22 Facts About Christopher Dawson

Christopher Henry Dawson was an English Catholic historian, independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and emphasized the necessity for Western culture to be in continuity with Christianity not to stagnate and deteriorate.

Christopher Henry Dawson was born of an Anglo-Catholic family in the Bevan ancestral home of Hay Castle, during the waning years of the Victorian era, and spent most of his childhood among the ruins of the Yorkshire countryside.

Christopher Dawson's parents were Captain Henry P Dawson and Mary Louisa, the eldest daughter to the Welsh Archdeacon Bevan.

Christopher Dawson joined a field-ambulance unit with his cousin Herbert Kitchener, later Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.

Christopher Dawson's childhood was exuberance and wonderment, spending most of his time in the place which would set the course for his interest in history: The Yorkshire countryside.

Christopher Dawson experienced the past not as an object of distant sentimentality but as something near to the present which one can find meaning in.

Christopher Dawson recognised a moral and spiritual beauty within the Catholic Church, leading to an intellectual awakening which culminated in his conversion on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1914.

Christopher Dawson suffered from internal torment when facing the world outside his cherished home life.

Christopher Dawson's daughter recalled an incident when he neared the gates of a school she was about to attend, Dawson murmured "I can't face it"; he left the car and sat in the wood reading a book.

Christopher Dawson cultivated "a strong historical consciousness that was fed by the aesthetics of that ancient place of worship" Christopher Dawson later wrote of his experience at Winchester Cathedral:.

Christopher Dawson was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained 2nd class honours in Modern History in 1911.

Christopher Dawson read the work of the German theologian Ernst Troeltsch.

Christopher Dawson's background was Anglo-Catholic, but he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1909.

In 1916, Christopher Dawson married Valery Mills, daughter of the architect Walter Edward Mills.

Christopher Dawson was a Lecturer in the History of Culture, University College, Exeter, the Forwood Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion, University of Liverpool, the Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at Harvard University.

Christopher Dawson was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1943.

Christopher Dawson began publishing articles in The Sociological Review in 1920.

Christopher Dawson's starting point was close to that of Oswald Spengler and Arnold J Toynbee, others who were interested in grand narratives conducted at the level of a civilisation.

Christopher Dawson was a proponent of an 'Old West' theory, the later term of David Gress, who cites Christopher Dawson in his From Plato to Nato.

Christopher Dawson rejected the blanket assumption that the Middle Ages in Europe failed to contribute any essential characteristics.

Christopher Dawson argued that the medieval Catholic Church was an essential factor in the rise of European civilisation, and wrote extensively in support of that thesis.

Christopher Dawson's work was influential in the founding of Campion College and the formation in 2012 of The Christopher Dawson Society for Philosophy and Culture Inc in Perth, Western Australia.