Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity: Studies in Text Transmission. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2017; pp. ix + 360.

Abstract

<p>It has become de rigueur to blame Christianity for all manner of discord and to accuse Christians of intolerance including the destruction of the classical world. Monotheism is by definition exclusive, the Christian Prince of Peace asserted he had come to bring a sword, and elements of the Christian religion from the beginning were against culture. It has been argued that only a very small fraction of ancient literature has survived, perhaps less than one percent, while pointing fingers at Christians in the Late Antique period as the usual suspects. It is one thing to state but quite another to demonstrate. With a commanding knowledge of the sources, Dirk Rohmann undertakes a forensic investigation of the relationship between Christianity and book-burning specifically and censorship more generally.</p>