/n-f i ‘1.’. 0^nFA. Hayek, in The Fatal Conceit: The Errors ofnSocialism, offers us one insight into the nature ofnfreedom and morality. Hayek argues that the major woddnreligions have succeeded and endured because they reinforcenthe weak and imperfect points of human nature.nHayek believes that civilization is based on the family and onnprivate property, institutions that Judaism and Christianity,nin particular, have strongly emphasized. The question thatnHayek should have raised, but did not, was that of thenrelationship between the high civilization of wealth andnculture in Western Europe and America, and WesternnChristianity. Since the success of wealth-creation and freedomnhas occurred only in the areas of the world wherenWestern Christianity gained acceptance, it is important tonattempt to determine what special characteristics of WesternnChristianity contributed to this unique development.nThe interdependence of religion and family in Westernncultures was first explored by Numa Denis Fustel denCoulanges in his work The Ancient City, and while therenhave been many challenges to Fustel’s arguments andnmethods, his central insight retains its significance. Fustelnfound that certain traditions of Indo-European culture tooknstrong root and flourished among the Western Indo-nEuropeans — the Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Germans.nAmong those societies, the role of religion was paramount.nReligion was first and foremost the exclusive prerogative ofnthe family. Each family formed its own religion. Each familynsaw itself as protected by the deceased ancestors who hadngone to the afterlife. Each family formed a church.nThe father and mother of the family formed the priesthood,nwhich was exercised by the father. The father couldnLeonard P. Liggio is distinguished senior scholar atnCeorge Mason University’s Institute for Humane Studies.n22/CHRONICLESnFreedom and Moralitynb Leonard P. l.ii;£;i«)nnnperform his priestiy functions only during the lifetime of hisnwife, because the priesthood was incomplete without thenmother. After her death the priesthood then passed to thenoldest married son and his wife. Obviously, a culture innwhich the wife was an integral and necessary part of thenpriesthood had a high regard for women.nCentral to the concept of each family as an independentnreligious unit was the property on which the family practicednthe family religion. The property was the location of thenliturgy of the family religion and as such was sacred.nEspecially sacred were the family burial grounds. Thenproperty of each family had a religious significance and itnwas .sacrilege for anyone outside the family to violate itsnclearly defined borders. All of this is reflected in Indo-nEuropean law, and especially the law of the Greeks andnRomans.nThe Greco-Roman worid was not isolated and had tonface the challenges posed by several religions of the easternnMediterranean. Of all the religions from the East competingnfor the attention of the Romans, Christianity was the mostndemanding and required the greatest sacrifices by demandingnstrict moral standards for its converts. Despite statendisapproval and sporadic persecutions, more and morenpeople converted to Christianity. After Gonstantine and hisnsuccessors adopted it as their personal and official religion,nChristianity spread throughout the Roman world and even anbit beyond. Thus, on the Indo-European foundation of thensanctity of property and of the family, found in Greek,nRoman, and German cultures, there was added the formalninstitutions and the precepts of Christianity. For fifteennhundred years the sanctity of property and of the familynpermitted the emergence in the West of the greatestncontributions of culture and the widest diffusion of wealth innthe history of the world.n