The very institution of Christianity advances individual Liberty where the absence of Christianity recedes it. Our God-given rights are defined by Natural Law – our rights to Life, Liberty, and Property. In the absence of Christianity we no longer look to our Creator for these rights but to some other fallible earthly entity.  When this occurs we no longer exist as individuals but as  segregated groups “as member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category” (ie slavery)

“The Christian worldview, rooted in Judaism, broke the mold: it created the idea that someone could exist as a soul before God and apart from the social status they were born with”

“As the Victorian Jacob Burckhardt wrote, ‘In the Middle Ages … Man was conscious of himself only as member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category.'”

Ryan Shinkel of AEI provides a very insightful 2 part article on this subject.

http://valuesandcapitalism.com/christian-europe-inventor-liberty-part/

http://valuesandcapitalism.com/christian-europe-the-inventor-of-liberty-part-ii/