The Age of Faith cover art

The Age of Faith

The Climax of Christianity 1095-1300, From the Crusades Through Dante

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Age of Faith

By: Will Durant PhD, Richard Smoley
Narrated by: Brian Conover
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

“I cannot imagine anyone so erudite that they cannot learn a great deal from this monumental work.” —from the foreword by Richard Smoley

The great series The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is one of the most monumental achievements in historical writing. In its eleven massive volumes, it tells the story of Western civilization from its origins to the age of Napoleon.

This volume, The Climax of Christianity, is taken from The Age of Faith, the fourth in the series. It covers the years between 1095—the launching of the First Crusade—and 1300: the age of Dante Alighieri, whose epic poem Divine Comedy is one of the greatest treasures of our civilization.

In between is a drama of world proportions: the struggle between Christendom and Islam over the Holy Land, leading first to warfare, then to interaction the conflicts between the peoples and the Holy roman Emperors over sacred versus secular power; the brutal suppression of heretics such as the Cathars and Waldensians and above all, the rise of the Catholic church to spiritual, intellectual, and moral dominance of the whole of Western Europe.

Durant’s history is not just a matter of kings and popes. He delves into the everyday lives of the people of those times, including their dress and entertainments, their morals and manners. He shows how the economic ascent of medieval Europe from the ruins of the Roman Empire created the Western society that we know today. He also describes the class struggles between nobles, merchants, burghers, and peasants.

Most impressive, perhaps, are Durant’s verbal portraits of great historical figures: the English archbishop Thomas à Becket, murdered in his own cathedral; Abelard, a subtle theologian undone by his love for his beautiful student Héloïse Richard the Lion-Heart, king of England, who preferred adventure to the throne and Dante, who turned the Catholic theology of the Middle Ages into some of the sublimest poetry ever written.

Anyone who wants an enjoyable, fast-paced, enlightening, and elegantly written history of the Middle Ages could do no better than to turn to this great book.©2024 Will Durant, PhD (P)2024 Maple Spring Publishing
Civilization Religious Studies Crusade Imperialism Western Europe Pope Royalty England Ancient History King
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Our Oriental Heritage cover art
The Story of Philosophy cover art
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire cover art
The Wages of Destruction cover art
The Iliad cover art
Human Action cover art
The Weimar Years cover art
The Leo Tolstoy Complete Collection cover art
Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market - Scholar's Edition cover art
The Odyssey cover art
The Fyodor Dostoyevsky Complete Collection cover art
The History of Rome: The Complete Works cover art
The Managerial Revolution cover art
Conceived in Liberty cover art
Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion cover art
The Italians before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean cover art

What listeners say about The Age of Faith

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.