Product Description

When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in AD 312 he changed the course of European history in a way that continues to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects ofthe religion that suited his purposes, he truned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world towards a culture based on the rule of fixed authority - whether that of the Bible, the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy, and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine. Only a thousand years later, with the Renaissance and the emergence of modern science, was Europe to begin to free itself from the effects of Constantine's decision. The Church, on the other hand, remains hierarchical and authoritarian, and the effects persist to this day of Constantine's establishment of Christianity as a state religion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1046135 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
"Enjoyable and illuminating. . . . Clearly and plausibly argued . . . full of fascinating detail." -"The Boston Globe"
"Entertaining. . . . An excellent and readable account of the development of Christian doctrine." -"The New York Times Book Review"
"There is much here to admire. . . . It is a panoramic view that Freeman handles with grace, erudition and lucidity." -"The Washington Times"
"A triumph. . . . Engrossing. . . . Successfully realized. . . . Wholly admirable. . . . Freeman is to be congratulated on a broad-brush approach that throws the main issue into sharp focus. . . . [He] has added a new level of understanding." -"The Times Higher Education Supplement
""A fascinating account." -"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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"Engrossingly readable and very thoughtful. . . . Freeman draws our attention to myriad small but significant phenomena. . . . His fine book is both a searching look at the past and a salutary and cautionary reminder for us in our difficult present." -"The New York Sun
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"One of the best books to date on the development of Christianity. . . . Beautifully written and impressively annotated, this is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the roots of Christianity and its implications for our modern worldview. . . . Essential." -"Choice
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"Engaging. . . . Refreshing. . . . A memorable account. . . . The author is always interesting and well informed. Freeman's study moves with ease between political and intellectual history. . . . The cumulative effect is impressive." -"The Times Literary Supplement
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"A fine book for a popular audience that enjoys history, clear writing, and subject matter that reflects our owntime." -"Houston Chronicle
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"The narrative is clear and fluent, the nomenclature is studiously precise . . . and the theological conflicts of the fourth century are analyzed with . . . subtlety." -"History Today
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"Ambitious, groundbreaking. . . . In the tradition of . . . Karen Armstrong's A History of God . . . a scholarly history that is accessible, passionate and energetic." -"Hartford Advocate
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"Freeman has a talent for narrative history and for encapsulating the more arcane disputes of ancient historians and theologians. . . . He manages not only to make these disputes interesting, but also to show why they mattered so much. It is a coup that few books on the early church pull off." -"The Independent
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"Engaging and clearly written." -"The World and I
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"[A] lucid account of an intellectual and social transformation that continues to shape the way Christianity is experienced and understood." -"The Dallas Morning News
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"From the Trade Paperback edition."

From the Publisher
A radical and stimulating reappraisal of the impact of Constantine’s adoption of Christianity, on the later Roman world and on the subsequent development both of Christianity and of Western civilisation.

About the Author
Charles Freeman is the author of The Greek Achievement and Egypt, Greece, Rome.

Customer Reviews

A excellent exposure of Chististian early history
I really liked this book. Written from the perspective of a historian (rather than, say, a theologian), it traces the radical change in outlook of western culture between the fall of the Roman Empire and the replacement of much of its former authority by new church structures. Among the most interesting elements is his treatment of how the Emperors (both Roman and Byzantian) used the church for their own political ends, but were in turn used by the church - a relationship that approached symbiosis, but again not without its traumas and conflicts as well.

The author also does an excellent, and in my view very fair, appraisal of the early church philosophers and movements. He neither idolizes nor vilifies such early bastions of Christianity as Augustine, and even the crisis over the Arian heresies (to modern eyes both tragic and farcial) are treated carefully. Overall the book doesn't paint the prettiest of pictures of the early church, and certainly exposes how many of the dogmas that one would think (if you have a Catholic or Othodox background at least) have been eternal but in fact owe most of their existnace to 3rd or 4th century politics than they do any divine revelation.

Top marks from me, and a very fulfilling read for anyone interested in late classical or early medieval history, as well as *everyone* interested in Christian theology.

Revealing the myth of development of Christianity
This is a deeply interesting book that is detailed, well researched by very readable. It deals with the often deeply negative (and occaisionally positive) effect that Christianity had upon thought and ideas in the the late Roman Empire (hence the title) and much of Western thought to the present day, The author does this through examining what key figours had to say including Ambrose, Jerome (a serioudsly strange man in my view) and Augustin. Of particular interest is the often hidden/forgotten views of the late paganists and, so-called, heretics. Paganism took a lot longer to die out than early Christian historians would have us believe. Well worth reading for beleivers and non believers alike.

A Warning From The Past
In the current climate, Charles Freeman is to be greatly applauded for providing what is possibly one of the most shocking and thought-provoking books around today. At a time when a later rational, progressive and tolerant civilisation is again confronted by the self-righteous, ugly, irrational and vicious face of faith it is indeed cautionary to read this account of how the open enquiring Classical mind of Greece and Rome was converted into the closed, aggressive and crass certitudes of early Christianity. It begs perhaps the most despairing question that any society can ask: is history repeating itself?

For a society like ours that has passed through the infernal, infantile and bestial beatitudes of Christianity into the tolerant openness of modern secularism, this book is indeed a warning from the past. The warning is clear: science and secularism is the way forward; faith and religion is the way to Hell.

Perhaps the saddest thing in this book is the letters from late-imperial pagan senators and philosophers writing to various emperors pleading for tolerance, equal opportunity, fair dealing and a level playing field in the face of the Christian triumphal mind-vice. They made the serious error of imagining that their Christian opponents were as decent and progressive and tolerant and open-minded as they were. That was a bad and extinction-causing mistake. Let us not now make the same mistake again.