Description

A monumental and exhilarating history of European thought from the end of Antiquity to the beginning of the Enlightenment500 to 1700 ADtracing the arc of intellectual history as it evolved setting the stage for the modern era

Charles Freeman lauded historical scholar and author of The Closing of the Western Mind A triumphThe Times London explores the rebirth of Western thought in the centuries that followed the demise of the classical era As the dominance of Christian teachings gradually subsided over time a new openmindedness made way for the ideas of morality and theology and fueled and formed the backbone of the Western mind of the late Middle Ages the Renaissance and beyond

In this wideranging history Freeman follows the immense intellectual development that culminated in the Enlightenment from political ideology to philosophy and theology as well as the fine arts and literature He writes in vivid detail of how Europeans progressed from the Christianminded thinking of Saint Augustine to the more openminded later scholars such as Michel de Montaigne leading to a broader more humanist way of thinking

He explores how the discovery of America fundamentally altered European conceptions of humanity religion and science how the rise of Protestantism and the Reformation profoundly influenced the tenor of politics and legal systems with enormous repercussions and how the radical Christianity of philosophers such as Spinoza affected a rethinking of the concept of religious tolerance that has influenced the modern era ever since