The idea that each individual has intrinsic, God-given value and is of infinite worth quite apart from any social contribution – an idea most pagans would have rejected as absurd – persists today as the ethical basis of western law and politics. Our secularized western idea of democratic society owes much to that early Christian vision of a new society – a society no longer formed by the natural bonds of family, tribe, or nation but by the voluntary choice of its members.
