minimalizing the practical and ethical.
Admittedly, to subscribe to a religious faith implies an openness to the supernatural, but, at least in the Judeo-Christian faith, not at the expense of the rational and practical. The teachings of both the Old and New Testaments are decidedly this-worldly. The prophetic emphasis on caring for orphans and widows, honesty and fairness in business practices, and benevolence for the poor illustrate the practical and moral nature of faith. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, with only incidental reference to the supernatural or mystical, reminds disciples how they are to live in this world.
The Christian faith, over the past 2,000 years, has frequently strayed from the simple moral and ethical teachings of Scripture to a cult-like mysticism that ignores or rejects a “this world pragmatism.” Biblical religions, while acknowledging the supernatural, are concerned with the problems of this world. The Judeo-Christian religion offers a unique perspective in that faith in God is coupled with moral and ethical demands, such as reverence for human life and respect for all classes of people. The biblical religion emphasizes that human beings, all human beings, are created in the image of God and therefore sacred, and not simply a means to an end.
Christian ruling families have often been ignorant of the teachings of Scripture and fallen prey to superstitious beliefs that promoted fear, guilt, and control of the masses. Helena, the mother of Constantine, toured Jerusalem 300 years after the death of Jesus and “miraculously” found the nails used to crucify Jesus and wood fragments from the actual cross. These impossible to verify relics were used to manipulate, frighten, and intimidate superstitious and credulous believers. Someone has quipped that if all the supposed fragments of the cross were collected, there would be enough wood to reconstruct Noah’s ark several times over!
Superstition continues to be a powerful tool used to control and frighten people. News reports of a weeping Mary statue continue to pop up from time to time, and although the Catholic Church, for the most part, has denied a supernatural explanation, many believers continue to venerate the object. As a history of the world has shown, superstitious belief does not advance the teachings of Jesus but only leads to a misunderstanding of a Christian faith that strives to make this world a better place.
Red stains are seen running from the left eye of a statue of the Virgin Mary at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church in Sacramento, Calif., Rich Pedroncelli / AP
The final theme that runs throughout the ruling families’ history is the insatiable appetite for power. It seems that once a ruler gets a taste of power, the thirst for more and greater power is inexhaustible. Again, it doesn’t matter whether the ruler adheres to the Christian faith or some other religion. The way of sacrificial service embodied by the humble carpenter from Nazareth has been rare among the ruling elites of this world. Whether a king, a pope, a charismatic preacher or an influential theologian, the driving force throughout history by the ruling elite has been the control and domination of others.
Montefiore’s history of ruling families did not surprise me, but it did encourage me to recommit to the teachings of Jesus and a democratic form of government. Human nature has not changed much in the past four or five thousand years. Violence, religious superstition, and the lust for power continue to plague civilization. Religion that emphasizes moral and ethical behavior can go a long way in curbing the excesses of human conduct, but religion that trades in superstition, magic, and mysticism becomes a millstone around the neck of humanity.
Then, too, as messy as democracy is, a totalitarian government, as history has repeatedly proven, runs roughshod over individual rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and freedom of the press, among many other God-given rights. While certainly not a cure for humankind’s maladies, a democratic form of government can at least check some of the most egregious behavior of the power elites. Coupled with religious teaching that elevates the sacredness of life, a democratic form of government can provide an oasis for rational humanity in a world of irrational demagoguery.
Mark Twain said that history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it does rhyme. So, are we doomed to follow the cadences of history? In the words of Bob Dylan, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
