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The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

Catherine Nixey

4.04 · Rating details · 1,082 ratings · 207 reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018

“Searingly passionate…Nixey writes up a storm. Each sentence is rich, textured, evocative, felt…[A] ballista-bolt of a book.” —New York Times Book Review

In Harran, the locals refused to convert. They were dismembered, their limbs hung along the town’s main street. In Alexandria, zealots pulled the elderly philosopher-mathematician H ...more

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published April 17th 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published September 21st 2017)

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Feb 26, 2018 BlackOxford rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: history, philosophy-theology, british

Hypocrisy in Action

In my email today I received an invitation from a group called Developing a Christian Mind [DCM] to one of their programmes in Oxford entitled Seeking Wisdom. I am assured that essential issues relating to the “Humanities, Medical Sciences, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and Theology, and Social Sciences” will be addressed over a two day weekend by well-known academics. I will be informed, specifically, “How postgraduates, postdocs, and academics at the University of Oxford can ...more

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Sep 13, 2017 Tim O'Neill rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Nixey's pop history purports to present some kind of new perspective on the transition from the pagan Roman world to the dominance of Christianity, but all we get is dusty old Edward Gibbon rehashed for the post-Dawkins/Hitchens age. In the hands of skilled historian this could have been an interesting book; one which explains a fascinating period and an interesting subject. A balanced and objective scholar could have made it clear that this transition was sometimes violent and that the Christia Nixey's pop history purports to present some kind of new perspective on the transition from the pagan Roman world to the dominance of Christianity, but all we get is dusty old Edward Gibbon rehashed for the post-Dawkins/Hitchens age. In the hands of skilled historian this could have been an interesting book; one which explains a fascinating period and an interesting subject. A balanced and objective scholar could have made it clear that this transition was sometimes violent and that the Christians were not the meek lambs of pious legend or Hollywood sword and sandal movies, while still maintaining objectivity and fairness to the evidence. But Nixey is a journalist, not a historian, and so what we get is blunt polemic, warped depictions of events, cherry-picked evidence and blatant distortions, all driven, it seems, by some clear biases.

Nixey has a story to tell and she does not let things like nuance, debate, counter-arguments or even contrary evidence get in her way. She is artfully selective about what she tells her readers and very good at twisting even that to suit her polemical purpose. Her story has "good guys" (the pagans) and "bad guys" (the Christians), and she makes sure she picks the evidence that supports those blunt caricatures and leaves out anything that doesn't. So, in her telling, the great temple of Serapis was destroyed by a wicked mob of Christian fanatics. Though she completely neglects to mention the temple was the base for a gang of pagan terrorists, that they were kidnapping torturing and crucifying Christian victims there, that this had led to a siege involving imperial troops and that the emperor intervened, ruling the murderers could escape but that the temple had to be torn down. *That* changes the entire episode, but Nixey decided not to let her readers know about any of it. And her book is full of this kind of omission.

She downplays the previous pagan persecutions of Christians to try to prop up her idea that the Romans were "tolerant". But to do this she has to resort to long rejected claims by Dodwell (from 1684!) and Gibbon (from 1776!) and then misstates a reference by W.H.C. Frend. She paints a picture of widespread destruction of temples and pagan shrines, but does not consult the latest archaeological surveys that, in fact, show that these events were extremely rare. She quotes Christian writers who condemned classical learning repeatedly and at length, but totally fails to note the other Christian authorities who pushed for Greek and Roman learning to be preserved and studied - a glaring omission, given that the latter *won the argument* about the value of these works.

Over and over again, her thesis depends on selective presentation of evidence, evasion of counter-examples, dismissal of alternative views, misrepresentation of information or overstatement of an idea. As a result of all these shifty tactics, her book has won praise from people with little grasp of the period or the relevant source material, but is being condemned by historians who specialise in the field. Leading expert in Late Antiquity, Dame Averil Cameron, has called Nixey's book "a travesty". And it is. This is a terrible book.

Read my full, detailed critique here: https://historyforatheists.com/2017/1... ...more

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Jan 07, 2019 Jenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, religion-mythology, non-fiction

(Hypatia, circa 350–370 CE to 415 CE, Philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician of Alexandria)

Knowing what I already knew about the destruction of the great Library of Alexandria and the torture and murder of the brilliant philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, I knew the early Christians weren't exactly kind to those who didn't believe as they did. I knew there was much they destroyed of the ancient world, much that is forever lost to history because they had no tolerance for those whose belie ...more

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Jan 18, 2019 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-century, roman-twilight, religion

I notice many reviews of this book tend to the extremes either rating it very highly or very negatively, I feel by way of contrast that it is a very middle of the road kind of book, ok, but it pulls it's punches.

The title effectively sums up the book, the author is a journalist and maybe that is the kind of neat trick that she has picked up from her professional practise.

Putting words into her mouth the story she tells is of the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, she goes back to the letters I notice many reviews of this book tend to the extremes either rating it very highly or very negatively, I feel by way of contrast that it is a very middle of the road kind of book, ok, but it pulls it's punches.

The title effectively sums up the book, the author is a journalist and maybe that is the kind of neat trick that she has picked up from her professional practise.

Putting words into her mouth the story she tells is of the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, she goes back to the letters of Pliny the Younger but most of the book is concentrated around the fourth to the sixth centuries flicking forwards to the highly selective copying of manuscripts in medieval monasteries and the excavation of Pompeii from the eighteenth century onwards.

Her thesis is that Christianisation was a through going and eventually totalitarian revolution which saw extensive destruction and official intolerance in the service of the creation of a new kind of human - the Christian, a being tormented by demons and indifferent (if not hostile) to all worldly and carnal pleasures, who would react violently to any and all perceived slights to their beliefs.

This involved the destruction of temples, the burning neglect or reuse of books, destruction of statues, and the persecution of people non-Christians and eventually (although this is just mentioned in passing in the book) Christians who were considered to be heretics.

I think in terms of its presentation it is a bit of a mess (and obviously it is lacking in nuance), there is a lot of skipping about and repetition (with variation) particularly for a book which claims to be a 'narrative' history. In her introduction she mentions that her original idea had been to structure the book as a travelogue, but she abandoned that because of the ongoing war in Syria. In my opinion she would have been better sticking to the travelogue - not because I would have liked her to have risked her life but because I imagine the combination of travel to Tunisia, Egypt, Pompeii, Rome, Athens and Istanbul and the stories she has in this book of Saint Augustine, rioting monks, suicidal casual agricultural labourers, the end of the Academy in Athens and the European impact of the uncovering of Pompeii would have made for a better book - and providing it with an organising principle that it currently lacks.

On the plus side this is an ok book, it puts forward a vigorous and definite viewpoint, it does not require prior knowledge, it has colourful stories about violent narrow minded Christians.

On the downside she cites the opinions of scholars without reference in the text to when they were writing so you need to be familiar with the literature to know if she is taking issue with somebodies current opinion or tilting at the windmill of somebody long dead or a view that is generally outmoded. She relies on Christian exemplary literature - the deaths of martyrs and the deeds of the saints which is likely to over state the destructiveness and general smiting of the unrighteous, she relies on the guesses and estimates of how many people were Christian prior to Constantine's conversion and how much non-Christian literature was destroyed, a certain amount was presumably lost through neglect (not being copied in turbulent times) and some works may never have existed in many copies in the first place and so were inherently always at risk. Still I was struck by her account of the violence done to statues - faces and genitals hacked off sometimes crosses carved on the foreheads , better that things rather than people were destroyed but I wonder at the extent of the insecurity that drives such actions, it seems a bad sign to me when a person feels threatened by an inanimate object.

For me she pulls her punches, the unasked question to my mind reading this book is are the monotheistic religions intrinsically intolerant and destructive, but then again that is a tautology. ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Josephine (biblioseph) marked it as to-not-read · review of another edition

I love to read negative reviews of books I'm interested in. Sometimes they convince me I *must* read a book, more than any positive review probably will. However, after reading several theological negative reviews that didn't say "Christians weren't really this bad!" they were still written by theological historians or students of theology and history, I turned to finding one written by an atheist. I warn you, it's a long review, but Tim O'Neill has posted one on his blog: History for Atheists. ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Emma Sea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, i-own-it, paperback

6 stars. Heartbreaking, vivid, and wonderfully researched

If you're wondering if this book is for you, check out Josephine's excellent roundup of critiques in her review.

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Jan 15, 2018 Aurva Bhargava rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: christians-under-rome

It is said that “ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS”. Hence the post-Roman era is typically called as the Dark ages, since it was the period when Christianity held absolute power, which resulted in widespread destruction and corruption of everything that it touched. However, what was it like when Christianity was struggling to acquire power ? What effect did it have during that time? These are the questions that Catherine Nixey’s new book titled “The Darkening Age” attempt to answer. And it sheds light on It is said that “ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS”. Hence the post-Roman era is typically called as the Dark ages, since it was the period when Christianity held absolute power, which resulted in widespread destruction and corruption of everything that it touched. However, what was it like when Christianity was struggling to acquire power ? What effect did it have during that time? These are the questions that Catherine Nixey’s new book titled “The Darkening Age” attempt to answer. And it sheds light on some of the facts hitherto brushed under the carpet by the historians who have told the story of the triumph of Christianity based on christian sources, and thus, presented the narrative of a decadent barbarian empire which was saved by Christianity. However, this was not the case. The tale of Christianity acquiring power over Rome is one that brought considerable amount of sorrow to the classical world. Hence, “The Darkening Age” is an apt metaphor for those times.

Early on in the book, Nixey explores the motivation of the Christians to convert the Empire. She unravels the obsession of the early christian writers with demons and the trope of using demonization to justify revolting against the empire. The ideological resistance via Pagans such as Celsus, Galen, Porphyry is presented in an elaborate manner. The use of the Maryrdom trope to "needle" the romans as well as recruit more people into the Christian cult is discussed. Nixey quotes historians such as Keith Hopkins, Candida Moss who have critically analyzed the myth of martyrdom.

Having described Constantine's rise to power and the subsequent empowerment of the church, Nixey devotes the remainder of the book documenting the destruction of the classical world that occurred with 200 years of the Christian rule. This includes the destruction of countless temples (eg: The temple of Serapis in Alexandria in 392CE), murder of intellectuals (eg: Hypatia of Alexandria in 415 CE), burning of books, vandalization of art, sculpture. Chapter 8 titled “How to destroy a demon” provides ample amount of evidences of iconoclasm and the methods adopted to achieve them. For example, there were laws which, in order to snub the pagans, declared that the portions of the destroyed temples were to be used to repair roads, bridges and aqueducts. The motivation for partial dis-figuration of statues seems to come from the Jewish tract Avodah Zarah as per which in order to properly mutilate a statue (to drive the demon out of them), one should be “cutting off the tip of the ear, or nose or finger, by battering it –even though bulk of it is not diminished — it is desecrated.” One cannot help but find similarities to the destruction of the temples in India at the hands of the Muslims, which resulted in the chipped noses and broken limbs of the statues therein. Thus, there seems to be a method in this iconoclasm madness which has been passed on as a heirloom from one Abrahamic religion to the next.

The book also discusses how the literary style of the classical world was appropriated by the Christians such as Jerome and Augustine for the service of Christianity so that the Roman elite could be converted and, more importantly, retained within the fold of Christianity.

The book ends with the tale of Damascius the aging philosopher, who is forced to flee Athens, and shut down the Academy due to the laws of Justinian passed in 529 CE which forbade "… the teaching of any doctrine by those who labor under the insanity of paganism so that they may not corrupt the souls of their disciples." thus highlighting another critical aspect of the Christian rule – the use of law to curb the Pagans way of life. My ancestors from Goa had experienced a taste of this during the Portuguese rule where such laws made it difficult for a Hindus to practice their religion thereby forcing them to either convert or flee.

The book reveals, in an engaging manner that the Triumph of Christianity and the destruction of Paganism is not a happy tale. On the contrary, it is a very sad one. The surviving works from the classical age, the literature, the defaced sculptures act as mute witnesses to this sad story. The loss of the classical world cannot be described. This becomes evident in Chapter 11 where Nixey quotes E A Judge asking, “What difference did it make to Rome to have been converted?” and answers that though cannot know for certain, something did change. As a post-christian author she focuses on the profound change in our attitudes towards food and sex due to Christianity compared to that in the Roman times where these were aspects of Kama, to be indulged in without giving in to excess. However the Christian view of both of these was evil, and hence had to be shunned as much as possible.

I agree with the Nixey that our attitudes towards these have drastically been impacted by Christianity. However, there are more important things which she could have spoken about in this chapter, but fails to. This silence perhaps answer eloquently what difference it made to Rome to have been converted. The interactions that the Romans had with the Divine, their Mythology, their Sacred arts, the ability to sacralize life, the ability to view science, arts, rituals within the common framework of things that can produce Vidya — these things aren’t even spoken about, or even considered worthy of lament. This outlook that the Romans had is not unlike the Hindu outlook, where a learned person was equally at home performing rituals to the Devas while indulging in highly abstract mathematical/computational work, and be able to describe these in through ornate poetic language. There was no fake distinction between Science, Art, Rituals that we see even in the post-christian world. Life was one unified whole where pursuit of the three Purusharthas was simultaneously sought for. While Renaissance was able to revive science & art, these were still garbed in the Christian clothing. Further, Renaissance wasn’t able to revive the Pagan religion, despite the fact that it indulged in the fruits of the Pagan religion.

Thus, the inability to understand western culture on its own terms is biggest difference that conversion of Rome has resulted in. And due to the predatory nature of Christianity, aided by colonization & later on globalization, this attitude has spread all over the world.

I would highly recommend this book, especially to Hindus who will see a glimpse of their own civilization in the classical Rome suffering at the hands of Christianity. The motives, methods & madness of the followers of this cult is similar to the other cults whose acts brought much suffering to our Hindu ancestors. The use of the legal framework to subjugate the Pagans, the deceptions, the subversion of their culture, art, science – these are things that a keen observer can identify happening in our country even to this date. ...more

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Jan 21, 2018 Galina Krasskova rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It is so good to read a scholarly book that presents the monotheistic destruction of the classical world accurately: as religious and cultural genocide (though she's not quite so blunt). This is an excellent book challenging all too often unquestioned ideas of christianity in general and monotheism in particular as "inevitable" and most especially as "progress." I highly recommend it.

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May 04, 2018 Matthew Bargas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I almost didn’t read this book after reading all of the negative reviews: accusations of poor scholarship, personal biases, a vendetta against Christianity. She certainly has her opinions that she supports with quotes from her sources. I did my own fact checking, and didn’t find all of the distortions of which they accuse her.

Rather than write my own review, I thought it would be apropos to present some more favorable reviews that others have presented to serve as a counterweight to all the nega ...more

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Jul 23, 2018 Libros Prestados rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Este ensayo trata de una religión monoteísta venida de Oriente que se extiende por Europa y destruye la tolerante y cosmopolita civilización dominante. Y esa religión es el cristianismo.

La tesis del libro es que esa historia de que en el Imperio Romano la religión estaba en crisis (era casi laico, si me apuras) y que los paganos no eran realmente creyentes y que el cristianismo simplemente ocupó un agujero que existía de forma pacífica y sin mucho esfuerzo es eso, una historia. Un cuento. Una fa ...more

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Dec 23, 2018 Geevee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: european-history, history-general, religion, world-history

A lively and highly accessible book that challenges the view that Christian society was a benign, accepting and accepted religion during its first few centuries.

Temples, statuary, books and other art was destroyed, vandalised, hidden and in many cases crudely "Christianised" by defacement. On the face of it, this isn't a surprise as it's a simple human trait seen throughout our history that the "good and right" will erase or change the "bad and wrong" to suit the narrative needed to "progress" a A lively and highly accessible book that challenges the view that Christian society was a benign, accepting and accepted religion during its first few centuries.

Temples, statuary, books and other art was destroyed, vandalised, hidden and in many cases crudely "Christianised" by defacement. On the face of it, this isn't a surprise as it's a simple human trait seen throughout our history that the "good and right" will erase or change the "bad and wrong" to suit the narrative needed to "progress" and keep aims and populations in line.

What however becomes clear in this well-written book is the means, methods and indeed sheer damage done by a religion that tells others it is (or rather was at the time this book covers) the accepting and forgiving religion. There are countless examples in the early Christian period in Greece and Rome as well as later with Crusades, Inquisitions, civil (and therefore often religious) wars across Europe and the middle East, but what the author does so well is to peel away the impact on the treasures, arts and also the people of ancient Greece and Rome (and wider) where Christianity took hold and flourished - after reading this book one might say it strangled and covered these ancient pagan societies like a creeping ivy or dense grass.

In the pages we read of edicts, laws and commandments - many more than 10 if you're anywhere near Shenoute, who frankly we learn is a very bad, unforgiving and murderous man - as well as demons, temptation and enemies of God. In brief alongside love of God these are all used as ways to theologise and physically create the belief in God and His power as well as the overarching righteousness and legal waiver to kill and destroy God's enemies and those who were unbelievers.

Elsewhere in the book we meet Pliny, Cicero, Ovid, Hypatia and more. These are quoted or used to highlight aspects of the story, the beliefs and writings they had as well as the loss of their works or writings because of Christian anger and destruction.

The book is not a comprehensive history; the author states this and also provides much in sources and in further reading for the interested reader or new student of this era and area. It does however show the considerable and large scale destruction and why this was wrought. It is also a hugely enjoyable book to read. ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Kevin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Devoured this book in a few days. A wonderful antidote to the 'persecuted church' narrative so prevalent in today's society.

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Nov 06, 2018 Veronica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Yes, I would like to go back in time and wreak destruction on the barbaric Christians who gloated in the destruction of the Temple of Artemis and send lightning bolts to strike them down! Temple-destroyers! Murderers of Hypatia! Book-burners!

In the wake of such senseless destruction no real ‘triumph’ is possible. I’m afraid that Christianity spread the same way as the other monotheistic religions following it—through force and coercion. Nevertheless, it is the Greeks who will have the last laugh: some of the only writers of merit from the Christian world were the neo-Platonists, themselves more indebted to Plato than to the Bible.

And, as for the rest, who in their right mind would prefer the querulous St. Augustine to Plato, to Aristotle, to the pre-Socratics? Who would prefer the dull St. Anselm to Homer? I’m afraid that Milton and Dante were mere exceptions to the rule.

Poor Symmachus—so-called pagan—whose pluralistic viewpoint was uprooted by a new cult: “We request peace for the gods of our forefathers. Whatever each person worships, it is reasonable to think of them as one. We see the same stars, the sky is shared by all, the same world surrounds us. What does it matter what wisdom a person uses to seek for the truth?”

Farewell to the learning of the pagan world, farewell to the classical ‘idolatrous’ art, to the pagan philosophy of the Greeks; instead, we were forced to endure the fractious whines of St. Augustine, and the coming age of darkness and superstition. . .

One day I would like to rebuild the Temple of Artemis. The destruction wreaked by the early Christians needs to be immortalized—not pushed to the sidelines of history and supplanted by grossly exaggerated stories of Christian martyrdom.

“It has been estimated that less than 10% of all classical literature has survived into the modern era. For Latin, the figure is even worse: it is estimated the only 1/100 of all Latin literature remains. If this was ‘preservation’—as it is often claimed to be—then it was astonishingly incompetent. If it was censorship, it was brilliantly effective. The ebullient, argumentative classical world was, quite literally, being erased.”

Truly, the so-called progress of history is a farce—there is no progress, just recurrent iterations of the same foolishness, again and again and again
...more

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Dec 23, 2017 Frederick Gault rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, atheist, political

The Christians of the period right after Constantine declared it the Roman religion around 310 AD were violently opposed to the worship of the traditional Roman gods. So they organized armies of thugs who defaced temples, statues and works of art that had survived a thousand years. These were not nice people. They took Hypatia of Alexandria, a polymath philosopher and flayed her alive - because, you know, God loves us. If you a church goer beware - if you read this you may never be able to see C ...more

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Feb 15, 2018 Andy Lake rated it really liked it · review of another edition

First off, I enjoyed The Darkening Age. It’s very well written and carries you along all the way through. And it redresses as it were a historical injustice, or at the very least a negligent oversight – and that is the coercive and persecuting side of Christianity in the first centuries after it became the religion of the Roman empire.

But – this is polemical history rather than objective history. Catherine Nixey picks up on an old theme of the greatness and glory of classical antiquity and how i First off, I enjoyed The Darkening Age. It’s very well written and carries you along all the way through. And it redresses as it were a historical injustice, or at the very least a negligent oversight – and that is the coercive and persecuting side of Christianity in the first centuries after it became the religion of the Roman empire.

But – this is polemical history rather than objective history. Catherine Nixey picks up on an old theme of the greatness and glory of classical antiquity and how it is eclipsed by the deadening impact of an austere Christianity - “Vicisti, Galilaee - Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath/ We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death…” as the Victorian poet Swinburne put it in his “Hymn to Proserpine.”

And that wistful romanticisation of the glory that was Rome, and the Graeco-Roman tradition, infuses the whole work, tinged with not a little bitterness. Even in the title there’s a nod to the discredited historical myth of the glory of Rome giving way to the “Dark-Ages” and eventually some glory restored with the revival of antiquity and ancient knowledge in the Renaissance (etc)
So how does the book lose its way? First, it is highly selective in its sources. For me, having studied this period and the growth of Christianity, it seems strange to see thinkers such as Origen and Augustine cherry-picked to find the lines that support narrow-minded thinking and oppression, when these are not characteristic of their thought as a whole.

And that selectivity is evident in contrasting the deep intellectualism of the most eminent of pagan philosophers with most boorish and thuggish manifestations of Christianity (and they are indeed truly boorish and thuggish). It would have been quite possible to write a book the other way round, up to a point. And the author’s focus is almost entirely on an intellectual elite amongst pagans, rather than the masses and their response.

I think also a modern outlook directs the author’s judgemental view of the period. She regards the statues that were desecrated and the temples that were pulled down as priceless antiquities and historic monuments. At the time, of course, they mostly were not. They were living centres of rival cults in competition with Christianity.

I have no sympathy with the destruction and murder involved, but that’s how it was. So the events could be treated with more objectivity, or a more rounded creative involvement that sees both sides. After all, the Romans were hardly averse to looting, burning and torture, or building their shrines on top of the shrines of others – as all ancient cultures tended to do. Rome, like Greece before it – did not hang back when it came to cultural imperialism.

But there is something important that doesn’t get a mention at all. The story told is of Christianity in the space of less than three centuries erasing the old pagan culture. But Christianity, like Judaism before it, was highly syncretistic. The Catholic and Byzantine Christianity that emerged were infused with Graeco-Roman culture and political organisation. Church architecture, iconography and the statues of saints owe much to the former pagan cults, and the organisation of the church owes much to the secular structures of power in Rome. Christian philosophy and theology to a large extent has foundations borrowed from Greek and Roman pagan intellectuals. BTW, the impact of eastern religious thought on Hellenistic and Roman thought (including Christian thought) in this period is almost absent from the book.

If you go to Diocletian’s Palace in Split, you can see the old imagery on the walls where a temple was turned into a baptistry. Christians just took it over, and left the reliefs intact. The old myths and legends survived in the popular imagination and in literature, right through to Shakespeare and into the 20th century even. It’s only the most recent generations that has abandoned them, in favour of online entertainment and Hollywood, perhaps. But even in the latter, the old tales of Greece and Rome emerge in new guise.

So – I’ve given the book 4 stars. It does what it aims to do very well. There are indeed historic misperceptions to correct, and that is the target of the polemic. And in an age where fundamentalism is growing and religious (and other) ideologues seek to erase contrary viewpoints, it is a timely reminder of the intolerance of Christianity from the moment when it gained the power to persecute rather than be persecuted. (And we can wind that forward through crusades against heretics, the Inquisitions and religious wars, rolling on through the centuries.)

It would have been a better book, though, with a little more balance and some nuance about the interplay and cultural appropriation between the competing religions and worldviews. ...more

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Mar 06, 2018 David Wineberg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"With our faith, we desire no further belief"

Before Christianity, no one identified by their religion, says Catherine Nixey. It was not their defining characteristic. Christians imposed their beliefs on everyone else, and required everyone to identify as Christian. That is the essence of The Darkening Age. It shows how the free-for-all that was life in the Roman Empire became the dour, sullen austerity of Christendom.

The Roman Empire was about living life to the fullest. Sex was celebrated (Marc "With our faith, we desire no further belief"

Before Christianity, no one identified by their religion, says Catherine Nixey. It was not their defining characteristic. Christians imposed their beliefs on everyone else, and required everyone to identify as Christian. That is the essence of The Darkening Age. It shows how the free-for-all that was life in the Roman Empire became the dour, sullen austerity of Christendom.

The Roman Empire was about living life to the fullest. Sex was celebrated (March 17 was a national festival celebrating young men’s first ejaculations), the bathhouses were for both sexes, sex acts provided artwork on walls, floors and objects in homes. Shame was not in the culture. Fine food and wine were exalted. Every religion from the vast expanse of the Empire was tolerated. The attitude was: Believe what you will, I’m having a drink. It was actually very Christian of them.

Nixey’s argument is that right from the beginning, Christianity favored martyrs over do-gooders to promote itself. Stories became epics, the ordinary became tragic and blood became holy, as Christianity’s fame and (forced) attraction spread. Christians were all about suicide and martyrdom, because eternal life after death was the promise and the goal. Christianity’s intolerance also began early on, denigrating any other form of worship, and once in power, punishing it by death to adherents. Homosexuality and lesbianism were banned, slavery was upheld, and death sentences became routine.

It all began with Constantine’s conversion in 312. He exempted the church from taxes, paid bishops five times the rate for professors, and set about converting his entire Roman Empire. To do this, he literally demonized all other religions, claiming all of them were really demons among the good people of the empire. By 386 it was a capital crime to even criticize Christianity. Up to that point, Christianity had been considered an eastern cult with absurd myths at its center.

The Darkening Age follows the collapse of civilization (the Roman Empire) from the time of Jesus to about 500 AD. In that time, the Romans went from tolerating Christians and their fierce sect (Pliny called it a “degenerate sort of cult”), to being taken over by it. The empire went from multi-faith to one single faith, as Christians, far from loving their neighbors, destroyed all vestiges of previous civilization, including the largest repository of knowledge and history – the library at Alexandria – and forced their religion on one and all, or face execution. They implemented spying by neighbors, required bishops to monitor each other for their faith, and instituted gruesome torture and murder for anyone suspected of lack of enthusiasm for Christianity.

Throughout the book there is a heartbreaking refugee, a philosopher named Damascius. He fled Alexandria because philosophy was destroyed by Christianity. He made it to Athens, where he resurrected the Academy of ancient Greece, and it thrived once again -until the Christians took over. He fled again, this time to Persia, which was so vulgar and ignorant, he and his last seven philosophers fled back to the Roman Empire, where they faded from history.

Christians were proud of their ignorance and despised learning. They dragged the most honored mathematician in the world to a temple, stripped her and flayed her skin off with pottery shards. They managed to burn books to the point where entire centuries show no evidence of non-religious writing at all. Monks scraped parchments clean and made copies of the bible on them instead. Statues were defaced, temples destroyed and the stones used to make churches. Nixey’s research says 90% of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts were mutilated or destroyed by Christians. They hammered nipples, carved crosses in foreheads, and smashed limbs. Essentially, any and every evidence of past learning or religion was removed from the Roman Empire as 60 million were cowed into allowing it to go on.

Reading The Darkening Age is very familiar. It is exactly what Islam is going through today. Killing apostates, blowing up statuary, destroying museums, demonizing sex and regulating every movement of every resident. The fierceness and intolerance of the Islamic fundamentalists has all been seen before. Only the numbers are different, as 21st century man counts in the billions, and the entire world is Islam’s target. There are many lessons in The Darkening Age, but mostly it is a fiendishly uncomfortable and gripping read.

David Wineberg
...more

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Jan 19, 2018 Al Bità rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The beginning of the 4th century CE was a crucial and highly significant time for what was to become known as Christendom: the new Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 CE, having set up his “new Rome” in Byzantium (to the increasing annoyance and chagrin of the Bishop of Rome!), and declared that henceforth Christianity would be the sole religion of the Roman Empire (albeit in a form (probably Arianism) that would soon be declared heretical).

Constantine set up the first maj The beginning of the 4th century CE was a crucial and highly significant time for what was to become known as Christendom: the new Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 CE, having set up his “new Rome” in Byzantium (to the increasing annoyance and chagrin of the Bishop of Rome!), and declared that henceforth Christianity would be the sole religion of the Roman Empire (albeit in a form (probably Arianism) that would soon be declared heretical).

Constantine set up the first major church council (the Council of Nicaea) in 325 CE. The fact that this Council was convened by the Emperor is also significant, establishing that the Church was subject to the Emperor. (The theological arguments and disputations of the time were so conflicting and rancorous that Constantine insisted that they use the Council to get their act together, or else…) The result was the first draft of the Nicene Creed (refined later) and while this did not stop the haggling by theologians (I doubt whether there has ever been total consensus between them ever since!) the Church was established on firm foundations. [The subservience of the Church to the State was a reality for hundreds of years — the first eight Church Councils were all convened by the reigning Emperor at the time. The first Council that was actually convened by the Roman Pope was the First Lateran Council in 1223 CE — 898 years after Nicaea.]

Nixey’s book basically covers the 220-year period between the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) to the closing of the Platonic Academy in 532 CE, which Christians lauded as being the final triumphal victory over the “pagans” and paganism (and intellectuals decry as the beginning of the thousand-year Dark Age for Europe). From this time on, the only light Reason was required to provide was to bolster up the mono-theistic mindset of the State Religion. [Ironically, the rejection, and ejection from Europe, of the great scientific and philosophical wisdom of the past, were to make a triumphal come-back, thanks to the Arabs, during the 15th-century Italian Renaissance. This, together with the then recent technological accomplishments especially of the printing press and its power to communicate all things directly to individuals, resulted in the blazing forth of knowledge and enterprise throughout Europe in the 17th-18th centuries which we call The European Enlightenment.]

Wisely, Nixey does not get sidetracked by the internal theological battles of this time of the birth of Christianity as we know it — they are far too complex, and in many cases still “unresolved” to be dealt with here. Instead the author concentrates on the way the new universal (catholic) religion dealt with those it perceived to be its immediate and external enemies: the “pagans” and paganism.

I would argue that the core of Christianity is its emphasis on love and peace: the principles of the Sermon on the Mount; love one another; love your neighbour; love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; and never cease in forgiving people their transgressions. One would think that, with Christianity being declared the absolute and unopposed State Religion of the Roman Empire, the ruling body of the Church would seize the opportunity to embrace and enshrine these wonderful principles and ensure their incorporation in all matters dealing with the Faith, right? Wrong.

What actually happened (in regard to “pagans” and paganism in Europe) is clearly and very readably provided by Nixey. Her writing is not heavy at all, but lightly, though unrelentingly, sets out the increasingly ruthless and merciless activities of often murderous antipathy by the Church and by individuals and associated sects and rabid groups, either in thought or in deed, towards its perceived pagan enemies over the next 220 years. Emperors, Archbishops, and Bishops became both prescriptive and proscriptive through their leadership. The destruction of Serapis and the Serapeum in 391 CE and the murder of Hypatia in 415 CE are specific examples.

Among many other things, Augustine of Hippo’s extensive attacks on the “pagans” recommended action against them as being God’s will; he also believed that forced conversion was an honourable and righteous thing to do. Martin of Tours apparently had a great time overseeing and participating in the destruction of pagan temples wherever he went. The inherent anti-semitism of the New Testament is given full throat in the fiery sermons of John Chrysostom. And so it goes.

Nixey’s many references are incontestable; and when one adds the odium theologicum or “hatred of theologians for one another” one cannot help but think that this antipathy and bellicosity, possibly enhanced by the sense of increased power and authority provided by intellectual “conquest”, and the potential in that power for the further acquisition of immense riches and properties, and hence great influence, all played a part. Hypocrisy, corruption, ambition, ruthlessness and intolerance are always found in all great monolithic organisations, and are still to be found there today.

Nixey’s timely book is a reminder that these qualities were also there at the very birth of Christianity: it’s in its DNA.

Lest we forget... ...more

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Jul 08, 2018 Darcia Helle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: review-copies, history, religion, nonfiction

History is written by the victors. It stands to reason, then, that the history of Christianity's rise in power is also written and handed down to us by its victors. Historians, particularly in ancient times, wanted to, or perhaps were required to, put a positive spin on events. And so the history we're taught, whether in school or in church, is typically edited and shown in a pretty light. With this book, we take off those rose-colored glasses and examine the whole truth surrounding Christianity ...more

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Feb 03, 2018 Keith Scholey rated it did not like it · review of another edition

A dreadful Horrible History for (childish) adults - except HHs are better written, not selling a political agenda and well researched. One star is more than this piece of crap deserves.

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Jan 08, 2019 Kusaimamekirai rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recently I’ve been mining YouTube for the debates of the late, great Christopher Hitchens. As Hitchens more often than not eviscerated the biblical scholar they put in front of him, one of his most repeated arguments was in regard to the legacy that Christianity has left the world. Beautiful cathedrals, yes. Incomparable religious art, yes again. Yet, Hitchens asked, is any of this worth the trail of blood Christianity has left in its wake? Is it worth the destruction of the temples and art tha Recently I’ve been mining YouTube for the debates of the late, great Christopher Hitchens. As Hitchens more often than not eviscerated the biblical scholar they put in front of him, one of his most repeated arguments was in regard to the legacy that Christianity has left the world. Beautiful cathedrals, yes. Incomparable religious art, yes again. Yet, Hitchens asked, is any of this worth the trail of blood Christianity has left in its wake? Is it worth the destruction of the temples and art that preceded it?
Catherine Nixey’s “The Darkening Age” would answer these questions with a resounding no. Beginning with Christianity’s innocuous rise as a fringe cult at the start of the 3rd century, it would within a few hundred years overtake the Roman Empire and carve out a swath of destruction. Temples to previous gods were razed, statues smashed or defaced, and whole libraries burned.
While the thoughts of Roman and Greek philosophers of the age about the destruction of their cities are fragmented at best (the Christians were startlingly effective at erasing history they were uncomfortable with) we do have quite a few of the Christian theologians of the day describing in detail what happened. Such as Clement:

“The Lord himself had said that: ‘I will sharpen my sword . . . and I will render justice to mine enemies, and requite those who hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh from the blood of the wounded.’” This was not a mark of God’s cruelty but of love. ‘Censure,’ the author reassured his reader, ‘is a mark of good will, not of ill will.’”

It was, Clement and other Christians like him believed, a necessity to cleanse people of their dangerous thoughts and idols. If people had to die in the process (which they did) then it was God’s will.
One particularly interesting point Nixey raises is that prior to Christian dominance by the end of the 4th century, there were selective persecutions of Christians. Nixed however tends to downplay them. They were in the “hundreds” not “thousands”. Christians were given the option of just offering up some incense to the gods and they would’ve been safe, so why didn’t they? Christians just wanted to be lunatic martyrs so no matter what the Romans said or did, the Christians were going to throw themselves off a cliff or set themselves on fire. The Romans didn’t want to kill Christians and when they did, they did so reluctantly.
Nixed offers some letters between Roman functionaries to illustrate her points and yet one finds it difficult to be sympathetic to her arguments. It’s indisputable that what the Christians did to unbelievers in the form of murder, torture, and the destruction of their culture is worse than anything the Romans did to them. Yet, Nixed apologia for Roman atrocities ring hollow. How does one argue that because you killed 1,000 but your enemy killed 10,000 that you really weren’t so bad.
Reading about what Christendom did to the culture of 4th and 5th century Rome, Greece, and Syria will anger you. It was a tragedy at the time and a horrible loss to posterity. One wishes however only that Nixey would be able to see persecution for what it is, regardless of who was inflicting it. ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Peter Greenwell rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I have little else to add that wasn't already summed up perfectly in this review, except that I was entertained by the author's hellbent and vitriolic condemnation of Christianity. But I'm under no misapprehension that this is a work of history. There are far more nuanced books on this subject out there.

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Apr 25, 2018 Heather Brooks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Loved the book. So sorely needed when history has glossed over the brutal rise of Christianity.

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Feb 17, 2018 Alex Sarll added it · review of another edition

Opening with an account of Palmyra's devastation by bearded zealots, but not the ones you think, aaaah, this polemical history makes its position clear from the off - the supposed 'Triumph of Christianity' at the close of the classical age was in many ways identical to the rise of Da'esh, except worse because more widespread and not so soon reversed. Fortunately, I entirely agree with that assessment. If this book was going to have a problem for me, it would be that just as I didn't read Fire an ...more

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Mar 05, 2018 J.S. Green rated it liked it

Shelves: religion, vine, history-european

At the end of the Introduction, Catherine Nixey says the following:

One final note: many, many good people are impelled by their Christian faith to do many, many good things. I know because I am an almost daily beneficiary of such goodness myself. This book is not intended as an attack on these people and I hope they will not see it as such. But it is undeniable that there have been — that there still are — those who use monotheism and its weapons to terrible ends. Christianity is a greater and a

At the end of the Introduction, Catherine Nixey says the following:

One final note: many, many good people are impelled by their Christian faith to do many, many good things. I know because I am an almost daily beneficiary of such goodness myself. This book is not intended as an attack on these people and I hope they will not see it as such. But it is undeniable that there have been — that there still are — those who use monotheism and its weapons to terrible ends. Christianity is a greater and a stronger religion when it admits this — and challenges it.

After finishing this book (and waiting a couple of weeks to write my review) I think that statement must have been forced upon her by her agent or the publisher. It’s hard to see this book as anything but an attack on Christianity. Not that she doesn’t have a point: the persecutions of non-Christians after Christianity was adopted by Rome was shameful, and I agree that it lead to what we refer to as “the Dark Ages.” However, the author’s attempts to appear balanced fall flat.

Nixey is a journalist rather than a historian, but she covers the period of roughly 300AD to 500AD quite well and in a readable manner. The narrative leans toward sensationalism and is frequently repetitive, but for the most part it works. Also, it doesn’t follow a chronological timetable, but the chapters focus on various aspects of Christianity, such as martyrs, monks, destruction of pagan temples or texts, or unique beliefs. And in spite of a rather salacious description about murders of pagans, there’s actually very little of that in the text. Instead, Nixey seems to take personal offense at the destruction of statues and art, which were seen as idols by early Christians. However, she says the worst persecution was the neglect of pagan writings, which in a time when texts were often erased to reuse the paper for something else was actually an understandable action. (Nonetheless, Nixey is right that much was lost, and Western Civilization was set back because of it.)

I appreciated that Nixey includes much information about the Greeks and Romans that I hadn't seen elsewhere. And while that information is frequently very unflattering, it’s also presented in an entirely benign manner. And yet her portrayals of similarly unflattering aspects of Christianity are shown in the worst light. One section that particularly bothered me was about the writings of Celsus, a Greek intellectual around 170AD. Apparently, the only record we have of his writings is through a rebuttal written by a Christian writer about 80 years later, yet Nixey spends over a dozen pages telling us of Celsus’ witty criticisms of Christianity, many of which show a rather poor knowledge of the subject on his part. She says “It is clear that... Celsus knows a lot about [Christianity]. He has read Christian scripture - and not just read it: studied it in great detail. He knows about everything... It is equally clear that he loathes it all...” And yet Celsus claims the Resurrection was only seen by “a hysterical female” and one other in contradiction to what the New Testament actually says, to give just one example.

At any rate, the book was rather interesting but not balanced in the least. Nixey takes great joy in putting down the Christian church and mocking its beliefs and customs. She is correct in saying that Christians should be stronger for facing the actual history, but her attacks go far beyond that. And I’m not sure how monotheism is any more to blame for historically unjust actions than polytheism. An alternate book I would recommend is Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. (A personal note: in all fairness I want to acknowledge that I consider myself a follower of Jesus Christ although I'm not a Catholic. My church believes there was an “apostasy” or falling away from the truth [2 Thessalonians 2:3 among other references] and that the Christian Church had ceased to resemble anything Christ had established within a hundred years of Christ’s death and needed to be "restored." Nonetheless, I felt awful for my Catholic friends as I read this attack on the early days of their church.) ...more

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Jun 28, 2018 Cassidy (Reminders of the Changing Time) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-publishers, reviewed

To see all of my book-related content, check out my blog @ http://bit.ly/2zzVt0R

Most of the reviews on Goodreads say that The Darkening Age is biased.
Most of them are written by Christians so one may say that they are biased.
Either way, in The Darkening Age you find Catherine Nixey’s passionate argument about all that was lost when Christianity rose. It doesn’t need to be objective, it doesn’t need to be balanced; it just needs to raise attention of the some 90% of books that were lost, the peop To see all of my book-related content, check out my blog @ http://bit.ly/2zzVt0R

Most of the reviews on Goodreads say that The Darkening Age is biased.
Most of them are written by Christians so one may say that they are biased.
Either way, in The Darkening Age you find Catherine Nixey’s passionate argument about all that was lost when Christianity rose. It doesn’t need to be objective, it doesn’t need to be balanced; it just needs to raise attention of the some 90% of books that were lost, the people that were executed, and the statues that were destroyed. Sure, Christianity did some good - how much good it did is up to the individual - but it is undeniable that, like with the rise of most great powers, it had costs.
It has always confused me, a lowly wannabe-intellectual, as to how quickly the world changed from a time of sexual freedom and scientific discovery to one of suppression and restraint. The link between the fall of Antiquity and the rise of Christianity had never been obvious but now, upon further consideration as to how diametrically opposed the two overarching ideologies of the time periods are, the rise of one leading to the eradication of the other makes complete sense.
Because how, in a world where both of them desired to be the dominant way of thinking, could they have lived side-by-side for very long?
The answer is frankly, they couldn’t.
And so, Nixey’s book charts the rise of a religion that would span more than a millennium. Even 1500 years after the events of The Darkening Age, Christianity, with 2.1 billion followers, is the largest religion in the world today and its effects are seen throughout the infrastructure of daily life.
It makes you wonder how far we’d be without the suppression of ideas by religion; what kind of world we’d be looking at. The scholars and philosophers of Antiquity were discussing astronomy, biology, anatomy, anthropology in a way that wasn’t matched again until the 1700s and 1800s. And what about the scientific advancements that could have taken place if the world hadn’t been put on pause for over millennia, thanks to the threat of accusations of heresy?
Would we have found the cure for the diseases that continue to run rampant? Would we already have flying cars? Would we have colonised Jupiter?
I suppose we will never know.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Head on over to http://bit.ly/2y7JSWV for this book, as well as all of the others featured in my reviews, complete with the added bonuses of free worldwide shipping and bringing a little joy to my life. ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Ionia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book because it was different from others that I have read on this subject. I do think the author had decided before writing this that she was in favour of the Pagans, and that reflected throughout the writing, but keeping that in mind, so I would not become tempted to fall into the "all Christians are evil," trap that can happen when you read a book like this, I tried to remain objective and look at her arguments realistically, and found that I really enjoyed this book.

Whilst I ...more

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Apr 01, 2018 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If the Christians were conservators of the knowledge of the classical age, they did a terrible job of it. Miniscule fragments have made it down the years from then to now, censored and ignored by zealots who disagreed ideologically with the teaching of atomic theory and the physicality of classical life. The Christianising of society kept Catullus 16 from vernacular translation almost to the present day.

No doubt other factors influenced the loss of classical knowledge and culture, but bands of w ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Sofia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"A chegada das trevas" debruça-se sobre os efeitos (devastadores) que o surgimento do cristianismo teve sobre a cultura clássica.
Efetivamente, estamos habituados a ver os cristãos como vítimas perseguidas por romanos cruéis e monges altruístas a copiar documentos em latim, perpetuando assim os escritos clássicos e a língua latim a realidade foi bem diferente.
A verdade é que maior parte da documentação que nos chegou, por ter vindo de mãos cristãs, apresenta-nos os factos de um único ponto de vi "A chegada das trevas" debruça-se sobre os efeitos (devastadores) que o surgimento do cristianismo teve sobre a cultura clássica.
Efetivamente, estamos habituados a ver os cristãos como vítimas perseguidas por romanos cruéis e monges altruístas a copiar documentos em latim, perpetuando assim os escritos clássicos e a língua latim a realidade foi bem diferente.
A verdade é que maior parte da documentação que nos chegou, por ter vindo de mãos cristãs, apresenta-nos os factos de um único ponto de vista, mas olhe-se por um momento para a disseminação do Cristianismo a partir de outro lado e o que emerge é uma imagem bem menos fácil. Não é nem triunfante, nem alegre. É uma história de conversão forçada e de perseguição do governo. É uma história em que grandes obras de arte são destruídas, edifícios são desigurados e as liberdades são abolidas. É uma história em que aqueles que se recusavam a converter eram proscritos e, à medida que a perseguição se adensava, eram caçados e até executados pelas autoridades zelosas. As breves e esporádicas perseguições romanas aos cristãos não são nada em comparação com o que os cristãos infligiram aos outros - já para não falar do que inflingiram aos seus próprios heréticos. Se isto parece implausível, considere-se um simples facto. No mundo de hoje, existem mais de dois mil milhões de cristãos. Não existe um único verdadeiro 'pagão'. As perseguições romanas deixaram um Cristianismo suficientemente vigoroso não só para sobreviver, como para prosperar e para assumir o controlo do império. Por outro lado, quando as perseguições cristãs terminaram finalmente, todo um sistema religioso fora praticamente varrido da face da Terra."
Confesso que a parte que mais me custou neste livro foi ler a morte de Hipácia e as piras de livros queimados...tudo às mãos dos cristãos (os tais que supostamente "preservaram" a literatura clássica), mas:
"Muito foi preservado. Muito, muito mais foi destruído. Estima-se que menos de dez por cento de toda a literatura clássica sobreviveu até à atualidade. Para o latim, os valores são ainda piores: estima-se que apenas um centésimo de toda a literatura latina perdure. Se se tratou de 'preservação' - como tantas vezes se alega - foi espantosamente incompetente. Se tratou de censura, foi brilhantemente eficaz.
O fervilhante e argumentativo mundo clássico estava, de um modo bastante literal, a ser apagado."
Uma nota final para a revisão de texto, começa logo mal na introdução, página 23, o ano é 532 d.C (que depois já está corrigido na página 25). Também na página 117 o ano não é 39 d.C. mas sim 391 d.C. (destruição do templo de Serápis), portanto 3 séculodepois (coisa pouca....), corrigido na página seguinte.
Em suma, gostei bastante desta abordagem, mostra-nos outro lado dos factos, com histórias interessantes sobre a História e numa linguagem acessível a todos. ...more

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Dec 29, 2018 AnnaG rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, history, non-fiction

This book sets out its mission to be an objective look at the Christian "triumph" over paganism focusing on the destruction involved, the author admits that this wasn't her original goal - and that really shows.

The book waffles around without a clear structure, jumping from anecdote to anecdote. Barely half the chapters seemed to cover the period she was supposed to be writing about - we frequently digress to Victorian visitors to Pompeii or the writings of Celsus (second century AD Athens' ans ...more

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Mar 14, 2018 Bec rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Even though I am only half done, I'm really liking this book. Unfortunately the library wants it back. I'm not sure why it's so controversial, facts are presented here, fabulous art was destroyed but the early Christians were saving souls. There are some interesting parallels for our own time but without reading the conclusion I don't think the author is making a grand statement about christians today, it is obviously a very different religion. Perhaps what is controversial is the idea that rath ...more

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About Catherine Nixey

Catherine Nixey

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Catherine Nixey is a journalist and a classicist. Her mother was a nun, her father was a monk, and she was brought up Catholic. She studied classics at Cambridge and taught the subject for several years before becoming a journalist on the arts desk at the Times (UK), where she still works. The Darkening Age, winner of a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award, is her first book. She lives in Lon ...more

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“It wasn’t just the fact that Christians were ignorant about philosophical theories that annoyed Celsus; it was that Christians actually reveled in their ignorance.” — 6 likes

“It was the Church, they told me, that had kept alive the Latin and Greek of the classical world in the benighted Middle Ages, until it could be picked up again by the wider world in the Renaissance. On holidays, we would visit museums and libraries where the same point was made. As a young child, I looked at the glowing gold of the illuminated manuscripts and believed in a more metaphorical illumination in ages of intellectual darkness. And, in a way, my parents were right to believe this, for it is true. Monasteries did preserve a lot of classical knowledge. But it is far from the whole truth. In fact, this appealing narrative has almost entirely obscured an earlier, less glorious story. For before it preserved, the Church destroyed. In a spasm of destruction never seen before—and one that appalled many non-Christians watching it—during the fourth and fifth centuries, the Christian Church demolished, vandalized and melted down a simply staggering quantity of art. Classical statues were knocked from their plinths, defaced, defiled and torn limb from limb. Temples were razed to their foundations and mutilated. A temple widely considered to be the most magnificent in the entire empire was leveled. Many of the Parthenon sculptures were attacked, faces were mutilated, hands and limbs were hacked off, and gods were decapitated. Some of the finest statues on the whole building were almost certainly smashed off then ground into rubble that was then used to build churches. Books—which were often stored in temples—suffered terribly. The remains of the greatest library in the ancient world, a library that had once held perhaps 700,000 volumes, were destroyed in this way by Christians. It was over a millennium before any other library would even come close to its holdings. Works by censured philosophers were forbidden and bonfires blazed across the empire as outlawed books went up in flames.” — 4 likes

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