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Seven Revolutions: How Christianity Changed the World and Can Change It Again

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Combining history, politics, and religion, Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea provide practical lessons to be learned from the struggles of the Early Church, lessons that can be applied to the day-to-day lives of Christian readers.
 
Prolonged, multiple wars in the Middle East. Waves of immigrants crossing the borders. Ongoing economic recession. Increasing political polarization, often with religious overtones. Conflicts over ideologies that pit the progressive against the traditional. Sound familiar? These conditions not only describe the United States, but the situation of the Roman Empire in the third century. That situation led to religious persecution and the eventual collapse of the empire. In the middle of the third century, the Roman Empire was roughly the same age as the United States is now.

In this book, authors Mike Aquilina and Jim Papandrea examine the practices of the Early Church—a body of Christians living in Rome—and show how the lessons learned from these ancient Christians can apply to Christians living in the United States today. The book moves from the Christian individual, to the family, the church and the world, explaining how the situation of the Early Church is not only familiar to modern Christian readers, but that its values are still relevant

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2014

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About the author

Mike Aquilina

126 books112 followers
Mike Aquilina is author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Fathers of the Church, The Mass of the Early Christians, and A Year with the Church Fathers. He has co-hosted eight series that air on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He has co-authored books with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and theologian Scott Hahn. He is past editor of New Covenant magazine and The Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper. He appears weekly on Sirius Radio's "Sonrise Morning Show." Mike and his wife, Terri, have six children, who are the subject of his book Love in the Little Things.

In 2011 Mike was a featured presenter of the U.S. Bishops' Diocesan Educational/Catechetical Leadership Institute. He also wrote the USCCB's theological reflection for Catechetical Sunday in 2011.

His reviews, essays and journalism have appeared in many journals, including First Things, Touchstone, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Heritage. He contributed work on early Christianity to the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.

Mike is a also poet whose works have appeared in U.S. literary journals and have been translated into Polish and Spanish. He shared songwriting credits with Grammy Award-winner Dion DiMucci on the forthcoming album "Tank Full of Blues."

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Julie Davis.
Author 5 books321 followers
August 11, 2016

As we present them here, the seven revolutions changed the world by changing human relationships, in ever widening concentric circles, beginning with the individual and extending outward to the world. A revolution of the individual affirmed that all people are created equal, in the image of God, and no one is expendable. A revolution of the home affirmed it as a place of safety and love, where women and children are not to be exploited. A revolution of the workplace affirmed that people are not property, that they must be free to choose their work, and that they must be given the free time for worship, for artistic expression, and to enjoy loved ones. A revolution of religion taught the world that God is love. A revolution of the community taught people to love their neighbor. A revolution of the way people thought about life and death rejected the culture of death and affirmed a culture of life and of hope, encouraging people to stand up for human rights. And finally, a revolution of government set up the ideal that rulers should serve those whom they rule (not the other way around), and that all people should enjoy freedom of religion. In short, the seven revolutions can be understood as cultural revolutions that gave the world a concern for human rights in two general categories: the protection of all human life, and the protection of each person's dignity and freedom.

I've been saying for a long time (with a singular lack of originality, I know) that we are living in times similar to those in which the first Christians lived.

Seven Revolutions spells out that truth in ways I hadn't even been aware of. Mike Aquilina and James L. Papandrea show what the pre-Christian world was really like and how everyday Christians, living out their faith, created a groundswell that gradually turned into a cultural revolution. Living in our post-Christian world, we too face a secular culture which doesn't understand our values and, therefore, misinterprets us and our faith.

The book not only covers past history but looks to the future with concrete ideas for converting our culture. It is a necessary read for anyone who isn't clear on the positive good Christianity has had and for those who aren't sure how to bring that good back into our world today. I found it heartening.

Maybe you've also heard that the Church is no longer relevant to the current generation. This is ridiculous. First of all, the mission of the Church is not relevance. Second, the definition of what is relevant changes by the moment and depending on the person, and the focus on relevance is in many ways a symptom of the very relativism that is part of the problem. Having said that, even if the Church is perceived as being out of touch with the current generation, the problem is with the generation, not with the Church. Was Jesus being irrelevant when he called his own generation adulterous and sinful? (Matthew 11:16-17; 12:39-45; 16:4; 17:17; Mark 8:12, 38; 9:19; Luke 9:41; 11:29-32). Jesus shows us that part of the Church's mission is to call each generation back to the Christian definition of relevance—which means the affirmation of life, in reverence to life's Creator.

This book isn't just for Catholics but for Christians of all sorts. Highly recommended.

And if you live in Dallas, it's at the library. Go borrow it!
Profile Image for Amos Smith.
Author 14 books423 followers
September 17, 2015
This book was a tour de force from the first chapter. And it is very preachable. I have used a number of the themes in the book in sermons. What I like about the book is that there is often a fresh angle that I haven't thought of before. For instance, in chapter 2 the authors write about Christian names found written in catacombs in the Roman Empire. Some of the names can be translated "cast off" or "thrown away like trash." What was surmised from these names is that babies born with deformities were thrown on trash heaps by the Romans. Then the early Christians saved these babies from the dump and raised them with love. And those children never forgot their origins, so as an act of defiance to the Roman Empire they held on to their "cast off" identities. It was a way of saying, "you thought I was trash, but I know that I am actually made in God's image" (Genesis 1:27). It is fresh angles like this that make the book compelling. I also like how the book starts with the premise that the Christian revolutions started with Jesus' understanding that every single human being is precious in God's eyes. This notion is the basis upon which Christianity changed the world. Ideas like defending the weak and the dignity of all people were foreign to writers such as Aristotle and Cicero. Yet, they were the very touch stones of the early Christian community. And thankfully these ideas are now common in most of the world today.
-Amos Smith (author of Healing The Divide: Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots)
Profile Image for Vicky.
10 reviews
July 3, 2022
The majority of the book was full of great historical information. However, the conclusions which the authors drew from that information showed that their knowledge of later Church history was incomplete and their subsequent recommendations were thereby politically confused and impractical.
Profile Image for Kathleen Kirchner.
1,026 reviews2 followers
June 2, 2018
Amazing right up until the last few chapters when it got a little far left for me.
15 reviews1 follower
January 25, 2023
This treatment of the significance of Christianity is very good for those new to Church History. The section on work was especially thought provoking for me. I'd never thought of the significance of Christianity in regards to changing work from being the role of the pleb to being an important aspect of human life for everyone.

This book would have gotten 5 stars except for the chapter on religious freedom. I found this section absolutely lacking. Aquilina did not prove his thesis that religious freedom is the worthy idea to take away from the early Church, since, as he says Christianity was made the state religion within decades of the Edict of Milan. Which is the true interpretation of the role between religion and government? His argument begs the question; he assumes what he set out to prove. The history of Catholicism shows that it is not religious freedom, but the superiority of the Catholic faith and it's importance in government that is the true Catholic thought, with a tolerance of those who belong to inferior religions, but always within limits.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
496 reviews
July 27, 2018
I read this for a book club and although it is interesting, I felt that I should have know more about the time period this book covers. The last chapter is a pretty contemporary call to action that was easy to understand but not so easily carried out. Christianity can be defined in so many little ways that politics and religion do not currently match up. It will be interesting to hear what everyone else has to say.
73 reviews
August 7, 2021
Well written and educating but more importantly a call to change the world again with our love. Christians get caught up in distractions and forget to get the simplest part correct. Love. Love God Love everyone. Love should be our motivation for everything and part of ever word and action. That is the standard to measure our actions. I hope to follow this call to action.
Profile Image for Brittany Lauterbach.
30 reviews
October 3, 2025
This was a very interesting read. The actual "seven revolutions" were a great look at history and how Christianity shaped the world, specifically the Roman empire, then the rest of the world.
However, the authors lost me in the end when they tried to slyly impose leftist thoughts of illegal immigrants and the existence of white privilege.
Make of that what you will🤷🏻‍♀️
Profile Image for Rachel Dvorak.
16 reviews1 follower
July 5, 2017
Amazing!

This book may have changed my life. My suggestion? Read it. Even if you're not Christian, it's a fascinating book about the creation of Western culture.
Profile Image for Amanda Marie.
298 reviews31 followers
April 23, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It is a mix of Church history, the time of the Roman Empire, Church doctrine, and what we can do today as Christians.

Each of the seven revolutions has its own chapter. The revolutions are as follows:
A Revolution of the Person: The Invention of Human Dignity
A Revolution in the Home: The New Idea of Family
A Revolution of Work: How Labor Became Holy
A Revolution of Religion: God Is Love
A Revolution of Community: Love Your Neighbor
A Revolution in Death: The Conquest of the Last Enemy
A Revolution of the State: Religious Freedom

These were all so interesting. I also loved the ending chapters that talk about where the world is heading today and what we can do.

One of my favorite chapters was the one on human dignity. I really enjoyed the one on human dignity because it speaks of the inherent dignity of every person. In the Roman Empire, women and children were not seen as having value. The book talked of how people in the Roman Empire were only seen for their usefulness. If we look to usefulness or uselessness as a means of determining a person’s value, we start to see people as “things” to be used rather than people. I see this as so important in our world today. We really need to remember that everyone has inherent human dignity.

Another of my favorite chapters was on death. This chapter talked about how there was a different view of death in the pre-Christian world. With Christianity came the respect for the dead body that can be evidenced today in our modern funerals. This chapter also talked about how, besides in Judaism, there wasn’t really the concept of the afterlife before Christianity.

Even if this isn’t typically what you would read, I recommend this to all Christians. It gives a wonderful look back on what has happened in the early centuries of the Church and ties it into what is happening today in our secular world.

I received this book for free from the publisher via Blogging for Books for review consideration. This in no way affects my opinion of the title or the content of this review.

This review first appeared at Orandi et Legendi.
Profile Image for Richard Kuhn.
133 reviews3 followers
June 13, 2015
SEVEN REVOLUTIONS is a must read for Christians and/or Bible enthusiasts on any level. However, that recommendation comes with a disclaimer. If the reader isn't Catholic, he/she might be put off by some of the statements made in the second part of the book. That said, the first two thirds of the book is some of the finest explanation of Roman/Grecco life during Jesus' time on Earth and immediately after for 400 years or so.

This is my introduction into the principle author Mike Aquilina, an anthropologist that specializes in the ancient Roman/Grecco culture, and I assure you it won't be my last. Aquilina explains the culture's highlights, low-lights and intricacies with a easy to understand style. For the Bible student, the reader gets a good view of life and culture during the years Jesus walked the Earth and therefore a better understanding what Jesus was confronting and why he said and did some of the things he did.

That knowledge alone is worth a thousand times the price of the book. However, there is one benefit even more valuable to the Christian. This book's content gives you purpose and value. I won't disclose any of that here as SEVEN REVOLUTIONS deserves to be read and re-read. As the book's title suggests, Christianity can change the world again. After reading the comparison of our culture to the Roman/Grecco culture, one can see not only can Christianity change it again, but it must change it once more.

The book's structure is easy to follow and laid out nicely for the reader. The reader should prepare for the staunch ways and positions of the Catholic Church in terms of the issues today that Church prioritizes. That being said and to the authors credit, they also put blame where blame is obviously due.

As Bible pundits know, no Hebrew word for coincidence exists in The Word. I found this book on a business trip with nothing to read. It was no accident that I read this book and it should be no accident that you experience this book as well. Look for it, find it, read it. It's most definitely worth the investment in terms of time and money. In fact, it will be one of the best investments you will make.
Profile Image for Fernando Navarro.
38 reviews
March 29, 2015
This book is about how Christianity changed the world of the first four centuries. As Christians, we always refer to the primitive church as something divine and perfect. I don't think that's the best way to think of it, but I have to say that we can still learn from the primitive church. The Christians' world of the first centuries was totally different than us, the difference of the actual culture and the Christian culture was significant and of course christianity was able to make a huge difference. I don't want to demean the Christian's work of the firsts centuries, but the actual christianity is having more troubles than the first century church. We are not killed because our beliefs but we are persecuted intellectually. If we are killed because our beliefs, then we know that we have a better place to go, but keeping us down because are beliefs by intelectual attacks is worse.

Another difficulty that christianity affronts is that we love our own theology and we are not open to accept or at least to talk about other Christian beliefs just because they are not biblical as if we would own the whole Christian theology. This is another reason why I think the actual christianity is having more difficulties than the primitive church.

Seven revolutions talks succinctly about how love can change the world, and I think, love is our best argument as Christians to the world, not our theology, not our worship, not even our churches, because if we don't have love we have nothing, not even our miracles, neither our power, love is the best weapon to change the world. Now, changing the world not because we want it to be the way that we want it to be, but because we are natural Christians that live a natural Christians lives, let us not confuse with seeking the change just because the sake of it, but because we know God and love comes naturally. Let's defend the innocents, let's love our neighbor and change the world.
Profile Image for Patricia Mckenna.
46 reviews
April 12, 2015
I have always been intrigued by church history and this is why I wanted to read Seven Revolutions to see the impact the church has had on historical and contemporary culture. Aquilina and Papandrea give a fascinating analysis and description of pre-Christian pagan Roman culture. There are so many constructs we take for granted that did not exist in pre-Christian Rome. The value of human life, the dignity of work, and the taking care of the least among us did not exist before Christ.

There are seven revolutions described in the book by the author that changed our world forever. They are person, home, work, religion, community, death, and politics. Aquilina and Papandrea ask hard questions like could we be returning to some of these per-Christian values in our modern era. My favorite part of the book is the last chapter which gives the reader an abundance of ideas of things we can do to continue to change the world in a positive way.

I would definitely recommend this book to you. It has opened my eyes and given me perspective on the life and times of Jesus when he was here on earth. It gives background and context when reading the bible. I think we do not realize that some of the things we read in the bible, that Jesus and his disciples were saying were quite revolutionary for their time. Their message was very opposite to the current cultural environment at the age. With our current church message of the new evangelization, Seven Revolutions can give you concrete things you can do to spread our Christian faith today. Aquilina and Papandrea write about universal truth and that this does not change with time because God is truth. There is call to continual conversion and we have a responsibility to continue to help build up God’s church. This book is for all Christians and non Christians to have a better understanding of what is Christianity is all about.
Profile Image for Melissa Lindsey.
132 reviews10 followers
March 24, 2015
I've always enjoyed Church history, so this book was fun to read in that regard. It was an interesting approach to understanding the world in which the Christian Church was conceived. I don't think I fully appreciated how counter-cultural the early Christians were and the degree to which they influenced the culture I currently live in. This book did a nice job of explaining the contribution of the early church to the way we live our lives today. It was highly readable, interesting, and at the end, immensely practical. Initially I did not appreciate what I felt were tacked on, practical tips for Christians today, but I can understand why Aquilina felt that this was a necessary addition to his book. For some readers, having the author provide a "so-what" can be enormously helpful.

I did love his comments about immigrants and how Christians should be at the forefront of loving the sojourner in our country. My own community struggles with this and there were several passages of this book I wanted to beg my community to read and discuss.

One issue (and it may be because I was reading an e-copy and this may have been missing from my version), but I would have liked to have seen more references in the book. There were a few times when I wanted to find the primary source of historical events and I didn't see this for everything I read. Even a list of helpful historical books would have been a nice addition -- because for me this book piqued my interest in reading more and I'm not sure where to head next.
Profile Image for Anna W. .
585 reviews23 followers
December 27, 2016
Seven Revolutions is a book that not only details the ways in which Christianity has shaped the world, but it also shows us how it can and will (with readers' action) change it again. It goes into the invention of human dignity; the new idea of family; labor becoming holy; God representing love; loving one's neighbor; the conquest of the last enemy: death; and religious freedom. Each section offers both historical and current connections, and it is truly an educational read. I personally did not know many of the materials from chapters; I only knew the outcomes from my own experiences with Christianity.

The only reason for a 4 instead of a 5 is purely my own reading experience. I clearly read this book over the course of two months, so it was sometimes a struggle (typically I read a book in about a week's time). However, I enjoyed the struggle and it was, as mentioned, an educational read. There were footnotes and references to many historical and current political texts, so the reading's verity was evident.

Overall I highly recommend this book to any Christian reader. It is not affiliate with any one sect of Christianity, and it offers examples from different facets of the belief system, Evangelical to Catholic to Protestant.
Profile Image for Richard Grebenc.
349 reviews15 followers
June 5, 2015
An excellent effort that will give the Christian a healthy pride in the tremendous impact the Church had on the world (i.e., the Roman Empire) in the first four centuries A.D. and how this influence persists to this day. Although a major thrust of the book -- particularly in the last two chapters -- is how the world is falling back to a pre-Christian pagan ethos and what concerned Christian faithful should do about it. Highly recommended.

(Check out the Image Books site for good overview materials and a sampling of the book.)
Profile Image for Judine Brey.
787 reviews2 followers
July 1, 2016
I read this as part of my parish's book study group over the fall. While I couldn't always give the text the care it deserved (given the school schedule), it was an interesting perspective on the history of the church and how, in fact, Christianity did change the world. This is not a book I would have chosen to read if not for the book study; that said, it was engaging content-wise. I took off a star because I believe the book's purpose was to convince people that they could change the world. . . and I'm not sure it accomplished what it set out to do.
336 reviews1 follower
June 9, 2017
The title of this book attracted my attention; what held it was the authors' ability to make early church history fascinating and relevant.
6 reviews3 followers
August 7, 2016
This is an excellent book. I think anyone who truly wants to be a person of faith will appreciate it. Also, anyone who is interested in ancient history and modern times.
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