The churches enjoyed enormous patronage and exemptions from tax, and in return allowed the emperors to take on the definition and enforcement of an increasingly narrow religious orthodoxy.
This book explores how the European mind was closed by the revolution of the fourth century. It looks at the rise of the 'divine' monarch, the struggle as Christianity painfully separated itself from Judaism, the conflict between faith and reason, and the problems in finding any kind of rational basis for Christian theology. In these centuries, a turning-point for Western civilisation, we see the development of Christian anti-Semitism, the origins of the opposition of religion and science and the roots of Christianity's discomfort with sex, issues which haunt the Christian churches to this day. The Closing of the Western Mind is a major work of history. Wide-ranging and ambitious, its central theme is the relationship between the two wellsprings of our civilisation, the Judaeo-Christian and the Greco-Roman, and how the tensions between them have created the culture in which we continue to live, think and believe.'An elegant story, engagingly told.
Freeman has a talent for narrative history and for encapsulating the more arcane disputes of ancient historians and theologians.' Mary Beard, Independent
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The churches enjoyed enormous patronage and exemptions from tax, and in return allowed the emperors to take on the definition and enforcement of an increasingly narrow religious orthodoxy.
This book explores how the European mind was closed by the revolution of the fourth century. It looks at the rise of the 'divine' monarch, the struggle as Christianity painfully separated itself from Judaism, the conflict between faith and reason, and the problems in finding any kind of rational basis for Christian theology. In these centuries, a turning-point for Western civilisation, we see the development of Christian anti-Semitism, the origins of the opposition of religion and science and the roots of Christianity's discomfort with sex, issues which haunt the Christian churches to this day. The Closing of the Western Mind is a major work of history. Wide-ranging and ambitious, its central theme is the relationship between the two wellsprings of our civilisation, the Judaeo-Christian and the Greco-Roman, and how the tensions between them have created the culture in which we continue to live, think and believe.'An elegant story, engagingly told.
Freeman has a talent for narrative history and for encapsulating the more arcane disputes of ancient historians and theologians.' Mary Beard, Independent
Imprint | Pimlico |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Release date | May 2003 |
Availability | Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available. |
Authors | Charles Freeman |
Dimensions | 233 x 152 x 38mm (L x W x T) |
Format | Paperback |
Pages | 470 |
Edition | New Ed |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-7126-6498-1 |
Barcode | 9780712664981 |
Categories | |
LSN | 0-7126-6498-X |