the story of civilization by will durant

They were nevertheless so convinced of the rightness of their beliefs that they were willing to put to death anyone who disagreed with them. It didn’t matter that they also confessed themselves to be poor, ignorant sinners whose weaknesses caused them to frequently fall short of their goals. The age of the Reformation, by contrast, was an age of certainty, of men proclaiming that they possessed absolute truth and were uniquely qualified to understand and speak for god. In the ancient world there was a shared understanding of justice, decency, and the search for truth, and an agreement that there were many different paths to the same goal: just think of all various religions and schools of philosophy that coexisted in the Roman empire. This is Volume 6 of the series, and with this one, more than with any of the others, I had difficulty trying to understand and sympathize with these people. Will Durant’s Story of Civilization is more than just history, and his greatest strength is his ability to help the reader understand what it was like to live in another time, showing the social, religious, artistic, economic, and intellectual traditions that informed and directed people’s actions. This is the sixth volume of the classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning series. The Reformation (The Story of Civilization #6), Will DurantĪ history of European civilization from Wycliffe to Calvin: 1300-1564.

The story of civilization by will durant