The Closing of the Western Mind

[gridlore]

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

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was an utterly fascinating book.

Freeman takes us through the history of Greek philosophy and intellectual curiosity, spending time explaining how the open debate of ideas helped advance the greater understanding of human nature and the beginnings of natural philosophy.

The second main section addresses the religious and intellectual state of the Levant in the century before Jesus, showing how various groups would eventually influence Christian thought. We then meet Jesus, analyzed in light of the times and religious feelings of the era. Then comes Paul, and his weird hangups that sadly defined many aspects of early Christianity.

The endless debates and heresies swirling around the nature of Christ occupy a good chunk of the book. The main theme is that the arguments were driven not by real intellectual debate but by personal attacks and rigging church councils. Augustine is introduced, and his journey from Neoplatonist to his view of a harsh personal God is explained as part of his own history as a bit of a momma's boy and his seeming fear of women and sex. Brilliant writer, but he really was the man responsible for the end of the honest debate in the West for several centuries, writing that only faith is needed to explain the universe.

The last chapter introduces Thomas Aquinas, who finally successfully justified Aristotelian rational examination of the world into the church, stretching Aristotle's teachings out to encompass Church doctrine. Aquinas, more than any other westerner, jump-started what would become the Renaissance and the later Enlightenment. The contributions of Arabic scholars in translating and preserving Greek writing are mentioned, and a brief allusion to the Islamic Golden Age is made when pointing out that Islamic scholars accepted rational debate as essential to faith while the Christian west was mired in church doctrine.

This was a great book, and I learned a lot from it. I am now inspired to learn more about Ambrose of Milan, for example. A good history should create a desire to learn more in the reader, and this succeeds brilliantly.




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