The Darkening Age

Let's start with the elephant in the room - I mean the claims of bias.

Surely, the book is focused on one side of the story but it is very upfront about it and lays its cards on the table from the very beginning. Indeed, we all heard the story of Christianity converting multitudes of people by mere appeal of love and compassion but nothing about force, threats, and fear of death.

We know about monasteries lovingly preserving gems of classical thought but struggle to explain, how it happened that only one percent of Latin literature has been preserved (despite the proliferation of libraries and collections and systematic copying of written word). And when it comes to works that debated or criticized Christianity (which at that time had been a standard philosophical practice for almost thousand years), hardly any have been preserved (we know about them mostly from references in other sources). We adore classical statues collected by generations of Popes in the Vatican Collection but forget that for each preserved statue hundreds of others were purposefully and systematically destroyed.

And this is exactly the side Mrs. Nixey's book is trying to unveil in a more accessible way. Despite numerous historic research available by now, the topic of contribution (sic) of Christianity to the destruction of Classical World has not been widely covered (albeit Edward Gibbon's monumental treatise is a notable exception).

The book is rife with references and direct quotes. Surely, most quotes of Christian authorities not just condone but directly incite and praise violence toward anything "pagan." Is it biased? Is it not true? At the end of the day even apologists of the "Christian" point of view (for the lack a better term) do grudgingly agree that those words have been uttered (even though every religion is well versed in usual trickery of ascribing different meaning and shrugging specific statements when they contradict the doctrine). Those words have been uttered and they were directed at those who listened and turned into action. Laws were made stripping people of numerous freedoms granted to them by the Classical era, temples and statues were destroyed, books were burned or written over, violence was used systematically.

Does this make this book a revelation? Hardly - the Church has always advocated the principle that the surgeon inflicts pain on a patient for the latter's good and so it is justified to use painful ways and violence toward saving one's soul. It has been done for centuries (The Holy Inquisition is just the most popular, albeit greatly exaggerated example), so it is not at all surprising that this modus operandi was at play between 3rd and 6th Centuries.

So, I don't really worry that the Church or Christianity at large is irreparably damaged by this book. But it does try to dispel the glossy pastoral picture of people of Classical World embracing Christianity and spontaneously converting (with all attributes, scientific progress, advanced thought, architecture and arts of the Classical Era peacefully vanishing due to lack of interest and neglect). Nothing can be further from the truth. And this book helps to establish a more varied and honest (even though it is a very uncomfortable) picture of the events.

BOTTOM LINE: highly recommended.