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Title: The Age of Faith: A History of Medieval Civilization-Christian, Islamic, and Judaic-From Constantine to Dante : A.D. 325-1300 (The Story of Civilization, 4) by Will Durant ISBN: 1-56731-015-X Publisher: MJF Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.98 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Highly Biased Perspective
Comment: Will Durant uses history as a vehicle for espousing his materialistic philosophy. He seems to have never met a skeptic, cynic, or doubter that he didn't like. In his view of Islam, Judaism, and Christanity, it appears to me his favorite is Islam. His least favorite is Christianity. He operates from the assumption that people created their own religions and borrowed what they liked or disliked based on such variables as the climate in which they lived. Pretty superficial reasoning I'd say.
His interpretive commentaries are largely mumbo jumbo. He rambles as if he is a wise man who knows truth because he is a materialist and all these ancient people were blinded because they believed in things beyond the physical realm. If one were to infer an underlying tone to his book, it could be, "if you're really intellectual like me, you're a cynic who doesn't believe in any of this religious stuff." That the framework from which his analyses are made.
With that established the book has some value. It provides detail of the various personalities and issues covered. Some key historical figures are described at length. Durant is a gifted storyteller, but as a reviewer I'm suspicious here. It seems he's more interested in entertaining than conveying facts at times. That's why I would seek a verifying source if I really had doubts about something controversial he says occurred.
Read and compare. This is another voice in the human chorus. Just keep in mind he's coming from his worldview, which he doesn't even attempt to hide. Take it for what it's worth, one man's spin on history.
Rating: 5
Summary: An intellectual tour-de-force!!
Comment: Durant is a brilliant macrohistorian. He gives a broad, but concise picture of various facets of historical development-economic, political, cultural, religious and scientific-in the course of the Age of Faith. This is a sweeping grand narrative of one thousand years of a burgeoning Christian and Islamic civilization. Many historians have a peculiar aversion to the middle ages, because it is perceived as an intellectually unenlightened era. These historians typically take a cue from Edward Gibbon and loathe the fall of Rome perpetually until they reach the Renaissance. Durant, however, demonstrates evenhandedness in chronicling the development of Western Civilization in the middle ages and its interaction with the Oriental civilizations of Byzantium and Islam. Durant shows the centuries of interactions between Popes and kings, nobles and peasant, and really gives the reader a feel for the cultural, economic and societal developments in Christendom. Durant tells of Justinian who strove to keep Rome intact and summarily failed. Instead of wailing over the remains of Pax Romana like some historians, Durant shifts to offering a perceptively detailed history of Byzantium and the rising 'barbarian' kingdoms of the Franks, Visigoths and Goths. He chronicles the growth of the Christian church with intriguing biographical sketches of church fathers such as St. Augustine, St. Benedict and St. Francis. His account of the Crusades is both remarkable and informative and too me it makes this book invaluable. The Venetian treachery against Constantinople is well detailed. Durant sketches the development of Britannia from its Celtic beginnings to the birth of England and the pivotal battle at Hastings in 1066, which forever shaped the realm and the course of history. His account of the Norsemen-Normans, Danes, Vikings and Icelanders-is remarkably interesting. Durant paves the way for the transition to Renaissance with his chapters dealing with Epistemology, Christian Science, the Christian theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas and the poet Dante. He shows that the medieval times were actually the bedrock for the Renaissance of classical culture. It was the pious monks of Christendom and the sages of Islam that preserved the classics of hollowed antiquity. It is my estimation that no serious student history can be without Durant's Story of Civilization series. Likewise, anyone interested in the middle ages should get a copy of the Age of Faith. If you're interested in the middle ages, I also recommend books by John Julius Norwich.
Rating: 5
Summary: Was it solely the age of faith?
Comment: History and its study has always been a daunting task, both in terms of the length of time it takes a reader to assimilate the knowledge of a particular period of history, and also the painstaking attention to detail that the historian must engage in. The gravitational pull on this book is appreciable, as is the case for most books on history, but for the person curious about the events of 300-1300, events that still have a major influence on the present, it is well worth the time needed for its perusual. The authors are sometimes cynical in their appraisal of these times, and one can detect a measure of hostility towards religion in their writing, but their style of writing is both interesting and at times very entertaining, and it certainly keeps the readers attention.
One can disagree of course in labeling a particular period in history as "The Dark Ages" solely on the basis of a personal belief that the ideas of that time do not meet certain criteria of "enlightment". The authors do label the period AD 566 - 1095 as the Dark Ages, but they do so not only from the standpoint of the intellectual climate of the time, but also from an economic one. That progress was not occurring during that time at a rate that it was capable of, is the message implicitly given by the authors.
The book takes on through a time period that saw the rise of figures whose ideas are held by most of today's populations. The rapid rise of Islam via the personage of Mohammed, the struggles of the Jewish people, and the rise of the Holy Roman Empire are brilliantly detailed by the authors. The Koran, the Talmud, and the Bible all coexisted, the beliefs expressed in these books had considerable overlap, and the tension between them has endured till now. One should not however conclude that this tension has always been a detriment to humankind. Most of the readers of these books, a considerable majority in fact, have never engaged in violence or deliberate conflict. The wars brought about by a small minority, who claim special status in their interpretation of the contents of these books, should not lead to a hasty conclusion that the rare perturbations that wars make to history are in fact all of history itself.
All peoples in the present time owe much to the efforts of those in the period discussed in the book. Modern science has its roots of course in ancient Greece, but it took Islamic scholars, with their efforts to translate the works of the Greeks, particularly Aristotle, to set the stage for science. The authors introduce us to Averroes, the 12 century "Stagrite" and scholar; to Muhammed ibn Musa of the 8th century, one of the great mathematicians of his time , giving us algebra, the latter term coined by the Arabs; to Abu Hanifa, a 9th century botanist/pharmacologist, and to many other Arabic/Islamic seekers and purveyors of wisdom. An entire chapter is devoted to the brilliant Christian scholar/philosopher/rationalist Abelard, who set the stage for the Scholastic philosophy of Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. The reader also is introduced to the Jewish scholar Maimonides, his philosophy and his "Glossary on Drugs". Clearly, the age of faith had its share of brilliance.
The age of faith should thus be seen as an age of discovery as well as prayer. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scholars were laying the foundations of knowledge as well as propagating their faith. This superposition of faith and reason continues in our day, and shows no sign of being abated. In this regard, this book is almost like a chronicle of our own time. We now have computers, genetic engineering, robotics, and space travel; but we also have churches, synagogues, tabernacles, temples, and mosques. The history of our own time, and that described in this book, could thus be viewed as a mere change of names and dates. The goals in both time periods are the same: the unrelenting quest for new knowledge and the reaching out for something intangible and beyond ourselves.
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Title: STORY OF CIVILIZATION, VOL V: THE RENAISSANCE by Will Durant ISBN: 0671616005 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 December, 1953 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Reformation (Story of Civilization) by Will Durant ISBN: 0671610503 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 June, 1957 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: The Age of Napoleon: A History of European Civilization from 1789 to 1815 (His the Story of Civilization ; Pt. 11) by Will Durant, William James Durant, Ariel Durant ISBN: 067121988X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 October, 1975 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization, 2) by Will Durant ISBN: 1567310133 Publisher: MJF Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.98 |
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Title: Age of Reason Begins (Story of Civilization) by Will Durant ISBN: 0671013203 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 December, 1961 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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