The Closing Of The Western Mind

The rise of Christianity in medieval Europe is also the story of the ending of a tradition of rationality and inquiry often identified with the ancient Greeks, according to Charles Freeman, who sees the ancient world as an age of reason, and of the search for truth and virtue. Freeman views the gradual spread of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries, and its eventual acquisition of unprecedented power and authority, as the beginning of the Dark Ages. He charts the centuries-long changes in Europe's political and social life that followed the fall of the Roman republic, explaining how Church history and European history became intertwined, and how a crisis in Europe led Constantine to place authority and power in the clergy, bringing about an orthodoxy that stifled the traditions of the Greeks and devalued scientific and mathematical inquiry for centuries to come. He identifies specific anti-Greek arguments in the Church fathers, especially Paul, who identified the Greeks with pagan views, and goes on to discuss the Church's suppression of dissent and its imposition of an ascetic view of sexuality. Freeman's arguments are backed up by a learned, respectful, and thorough presentation of Christian history and teachings. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.