Pagans

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A provocative and contrarian religious history that charts the rise of Christianity from the point of view of traditional religion from the religious scholar and critically acclaimed author of Augustine.Pagans explores the rise of Christianity from a surprising and unique viewpoint that of the people who witnessed their ways of life destroyed by what seemed then a powerful religious cult These pagans were actually pious Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Gauls who observed the traditions of their ancestors To these devout polytheists, Christians who worshipped only one deity were immoral atheists who believed that a splash of water on the deathbed could erase a lifetime of sin.Religious scholar James J O Donnell takes us on a lively tour of the Ancient Roman world through the fourth century CE, when Romans of every nationality, social class, and religious preference found their world suddenly constrained by rulers who preferred a strange new god Some joined this new cult, while others denied its power, erroneously believing it was little than a passing fad.In Pagans, O Donnell brings to life various pagan rites and essential features of Roman religion and life, offers fresh portraits of iconic historical figures, including Constantine, Julian, and Augustine, and explores important themes Rome versus the east, civilization versus barbarism, plurality versus unity, rich versus poor, and tradition versus innovation in this startling account. Free Download Pagans [ by ] James J. O'Donnell [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr This is exactly the way popular non fiction ought to be, erudite, insightful, but not assuming background knowledge of the reader I learned valuable things, I enjoyed reading it, and it made me think about some things I thought...I had two major problems with this book First, I had trouble grasping the main argument I felt like I was getting parts here and there, but the overall greater picture eluded me I wasn t fully sure what was going on Second, maybe I shouldn t have read this in the first place, as I don t fully trust O Donnell Years ago I read his earlier work, The Ruin of the Roman Empire There, his main argument was that Justinian ruined the classical world and ushered in the Dark Ages It was a provocat I had two major problems with this book First, I had trouble grasping the main argument I felt like I was getting parts here and there, but the overall greater picture eluded me I wasn t fully sure what was going on Second, maybe I shouldn t have read this in the first place, as I don t fully trust O Donnell Years ago I read his earlier work, The Ruin of the Roman Empire There, his main argument was that Justinian ruined the classical world and ushered in the Dark Ages It was a provocative thesis, but theI ve read about that period since then, theI sensed that he pushed his argument too far for anyone s good Frankly, I felt that at the time, a...Ancient pagans and modern secularists have a few things in common with each other that they do not share with our strongly monotheistic brothers and sisters We are foxes We care about many things not just one big thing We live in a universe that is a mediocre mixed bag of good and evil without an overarching plan Monotheists are creatures of a Supreme being For modern secularists we are the playthings of natural force...Not easy to review as the author stretches out his main point covered at the very end of the book the Roman gods faded away within a generation after Constantine as they weren t needed any longer saint...I enjoyed reading this book and found it thought provoking, but I can t quite muster that final star It took a while to figure out where O Donnell was going I decided to read Pagans because of the book summary that talked about how this was a history of the rise of Christianity as told from the viewpoints of the non Christians whose religion s were destroyed by it That s not entirely off base, but having read the book, I d say O Donnell is arguing that paganism was created by Christianity I enjoyed reading this book and found it thought provoking, but I can t quite muster that final star It took a while to figure out where O Donnell was going I decided to read Pagans because of the book summary that talked about how this was a history of the rise of Christianity as told from the viewpoints of the non Christians whose religion s were destroyed by it That s not entirely off base, but having read the book, I d say O Donnell is arguing that paganism was created by Christianity as something it was differentiating itself from It s not an entirely new argument I ve heard it over the years from modern Pagan writers but I thought it would be interesting to hear it from what waslikely a modern Christian viewpoint.For me, the main fault of the book was a lack of focus As I said above, the publisher s description didn t match the book This happens, but the problem continued into the book itself I went through the first half of the book enjoying each...O Donnell has done a nice job of making a complex topic approachable by non specialists This works well when read together with The Final Pagan Generation by Edward J Watts, a somewhatdemanding work for the non specialist reader but one that provides useful background about some historical figures mentioned by O Donnell and brings up some interesting points not covered in this work The author s thesis is that paganism is a concept invented initially by the Christians to differentiate O Donnell has done a nice job of making a complex topic approachable by non specialists This works well when read together with The Final Pagan Generation by Edward J Watts, a somewhatdemanding work for the non specialist reader but one that provides useful background about some historical figures mentioned by O Donnell and brings up some interesting points not covered in this work The author s thesis is that paganism is a concept invented initially by the Christians to differentiate us from them, although the concept evolved into an important polemical tool as Christianity itself evolved as a state sponsored religion He sees the end of traditional religion as a gradual process not yet entirely completed e.g., the continued popularity of astrology He downplays the severity a...What an engaging writer His chatty voice is like a scholarly uncle, sipping a drink and telling you what the Roman Empire was REALLY like He covers the usual story of Roman gods, which he calls traditional religion rather than polytheist or pagan And then he tells you why this is all wrong He discusses Augustine, and what he did to invent traditional religion He covers the conventional pious story of Constantine and then tells you what he thinks the great emperor was really like But he d What an engaging writer His chatty voice is like a scholarly uncle, sipping a drink and telling you what the Roman Empire was REALLY like He covers the usual story of Roman gods, which he calls traditional religion rather than polytheist or pagan And then he tells you why this is all wrong He discusses Augustine, and what he did to invent traditional religion He covers the conventional pious story of Constantine and then tells you what he thinks the great emperor was really like But he doesn t get bogged down in questions of personal feeling or beliefs noting wisely that actions are the most important Our fixation on personal internal narrative was not shared at the time and shouldn t be imposed on these ancient public figures All in all, I m left with the feeling that traditional religion in Republic era Rome was similar to Shinto religion in Japan A loose collection of local nature spirits that didn t impose Belief or shun Skeptics, just invited everyone to partake in a...Did you know that the word PAGAN basically means peasant or mountain dweller That there really was no such thing as PAGAN as we know it until 5th century Christianity needed it to exist James O Donnell s Pagans is a fascinating look at how the pre Christian Romans lived and worshiped and h...This book was disappointing in the attitude of the author His research was good and his point well made, but he had such a condescending view to the ancients that it made the work distasteful He went out of the way to say that there gods did not exist and even questioned whether they really beli...Not going to finish this one Not a cohesive relating of history and full of snark.

Pagans
  • 09 December 2018
  • Kindle Edition
  • 400 pages
  • James J. O'Donnell
  • Pagans