Finally!

Well, here it is, the beginning of a new month. I can finally say that I have finished reading a book! How pathetic is it that I used to be able to finish a book a week and now it takes me several months! A goal that I need to revisit is that of reading at least one book a month.

In my defense, The Closing of the Western Mind was a tough read. Charles Freeman packed a lot of information into 340 pages and I admit to taking the time to read the notes at the book for many of his citations. I would recommend the book if you are someone who is interested in the history of Christianity. I think that a lot of people accept things as always having been a certain way but it all had a start somewhere. I especially found the concept of the Trinity fascinating and the struggle early church leaders had in finding a role, if you can believe it, for Jesus in Christianity. Of course, there is a lot in here about philosophy and the Greek tradition. It is interesting to see how much of it was incorporated into this new religion!

To close my rather brief review, I'll just include what the author claims the central theme of his book is: "that the Greek intellectual tradition was suppressed rather than simply faded away. My own feeling is that this is an important moment in European cultural history which has for all too long been neglected. Whether the explanations put forward in this book for the suppression are accepted or not, the reasons for the extinction of serious mathematical and scientific thinking in Europe for a thousand years surely deserve more atention than they have received."