A review by pcaron_de
Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh

4.0

This is an approachable book for non-academics which, while I enjoyed the style and readability of the text, do not think it quite lived up to its promise. It is clear that atheists clearly lived and sometimes thrived in the ancient world, "battling" seems far too active a word for the denial of theism and the gods. What was even clearer, was that as important as non-believers were in Greece and Rome, they were marginalised once Catholicism was adopted as the Roman state religion and for the first time, forced people to "believe" in one faith to the exclusion of all others. This, the author demonstrates, was truly revolutionary.

All in all, however, I enjoyed this book and can recommend it to all readers interested in atheism in ancient history.