The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World - Softcover

9781509816071: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
In The Darkening Age, Catherine Nixey tells the little-known - and deeply shocking - story of how a militant religion deliberately tried to extinguish the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in unquestioning adherence to the 'one true faith'.The Roman Empire had been generous in embracing and absorbing new creeds. But with the coming of Christianity, everything changed. This new faith, despite preaching peace, was violent, ruthless and intolerant. And once it became the religion of empire, its zealous adherents set about the destruction of the old gods. Their altars were upturned, their temples demolished and their statues hacked to pieces. Books, including great works of philosophy and science, were consigned to the pyre. It was an annihilation.A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, the Observer, and BBC History MagazineA New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceWinner of the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Nonfiction

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
Catherine Nixey studied Classics at Cambridge and subsequently worked as a Classics teacher for several years, before becoming a journalist on the arts desk at The Times, where she still works. She lives in London with her husband.
Review:
Today's book tip. The Darkening Age by Catherine Nixey. Early Christian Church exactly like Isis. 1984-style thought-police to destroy rival religions. Approved by saints such as Augustine. Priceless art destroyed. Book-burnings. Torture. Beheadings. Religion Poisons Everything -- Richard Dawkins A searingly passionate book . . . Nixey writes up a storm. Each sentence is rich, textured, evocative, felt . . . Nixey delivers this ballista-bolt of a book with her eyes wide open and in an attempt to bring light as well as heat to the sad story of intellectual monoculture and religious intolerance -- Bettany Hughes * New York Times * Sizzling, scintillating -- Book of the Year * Spectator * Pugnacious and energetically written * The Tablet * With passion, wit and thunderous eloquence, Nixey throws everything she has against the bishops, monks and Christian emperors of late antiquity ... `The Darkening Agerattles along at a tremendous pace, and Nixey brilliantly evokes all that was lost with the waning of the classical world. * Sunday Times * As Catherine Nixey points out in her vivid and important new book, the idea of the widespread persecution of Christians is a product of the Church's marketing and recruitment techniques... Nixey is a funny, lively, readable guide through this dark world of religious oppression. She wisely insists at the start of her book that this account of cultural violence should not be read as an attack on those who are "impelled by their Christian faith to do many, many good things". It is instead a reminder that "monotheism" (or, one could say, religion in general and Christianity in particular) can be used for "terrible ends". -- Emily Wilson * New Statesman * This book uncovers what was lost when Christianity won.... a delightful book about destruction and despair. Nixey combines the authority of a serious academic with the expressive style of a good journalist. She's not afraid to throw in the odd joke amid sombre tales of desecration. With considerable courage, she challenges the wisdom of history and manages to prevail. Comfortable assumptions about Christian progress come tumbling down. * The Times * Nixey has done an impressive job of illuminating an important aspect of late-antique Christianity. -- Levi Roach * Literary Review * Clever, compelling ... Readers raised in the milky Anglican tradition will be surprised to learn of the savagery of the early saints and their sledgehammer-swinging followers ... exceptionally well written. -- Thomas W. Hodgkinson * Spectator * Catherine Nixey has written a bold, dazzling and provocative book that challenges ideas about early Christianity and both how - and why - it spread so far and fast in its early days. Nixey is a witty and iconoclastic guide to a world that will be unfamiliar, surprising and troubling to many. -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Road Engaging and erudite, Catherine Nixey's book offers both a compelling argument and a wonderful eye for vivid detail. It shines a searching spotlight on to some of the murkiest aspects of the early medieval mindset. A triumph. -- Edith Hall, author of The Ancient Greeks: Ten Ways They Shaped the Modern World Nixey's elegant and ferocious text paints a dark but riveting picture of life at the time of the 'triumph' of Christianity, reminding us not just of the realities of our own past, but also of the sad echoes of that past in our present. -- Dr Michael Scott Captivating and compulsive, Catherine Nixey's debut challenges our whole understanding of Christianity's earliest years and the medieval society that followed. A remarkable fusion of captivating narrative and acute scholarly judgment, this book marks the debut of a formidable classicist and historian. -- Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets A devastating book, written in vivid, yet playful prose. Catherine Nixey reveals a level of intolerance and anti-intellectualism which which echoes today's headlines but is centuries old. -- Anita Anand

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780544800885: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780544800885
Publisher: Mariner Books, 2018
Hardcover

  • 9781509812325: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

    Macmillan, 2017
    Hardcover

  • 9781328589286: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

    HarperOne, 2019
    Softcover

  • 9781509816064: The Darkening Age

    Pan Books
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Soft Cover Quantity: 1
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.28
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Blackwell's
(Oxford, OX, United Kingdom)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.28
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.68
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Pan Macmillan, London (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Grand Eagle Retail
(Wilmington, DE, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The Darkening Age is the largely unknown story of how a militant religion comprehensively and deliberately extinguished the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in centuries of unquestioning adherence to 'one true faith'.Despite the long-held notion that the early Christians were meek and mild, going to their martyr's deaths singing hymns of love and praise, the truth, as Catherine Nixey reveals, is very different. Far from being meek and mild, they were violent, ruthless and fundamentally intolerant. Unlike the polytheistic world, in which the addition of one new religion made no fundamental difference to the old ones, this new ideology stated not only that it was the way, the truth and the light but that, by extension, every single other way was wrong and had to be destroyed. From the 1st century to the 6th, those who didn't fall into step with its beliefs were pursued in every possible way: social, legal, financial and physical. Their altars were upturned and their temples demolished, their statues hacked to pieces and their priests killed. It was an annihilation.Authoritative, vividly written and utterly compelling, this is a remarkable debut from a brilliant young historian. A gripping account of how the early Christians annihilated the art and teachings of the Classical world from a brilliant young historian. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 20.11
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Nixey Catherine
Published by Macmillan New Writing (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Revaluation Books
(Exeter, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 352 pages. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1509816070

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.65
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 12.62
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by MacMillan (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Softcover Quantity: 3
Seller:
Majestic Books
(Hounslow, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 370279814

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.75
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 8.20
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Pan Macmillan (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Paperback / softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
THE SAINT BOOKSTORE
(Southport, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. A gripping account of how the early Christians viciously attacked the art and teachings of the Classical world from a brilliant young historian. Seller Inventory # B9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.36
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.29
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DADAX1509816070

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Pan Macmillan (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:

Book Description Condition: New. 2018. Paperback. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 16.22
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 11.35
From Ireland to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Pan Macmillan (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
Kennys Bookstore
(Olney, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. 2018. Paperback. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781509816071

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 18.46
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 10.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Catherine Nixey
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018)
ISBN 10: 1509816070 ISBN 13: 9781509816071
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_1509816070

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 26.68
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book