A gripping account of how the early Christians annihilated the art and teachings of the Classical world from a brilliant young historian.
Catherine Nixey studied Classics at Cambridge and now works as a journalist at the Economist. Her writing has previously appeared in the Times, and the Financial Times, among others. She lives in England, with her husband. Her first book, The Darkening Age, was published in 2017 and was an international bestseller, and won a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award.
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 *
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
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 *
Superb -- Richard Dawkins
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 *
A book for the 21st century ... Nixey has a great story to tell,
and she tells it exceptionally well. As one would expect from a
distinguished journalist, every page is full of well-turned phrases
that leap from the page ... finely crafted, invigorating ...
[The Darkening Age] succeeds brilliantly. -- Tim Whitmarsh *
Guardian *
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 *
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 *
Nixey has done an impressive job of illuminating an important
aspect of late-antique Christianity. -- Levi Roach * Literary
Review *
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
Pugnacious and energetically written * The Tablet *
Sizzling, scintillating -- Book of the Year * Spectator *
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