How Roman Emperors used Christianity to enhance their power

Review of The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman

The title of this book made me fear it was a New Atheist screed that would blame everything on Christianity. This is a disservice. After long hesitating to pick it up, I was delighted to find a detailed and profound inquiry into one of the most significant periods in western history, i.e. how Christianity triumphed over previous religions and what it meant at the moment that the Roman Empire was collapsing and the Dark Ages beginning. Far from offering glib condemnations, the book offers a fabulous snapshot of the times and analyses deep trends that are relevant to this day. It adds up to an essential perspective that every lover of history should consider, successfully combining philosophy, religion, and political science. As a reading experience, it is hard to do better.

There are 3 principal ideas in the text. First, the legacy of pre-Christian philosophy was a method of thinking that enabled man to question anything in a logical manner, including one’s core assumptions, and in some cases to submit them directly to evidence. This was a combination of Platonism, with its otherworldly and abstracted ideals, and an Aristotelianism that stopped just short of the modern scientific method. This early rationalism is, the author argues, one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of human thought.

Second, with its sacred and essentially unquestionable texts, Christianity flatly contradicted this classical tradition. Not only did the Bible contain notions that it was blasphemous or heretical to question, but it argued that faith – i.e. unproven belief – had to be called upon (and later enforced by authorities) to quell any doubts. At its base, Christianity was anti-rational and called for its adherents to bow to the authority of the elites who “knew” the truth (i.e. like Plato's philosopher kings). Of course, there was plenty of fertile ground for Christian philosophers to subsume portions of classical philosophy, in particular the neo-Platonic ideals, and they developed extremely elaborate ways to twist logic around their assumptions.

Third, and this was a very original argument, the political authorities in Rome recognized the utility of the new religion in their pursuit of absolute power, that is, Christianity provided a pliant ideology that could be wielded to reinforce their legitimacy. This was, the author posits, the principal motive behind Constantine’s embrace of Christianity at his crucial battle. Moreover, as the Roman Empire came under severe pressure from outside groups, the political use of Christianity became a necessity in the failing efforts to mobilize Roman citizens and then stave off catastrophic military collapse. According to this logic, it was political power for statist ideological purpose that institutionalized Christianity in what became Europe.

This review cannot do justice to the density of ideas and vivid writing contained in this book. I recommend it as essential reading for Roman history enthusiasts and anyone with an interest in religious history. It is not that I agree with everything, but the author makes such a compelling case that his book a joy to read.

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