How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) | Thomas Cahill

How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) | Thomas Cahill | Another Point-of-View

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How the Irish Save...

	How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) Thomas Cahill Anchor, 1996 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 262 reviews view larger image
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Enjoyable reading

I enjoyed this book and am somewhat surprised by the nasty reviews. I wasn't looking for a historical textbook or I would surely have looked elsewhere. As an introduction to the role Ireland played in history, I found it a scratching of the surface that made me want to go out and learn more. And I loved Cahill's rather lighthearted amusing writing style. I'm intrigued enough to want to read more in the hinges of history series and I find myself wanting to study Irish poetry from the middle ages.

An enjoyable read!

Another Point-of-View

This fascinating, sometimes poetic book, looks at how civilization survived in a backwater of Irish Europe during the Middle Ages while the rest of the continent was exploring its bigotry and superstitions at the cost of any rational thought. If you're Irish with an interest in your own heritage, this book can only make you proud. It's also a good introduction to the authors other books that explore other historical developments that changed us all.

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very enjoyable, very useful

There are so many wonderful things in this book. Cahill does a terrific job of giving us the flavor of the Tain in one brief chapter, and he sketches the classical world and contrasts Roman Christianity with Celtic Christianity in a way I (not well-read on either of these topics) found very useful. I also loved the portraits of the Irish monks, in love with books and hard at work in their scriptoria.

No, the book didn't convince me the Irish saved civilization, and I admit I found the gap between title and content to be a little jarring. But there were so many great and useful things here that I can't say I mind very much.

This book is not a history text, but it's definitely worth your time. (In my case, 5 hours.)

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Fantastic portrait of the Celtic Church -- but who did they save civilization from?

Cahill's tribute to early Celtic Christianity is powerful and heart-felt. I've never seen a finer account of St. Patrick's life and times. And then Cahill captures an era of powerful authenticity for the young Celtic church. As he respectfully reports, the Irish were sending both female and male apostles to mainland Europe. A recently discovered sarcophagus in Amay, Belgium is decorated in the old Celtic style, and bears the image of a woman holding a bishop's crosier. The image is labeled "Saint Chrodoara". And a medieval Irish text called the Martyrology of Tallaght names 119 female saints, though of these, the life stories of only four (Brigid, Monenna, Ite, and Samtham) are now known.

Of course this outburst of spirit was quelled for the sake of conformity with a church of imperial Rome. And Irish Catholicism settled into a quieter era, featuring a genial tolerance for pagan tradition, and devotion to book learning. Cahill makes a strong case that the Irish text copyists and scholars saved our heritage of classical thought from the ravages of a barbaric age. But I want to ask Cahill -- was it the so-called barbarian invaders of Europe who tried to destroy the classical heritage? Or was it more the imperial church itself, with its drive to suppress older pagan traditions of religion, philosophy and art? Does Cahill blame the nomadic migrants for what the church itself did? Who was it really, that the Irish Celtic Church saved civilization from?

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

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