Rating: 
Summary: A compelling history..
Review: Will Durant's fascination with Rome was no secret, and in this, the third installment of his "Story Of Civilization" series, he captivates the reader with not only the complete history of Rome, but also its crucial link to christianity.. Durant correctly points out the fact that christianity traveled along the roads that Rome built, and that she gave her maternal blood in the organization and perpetuation of the church. Indeed, his description of christianity as the "last great creation of the ancient pagan world" is one of the outstanding insights of history, and within this context Durant develops one of the most cogent of all his many perspectives on the interactions between the state and religion.Unlike some scholars, Durant is convinced as to the historicity, if not the divinity, of Jesus, which reflects the majority opinion of historians---that he was not the fictive product of overactive imaginations as to his having been a real human being. Additionally, he goes into detail about the apostles and how Paul's theology of grace would eventually triumph over the messages of both Peter and Christ. He thus concludes: "Protestantism was the triumph of Paul over Peter; Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ." Add to the above Durant's moving accounts of Rome's outstanding statesmen, generals, poets, writers and leading ladies, and you have one of the outstanding works of history written in a middle-brow fashion that makes it accessable to the general reader. Such is Durant's trademark, and it explains why his writings continue to sell in large numbers well beyond his and his wife's passing.
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