The closing of the western mind. The rise of faith and the fall o

When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in AD 312 he changed the course of European history in a way that continues to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects ofthe religion that suited his purposes, he truned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world towards a culture based on the rule of fixed authority - whether that of the Bible, the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy, and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine.Only a thousand years later, with the Renaissance and the emergence of modern science, was Europe to begin to free itself from the effects of Constantine´s decision. The Church, on the other hand, remains hierarchical and authoritarian, and the effects persist to this day of Constantine´s establishment of Christianity as a state religion.