Finished reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚

I finished this fourth installment of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization after three months of slow, careful reading. The Age of Faith begins with the fall of Rome and carries through the end of the Middle Ages. The writing is clear, colorful, engaging, often horrifying, and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious. Along the way, I encountered kings and popes, treachery and atrocities, saints and philosophers, economic systems, the building of cathedrals and castles, and primers on the great works of literature and philosophy across a thousand years of recorded time.

I’ve come to cherish these nighttime hours I spend with Professor Durant. I am pacing myself to read just twenty or thirty pages per night. I keep an iPad nearby for searches on historical figures or glimpses of the landmarks and architecture he paints with his words. A favorite moment during the book was playing an album of Ambrosian Chants (Apple Music Link) that, according to Durant, mesmerized the faithful within the already awe-inspiring gothic cathedrals of the 13th century. Between Durant’s descriptions and the music, I felt utterly transported.

There have been more than a few times when my jaw dropped open in sheer disbelief at what I’ve read; shocked not only by the crazy shit that took place during these dark times of our history, but that it took so many years for me to learn all of this. To quote Durant: “Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance.” I am getting quite the education.

I’m moving on to the next volume on the Italian Renaissance as part of a slow but steady read through all eleven volumes of this incredible body of work. What a journey this has become.