Progress and Religion: An Historical Inquiry

Progress and Religion was perhaps the most influential of all Christopher Dawson's books, establishing him as an interpreter of history and a historian of ideas. A brilliant work of synthesis, the book outlines his main thesis for the history of culture, which was his life's work. Anthropology, sociology, philosophy, religion, and history formed the backdrop for the key idea of his thought — namely, that religion is the soul-of a culture and that a society or culture which has lost its spiritual roots is a dying culture.