The Closing Of The Western Mind by Charles Freeman

The Closing Of The Western Mind by Charles Freeman

The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Christianity in 368 AD brought a transformation to Christianity and to western civilization, the effects of which we still feel today. Previously, the Roman empire had absorbed and sustained the Greek intellectual tradition which, in the astronomy of Ptolemy, the medicine of Galen and the philosophy of Plotinus, reached new heights. Constantine turned Rome from the relatively open, tolerant and pluralistic civilisation of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority. The century after Constantine's conversion saw the development of an alliance between church and state which stifled freedom of thought and the tradition of Greek rationalism which was intrinsic to it. 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 toldFreeman has a talent for narrative history and for encapsulating the more arcane disputes of ancient historians and theologians * Independent *
There is much here to admire... It is a panoramic view that Freeman handles with grace, erudition and lucidity * 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 *

Charles Freeman is the author of The Greek Achievement and Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilisations of the Ancient Mediterranean. He lives in Suffolk.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780712664981
ISBN 10	071266498X
Title	The Closing Of The Western Mind
Author	Charles Freeman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage
Year published	2003-05-01
Number of pages	512
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable