He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from religion to dinosaurs. Certainly those readers who are already predisposed against Christianity will and indeed have been particularly critical on this score. Terrific: bold, ambitious and passionate -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads Tom Holland is fun to read, monstrously erudite, wickedly joyful, and ahead of the established consensus, on average, by four years, three months, and two days -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Incerto (The Black Swan, Antifragile. Holland claims that the multiple injustices suffered by marginalised individuals in recent years has created an awakening which has its origins in Christianity. Like dust particles so fine as to be invisible…they were breathed in equally by everyone: believers, atheists, and those who never paused so much as to think about religion.

Similarly, there will be others who are already very well versed in the arguments concerning the influence of Christianity that may also find this book lightweight in terms of how Tom Holland defends his thesis. His bestselling books include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire, which won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom; In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World; Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. It does weaken in later chapters, although discussion concerning the influence of Nietzsche and Darwin upon the Nazis and other aspects of modern history is well done and does highlight differences with Christian philosophy. Yet what distinguishes the Judeo-Christian idea of love from the romantic, erotic, touchy-feely sense it has acquired in modern times is that it has nothing to do with feeling. Holland contends that Western morality, values and social norms ultimately are products of Christianity, [1] [3] [4] stating "in a West that is often doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain — for good and ill — thoroughly Christian".This drew on a principle as old as Christianity itself: that the rich had a duty to give to the poor.

Indeed, it could have been expanded to explain how Holland feels about the way he thinks as a non-Christian and how he reconciles that with the work of Nietzsche that he himself has commented on.Yet this may actually be the book for you; the modern secular world many have unshackled itself from Christendom. fascinating detail and the narrative is held together with a novelist's eye for character and theme -- Tim Stanley * History Today * A brilliant meditation on how Christianity in its Latin and Protestant forms entirely changed the way humans conceive life and their relationship to each other -- Helen Thompson * New Statesman * An absorbing survey of Christianity's subversive origins and enduring influence is filled with vivid portraits, gruesome deaths and moral debates . Written with terrific learning, enthusiasm and good humour, Holland's book is not just supremely provocative, but often very funny * Sunday Times * A bravura swing through centuries of Western European history .