Beda M. Stadler, professor at the University of Bern, has something to say on this question in the weekly Die Weltwoche.
“Let us measure Christian culture against reality, the material goods it has created and, perhaps as Europe’s most important cultural asset, by the accumulation of scientific findings. After the Assyrian dawn of mankind the high cultures of the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans followed, each of these cultures attaining a higher level of cultural achievement.
“And what came then? A cultural void that lasted a thousand years. The Christians were masters in copying from previous cultures. Even today the odd temple frieze beautifies an ugly church façade. Compared with the cultures that preceded them, the first thousand years of Christianity were a disaster that only ended with the Enlightenment.
“So-called Christian cultural assets emerged only thanks to the new secular values, based on science and philosophy, which still define our lives today. Europe’s guiding culture, therefore, continues to rely on the values of the early Occident, such as Greek philosophy and Roman law, rather than Judaism and Christianity.”
The fourth video in the Internment series has been posted at YouTube.
Ahh… the old comparing apples and oranges debate again.
Religions, taken by themselves are not cultural although participants often employ current cultural motifs.
On the other hand, recognizable culture is the accumulated identity of a society at any given moment.
Clearly, Beda M. Stadler was suffering a bit of block and had to search though his box of cliches for inspiration.
Finally got to watch Episode 1 — wonderful! Eric Koch at his best. Please do more. Please take me up on my suggestion that you write or narrate “The Rise and Fall of the Twentieth Century.”