Gibbon and the Rise of Christianity and Islam
This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “The Rise of Christianity and Islam in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall.”
The Rise of Christianity and Islam in Gibbon’s Decline and Fall
Topic
In Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he discusses the relationship between Islam and Christianity and between religion and liberty in the nascent Muslim and Christian worlds.
Guide to the Readings
Editions used:
See also in the Online Library of Liberty:
For additional reading see:
Session I: The Growth of Christianity
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Session II: The Conversion of Constantine
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Session III: The Destruction of Paganism and the Conversion of Clovis
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Session IV: Mahomet and the Origins of Islam
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Session V: Mahomet as Preacher and Warrior of Islam
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Session VI: The Crusades: Christianity and Islam in Conflict
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Reading Lists
- Addison and Smith: Freedom and Responsibility
- American Liberty in Political Documents before 1787
- An Introduction to the Major Writings of Ludwig von Mises
- Banned Books
- British and French Sources of American Constitutionalism
- Burlamaqui, Bayle: Freedom Tolerance, Natural Law
- Cato’s Letters: Liberty and Responsibility
- Cobden: Liberty and Peace
- Constant’s Principles of Politics
- Emerson on Anti-slavery
- Eric Mack, An Introduction to the Political Thought of John Locke
- Gibbon and the Rise of Christianity and Islam
- Homer’s Iliad: Liberty and Responsibility
- Hume, Smith, and Ferguson: Wealth, Commerce, and Corruption
- Hume: History of England
- James Tyrrell on Authority and Liberty
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate
- John Milton: Liberty in his Prose and Poetry
- Major Political Thinkers: Plato to Mill
- Mandeville: Vice, Virtue and Liberty
- Mill-Macaulay Debate on Government
- Old Testament and English Political Thought
- Political Sermons of the Founding Era
- Readings from the OLL Reader
- Rousseau and Hume: Contrasting Views of Liberty
- Shakespeare and Marlowe: Liberty in Four Plays
- Shakespeare: Liberty and Responsibility
- Socialist Tracts
- Sophocles and Aeschylus: Blood Justice and the Founding of Legal Order
- Tacitus: Liberty and Tyranny in the Annals
- The Ruling Class and the State: An Anthology
- Thomas Paine and American Liberty
- Thucydides: War, Empire, and Liberty