Francis Fukuyama, who did a pretty good job writing the history of the world from 10,000 BC to 1789 in his book The Origins of Political Order, and a not so great job writing its history from 1789 to the present in Political Order and Political Decay1, frequently talks about “getting to Denmark”—enjoying the benefits of a stable, prosperous middle-class society. People like Paul Krugman frequently talk that way as well, getting to a stable, prosperous, middle-class society with a large public sector that clearly holds the reins of society, though in usually gentle grip.
I have always wondered about the charm of Scandinavian climes. Both Sweden and Denmark are essentially city states set near the edge of the Arctic Circle, with homogeneous populations and virtually nothing in common with the aspiring nations of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In what way could they possibly provide a roadmap for Brazil, or Nigeria, or India? Or the U.S., for that matter?
But if you do want to be like Denmark, one thing you should do is read your Bible. Back in the day, before Germany basically decided to see how much of western civilization it could destroy, it was widely believed that the Anglo-Saxons would inherit the earth. One big reason why the Anglos seemed to have a leg up on everyone else is the high literacy rate that prevailed, and still prevails, in those countries. Why? Because in the days of the Protestant revolt, being able to read the Bible was seen as the royal road to salvation. Every religion has its sacred texts, to be sure, but only Protestantism gave such an emphasis to putting those texts in the hands of every believer, an emphasis that, in the Protestant “out” groups—the “Dissenters,” as the English called them—became a virtual obsession, an obsession that went mainstream in the nineteenth century, with the triumph of evangelical, or “ground up”, Christianity.2
Living in the U.S., as we do, or at least as I do, we take bibliolatry pretty much for granted, particularly if you’re as old as I am. There’s the famous King James version, the Revised Standard Version, which was the most common version when I was growing up, and then a new translation that came out in the sixties, and countless popularized, unauthorized, “good news” versions as well. But the Catholic Church has never been interested in having the common people read the Bible, sticking, for the most part, with St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate for more than 1,500 years. There is an approved English-language translation, the often-trashed Douay–Rheims bible3—but very few people read it, or even know it exists.
Jews, despite their legendary capacity for scholarship, don’t emphasize familiarity with the “Tanakh” (holy scriptures) the way Protestants do. I have a copy of the English translation, prepared by the Jewish Publication Society, which wasn’t completed until 1982. You can read it online here. And go online here for the Vulgate, Douay–Rheims, and King James! And if that won’t get you to Denmark, nothing will.
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I found The Origins of Political Order to be an excellent read, in large part because it gives a fascinating non-western take on “the West”, along with astute comments on Asian civilizations. Political Order and Political Decay is both a longer and a lesser work, full of kvetching about the fact that the U.S. is so non-Confucian, that is to say, not a society ruled by a unified elite. Excuse me, but does anyone still want to be “like China” these days? ↩︎
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Even Bertie Wooster, as non-evangelical a chap as you’d ever want to meet, knew a thing or two about the Holy Scriptures. ↩︎
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The Douay-Reims, which doesn’t sound very English, was translated back in the early 17th century from the Vulgate, and then revised in the 18th century, by the English Catholic bishop Richard Challoner. There is another Catholic bible in English, the “Jerusalem Bible”, which came out in 1966, a translation from a French text prepared by Catholic scholars using Hebrew and Greek texts rather than Jerome’s Vulgate. And there are a number of other “approved” bibles as well. But the Catholics have traditionally stressed obedience rather than literacy for the common folk. ↩︎
