Catherine Nixey (Set Of 2 Books) : The Darkening Age | Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God

1. The Darkening Age :-

A gripping account of how the early Christians viciously attacked the art and teachings of the Classical world from a brilliant young historian

In The Darkening Age, Catherine Nixey tells the little-known – and deeply shocking – story of how a militant religion deliberately tried to extinguish the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in unquestioning adherence to the ‘one true faith’.

The Roman Empire had been generous in embracing and absorbing new creeds. But with the coming of Christianity, everything changed. This new faith, despite preaching peace, was violent, ruthless and intolerant. And once it became the religion of empire, its zealous adherents set about the destruction of the old gods. Their altars were upturned, their temples demolished and their statues hacked to pieces. Books, including great works of philosophy and science, were consigned to the pyre. It was an annihilation.

A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, the Observer, and BBC History Magazine
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Nonfiction

2. Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God :-

‘In the beginning was the Word,’ says the Gospel of John, and this sentence – and the words of all four gospels – are central to the teachings of the Christian church. They have shaped Western art, literature and language, and the Western mind. Yet in the years after the death of Christ there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. Instead, there were many different Jesuses, among them the arrogant, aggressive Jesus who scorned his parents and killed and crippled those who opposed him, the Jesus who sold his twin into slavery and the Jesus who had someone crucified in his stead – then laughed. Moreover, in the early years of the first millennium there were many other saviours, many sons of gods who healed the sick and cured the lame. Among them were Asclepius, the son of Apollo, who made the blind see; gentle, long-haired Apollonius, who raised the dead and Zalmoxis, who promised his followers eternal life. But as Christianity spread across the Mediterranean, these other saviours were pronounced unacceptable – and in some cases heretical – and they faded from view. Now, in Heretic, Catherine Nixey tells their extraordinary story. It is a story of contingency, chance and plurality; it is a story about what might have been.