dgrossman's Full Review: Jonathan Kirsch - God Against The Gods: The Histor...
If God Against the Gods teaches us anything, it is the need for tolerance in matters of religion. Kirsch does a tremendous job of identifying the root causes of the war between the early Christian movement and paganism, without engaging in Christian bashing or falling back on political rhetoric.
Kirsch outlines the earlier non-Christian attempt at monotheism that started in Egypt, and documents how this failed attempt impacted the later Judeo-Christian movement. Kirsch also reveals much of how the ancient pagans viewed the early Christians, accusing them of everything for engaging in orgies to sacrificing infants (accusations modern Christians now throw at modern neo-pagans). The irony of how we view those we perceive as different than us is not lost.
Kirsch spends a great deal of the book discussing the rise of Emperor Constantine, and shows how the victory of Christianity over polytheism had less to do with faith and more to do with political tricks. We see Constantine in all his scheming, underhanded, often homicidal glory, using every none Christian means possible to make Christianity the religion of the empire.
In these modern times of religious intolerance God Against the Gods is a valuable book, in that it reveals to us the true nature of religious fanaticism and the negative impacts it can have.
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