Who can refute a sneer? asked William Paley of Edward Gibbon’s bitingly
satirical account of the emergence of Christianity in the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire (1776–1789). The plausibility of Paley’s
characterisation indicates that maybe, Dr Hugh Liebert suggests, Gibbon’s
acumen as a historian of religion has been ignored. An ironic philosophical
historian he certainly was but Gibbon was also an astute psychologist of
religion able to empathetically understand, even admire, early
Christianity’s appeal and power. Gibbon’s insights into religion derived,
moreover, from his own complicated personal engagement with religion as
much as his erudition as a historian.
Dr. Hugh Liebert is an Associate Professor of American Politics in the
Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy in West
Point, New York.
Gibbon’s Christianity - Religion, Reason, and the Fall of Rome | New Work In Intellectual History podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
