The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World Hardcover – Abridged, 21 Sept. 2017

I’ve spent the last couple of years dabbling with the subject of the emergence and dominance of monotheism and the classical age. And I must say that this account was a welcome addition to this period. Beautiful written, well researched and accessible. It is an absolute MUST for anyone interested in the period. And you might find some startling and frightening comparisons to more contemporary subjects.And exciting author and I’m looking forward to reading her next book.

This is a very readable - albeit somewhat repetitive - book. It offers a case for seeing some figures in the early Church as closer to the Taliban than to the frequently-presented picture of the Church as the preserver of knowledge from the ancient world. It is striking how much has been lost - not least, the ideas of the critics of Christianity. Cancel culture is certainly not new. The author refers to a range of material to provide documentation for her case, although unless one has access to a highly specialized library, this would be difficult to follow up. It would be good if readers who are critical could provide references to reviews by specialists.

This was a book that was very hard to put down. So well written and a real page turner. As it is said "History is written by the winners" and obviously our history was written by the Early Christians. People talk about modern religious fanatics, but these Christians behaved in exactly the same way. I was brought up a good Christian, but over the years I read and thought and my attitude to religion has gradually changed and I am now an atheist. This would have happened much earlier in my life if I had been aware of what really happened way back when. I must thank the author for such a wonderful book and I would recommend It to everyone.

Palmyra, Syria. A horde of bearded, black-robed zealots comes out of the desert, armed, and fully equipped with the tools of destruction. An onslaught of violence terrorises the inhabitants, before a ‘purifying’ orgy of destruction and desecration is launched against the sacred buildings and images of an earlier civilisation. The newcomers are driven by a narrative of grievance and victimhood, some real, but largely imagined, and lured by a seductive vision of eternal bliss, in exchange for martyrdom. They hold their own lives, and those of others, as equally worthless.But this is not ISIS, in 2016. It is the Year of Our Lord 385, and the horde is composed of Christian monks (the word has changed its connotations somewhat since). It is half a century since Constantine, for reasons which remain obscure, declared the Roman Empire a Christian state, and 30 years before the events portrayed in Agora, which we watched at a BH meeting a year or so back, which led to the burning of the library of Alexandria along with most of its contents, and the murder and dismemberment of Hypatia, the last director of the school of philosophy in the city, at the hands of a Christian mob under the direction of Cyril, their bishop.Catherine Nixey graduated in Classics from Cambridge in 2004, taught Classics for a bit in schools, and then became a journalist at The Times. These are the career strands which produced this, her first book, on the ruthless suppression by the early Church of Greco-Roman religion (‘Paganism’), and the millennium-long philosophical tradition which they were incapable of distinguishing from it.In a well documented and referenced narrative, and in an engagingly vivid style, she describes the elements of this hijack: the obsession with sin and the demons that inspired it; the cult of asceticism which revelled in self-denial and self-imposed suffering, and the mindless cruelty towards others which is its corollary; the intolerance of any idea or image which runs counter to strict monotheistic orthodoxy, and the orgiastic and self-righteous destruction or desecration of any such image or text; the rejection of any form of physical pleasure, as a creation of the devil, designed to lure us from the path of virtue; the cult of martyrdom, with the double purpose of securing an exalted place in the hereafter for the martyr, and fuel for the sense of grievance on the part of the survivors (although before Constantine it is possible to identity only 13 years when active persecution of Christians occurred); and the deliberate and systematic cultivation of unreason and ignorance, worthy, dare I say, of certain elements in American society today.Nixey’s cover image is an arresting one. It portrays the smashed-off head of the cult statue of Athene from Palmyra, following the missionary visit recounted above. It was found in modern times among the scattered destruction debris of the ancient city. We are challenged to ask ourselves, which element of this sculpture, the Classical marble portrait, or the subsequent ‘embellishments’, speaks of a higher civilisation, a more exalted view of humanity? Where does the blasphemy lie? Who are the barbarians?IS, in many ways the inheritor of this early Christian tradition, is, mercifully, unlikely to emulate its success. The decisive difference, I suggest, is that the temporal powers have seen IS as a challenge, and, since territory is key to its identity, it has virtually ceased to exist. Christianity on the other hand must have been seen by the ambitious Constantine as an ally or an asset, and received the imperial seal of approval, which it retained thereafter, with one or two honourable exceptions such as Julian the Apostate. This complicity from the highest levels of state culminated in Justinian’s edict in 529 AD against any ‘Pagan’ practice or teaching whatever, which resulted in the final closure of the Academy in Athens.It is this kind of cultural holocaust – far from unique in history, paralleled for example by the 8th century Byzantine iconoclasm, the Spanish conquests in the Americas, or the English reformation – that in my view properly deserves the term ‘crime against humanity’: not because of crimes against individual people or communities, but because they constitute crimes against the whole nature of what it is to be human: to contribute to, and benefit from, the shared pool of knowledge, wisdom and beauty that is our heritage. Papyrus scrolls were consigned to the flames, parchment sheets were scrubbed clean and re-used for scriptural and devotional texts. It was only in this century that trick photography revealed an otherwise unknown mathematical treatise of Archimedes, under the text of a prayer book. Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura survived in a single manuscript, scheduled for re-use when it was recovered in the 15th century, while the rest of its antecedents, the works of Democritus and Epicurus, were deliberately suppressed and destroyed as heretical.Particularly unlikely to survive were works attacking or debunking Christianity. Celsus is now little more than a name and a few quotations; but ironically, Porphyry so provoked the Christian writer Origen that about 70% of his text is quoted in Origen’s ‘refutation’.As a result, perhaps 95% of Classical literature has been lost forever, and much of what was saved has come down to us only through Arabic translations and copies. Europe was plunged into a millennium of theological darkness, still dominant at the time of Galileo. Occasionally, glimpses emerge of previously unimagined accomplishments of antiquity – if you haven’t come across the Antikythera Mechanism, follow this link. And in a library in Herculaneum, carbonised in the eruption in 79 AD, there seems to be a whole collection of Epicurus, awaiting a technology capable of reading the scrolls without unrolling them and reducing them to burnt dust.Nixey’s is not the only book on this theme, and not the most academic. Charles Freeman’s The Closing of the Western Mind (2002) is still available. And Edward Gibbon is pretty scathing, too. But this is certainly the most readable. I shall be looking out for future work.

That the early Christians gained traction, because the threat of radical change to society, went unnoticed until it was too late to prevent, was a surprise. Both Roman and Greek societies appeared to show a very liberal approach to dealing with Christians. Once the statues began to be pulled down, the traditional temples vandalised and historical documents either destroyed, defaced or rewritten, it was too late. Then, their numbers having increased sufficiently, Christians had the power to dictate laws, punish unbelievers and permanently alter history. A disturbing, very enlightening read!

This is a study of the effect of Christianity on classical Greek and Rome. The text amounts to only 245 pages the remaining 100 pages or so are taken with notes etc. The book uses the surviving classical literature along with Gibbon as its basis. Augustine, Jerome are the villains of the piece.In doing so it becomes slightly repetitive.The author looks at the devastating effect of Christianity on the learning and achievements of the Ancient World and the destruction that came with it. This turns the usual “ Christian “ history on its head and blames this fanaticism as contributing to the dark ages.The book concentrates on the World of the Eastern Mediterranean and contemplation of what has been lost in learning and the arts is horrifying.Nonetheless the book would have been helped by taking a slightly wider historical perspective taking in the pressures on Rome from the North and the view from the West. Civilisation was having a tough time and takes a battering from the Christian zealots. The book ends in around 530 and one can see that a century or so later this world was ready to accept Islam which did incidentally value learning more than the Christians seemed to.To sum up, an interesting book worth reading but with some limitations.

Splendid job by a courageous scholar. Deeply nuanced analysis of how intolerance and violence are the cornerstones of our Culture. Nixey alerts the West about such a heritage.

This book brought me to tears as a Pagan. It’s important that we study history so that we can learn from it, which is exactly what the author says at the beginning.I love that she is a Christian who not only took the time to study religious history, but write an amazing book about it.I found this book to be incredibly informative, easy to follow, and very well written!I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the dark history of how Christianity came to be the most popular religion in the world.

Very bitter truth about totalitarian religion and terror. Very good book.

This book has to be a history text book for everyone, particularly so for Indians. We are so used to seeing a Judeo-Christian view of the world and are just about figuring out de-colonisation - this book is an eye opener. The author has written the book ever so gently - at the same time, doesnt eschew facts. The book tells Christianity as it is - and as seen by the Romans - the original, polytheistic, art loving, scientific, inquisitive, philosophical, cultured (does it remind you of another civilization?). And that part is incredible. And more importantly how Christianity repaid their tolerance is a lesson to be remembered - that Roman belief system was systematically demolished and barbarically extinguished. This saga has been repeated in many countries - so nothing new there. Christianity has done a phenomenal job whitewashing the multitude of its crimes - including in India where only a few are even aware of the Goan inquisition. So, for all those oft repeated platitude of love - it is incredible to how what this love is all about. Do yourself and your future generations a favour and read this book. Appreciate the author for the gentle, persuasive writing style.

Vale la pena cada página del libro.Es una muy buena reseña sobre cómo la humanidad cayó en un abismo de vacío intelectual para iniciar una era conocida cómo la "Edad Media" ("edad oscura") en la que el cristianismo tuvo un papel protagónico.Muy recomendable.