Rating: 8
October 31, 2007
Cahill adds another fine volume to his Hinges of History series. It’s a series devoted to the “gift-bringers”: people who have contributed to Western society. This book is the fifth, and he brings his characteristic interpretations of history which are pleasantly full of insights into human nature, though he sometimes seems a bit too over-adoring of the values of the West. His writing is, however, inspired and has a way of encouraging and lifting when historians are often quick to critique.
At times, the book seems less focused as others in the series: it was a book about the Middle Ages, but spends much of its time in the founding of Alexandria and setting up the Greco-Roman roots that will shape the Middle Ages. And “Middle Ages” is a bit of a sleight-of-hand: what Cahill really wants to promote is how the Catholic church and its best exemplars influenced feminism, art and science — as the subtitle suggests. He succeeds in doing that quite well. (For instance, he says that it was the rumination over the nature of communion elements — Is it Christ’s blood and body, or is it a symbol? — that encouraged science.
As an Irish Catholic, he’s well-balanced and makes a sweeping critique of the Catholic church in its present state, particularly over its pedophilia and subsequent handling of the perpetrators.
It’s been a great series, and I can’t wait for the next one.
You can view its Amazon detail page by clicking the image above.
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