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A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, And The Dawn Of The Monotheistic State (2010)

by Charles Freeman(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1590205219 (ISBN13: 9781590205211)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Overlook

review 1: Freeman analyzes the history of the Nicene Creed and its effects on the History of Christianity, the Church, and all of Europe, and I might add, American thought. He places the year 381 as a gateway in Western civilization, as Theodosius, Roman Emperor , litigated the acceptance of the Nicene Creed and the Trinity as the orthodoxy of the Church. He then argues that this act, instituted by the State, became lost in the history of the Church. Creed and the Trinity became the absolute truth of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches. This is a thoughtful, well documented account that discusses the influences of many theologians, such as Augustine and Abelard as well as Plato and Aristotle. Freeman shows how the absolute enforcement of the Nicene Creed resulted in the los... mores of intellectualism, the persecution of those with different ideas, and the drowning of any opposition to the accepted orthodoxy. He does not use the old term, The Dark Ages, but he clearly shows why the centuries after the "fall" of the Roman Empire were so called. Well worth reading
review 2: In AD 381, Byzantine emperor Theodosius the Great issued the edict making the Catholic/Orthodox Church the ONLY church. It was a blank check for hordes of monks throughout the known world to ransack and pillage every pagan temple. Also, many different Christian churches, like the Free Love Christianity of the day, were transformed into heresies and destroyed. You think politics today is dirty, the Empire/Church politics of the 300s is filthy.It's a little dry in spots. I'd like to try some of Freeman's other books. less

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