Culture vultures like to give precedence to the Renaissance as being the true launch of European civilisation but most medievalists have long plumped for the 11th century, when the budding tree of monasticism began to burst into flower, with enormous consequences.
But now along comes an Australian church historian, Paul Collins, who, like the proud father of a newborn, wants to award the celebratory cigar to the 10th century. Can he justify the claim?
Collins certainly knows his centuries, in part through his earlier writings on the papacy. Indeed, it was as a result of the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger taking offence at Collins' work that the author abruptly terminated 33 years as a Catholic priest and resigned from clerical duties.
But it is clearly his grounding in church history that puts him in a position to make a judgement call on the 10th century.
The Catholic Church had played a major role in keeping what we now call Europe functioning in the Dark Ages but in the 10th century the papacy hit rock bottom.
Despite the theological and moral shortcomings of the occupiers of the see of St Peter, it was the Vatican bureaucracy and strong regional church rulers whose work provided an undergirding for the emergence of a strong Frankish line of kings, particularly the three generations of Ottos who brought civil order out of chaos.
You don't need a history degree to venture into the story Collins unfolds.
Indeed, his bubbly writing style, laced with humour and spice, turns the book into something of a page-turner. A particular strength is the chapters on social history, in which Collins brings the 10th-century world into vivid focus.
Throughout, he delves into a surprising cornucopia of primary sources to back up his arguments.
The sheer volume of scholarship Collins brings to the task makes it next to impossible to disagree with his conclusion that Western culture was born in the 10th century, with Catholicism offering skilled assistance in the role of midwife.
In a 21st-century society that is, as Collins tartly observes, in the grip of cultural amnesia, finding an understanding of our origins is of critical importance. Paul Collins deserves full credit for recalling us to our roots.
• Geoffrey Vine is a Dunedin journalist and Presbyterian minister.
