World Lit Only By Fire

Did you know that, according to the Catholic Church, sex is evil? Or that Jesus and his apostles never mentioned the word saint?! Or that the Gospels contradict each other?!? Or that no other religion has had as bloody a history as early Christianity; case in point: Charlemagne beheading 4,500 pagans in one morning for the crime of failing to convert?!?!

(Really: no other religion? Can’t think of any? Really?)

Such are the contentions of William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance. I picked it up at the library in audio CD form (thank God I didn’t spend any money on it) to listen in the car to and from work as a relief to the constant barrage of negativity of talk radio. I listened to only the first CD. I won’t listen to any others as I’m going to return it for something more worthy of my time.

Basically, Manchester’s thesis on the Medieval world can be summed up as:

Christianity – kinda, sorta, almost good, I guess, despite all its myriad inconsistencies and hypocrisies;

Paganism – much, much better!

No thanks.

If you still need further convincing, go to amazon.com and type in the title. Then look at all the one-star reviews. I am in 100% agreement with them all after listening to 40 minutes of this amateur garbage. One howler I saw there but did not have the fortune to hear firsthand was –

Did you know that the Church burned Copernicus at the stake?!?!?