The Dark Ages: Christianity's Destruction of the Classical World. Catherine Nixey

The Dark Ages is a little-known story of how a militant religion deliberately attacked and suppressed the teachings of the classical world, ushering in a century of unquestioning adherence to the “one true faith.” Despite our perceptions of the early Christians as gentle and meek, humbly going to their martyrdoms while singing hymns of love and praise, the truth was far from the truth. They were brutal, ruthless, and fundamentally intolerant. Unlike the polytheistic world, where the emergence of yet another religion did not contradict the existence of the old ones, the new ideology claimed that Christianity was the only true way, truth, and light, and that all other faiths were false and must be destroyed. From the first to the sixth centuries, those who did not conform to Christianity’s beliefs were persecuted by every means possible: social, legal, financial, and physical. Old altars were overturned, temples were destroyed, statues were hacked to pieces, and priests were killed. All this and more is told by Catherine Nixey in her first book, which became a global bestseller.