Customer Reviews

The Fire and the Stones: A Grand Unified Theory of World History and Religion (The Vision of God As Fire in the Rise and Fall of the World's 25 Civi)

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Nicholas Hagger is a wonderful historian. But he is no philosopher. And here the historian is overwhelmed by his ineffectual attempt to be what he is not. The result is a tragic waste of time and talent.

This books claims to be nothing less than "a grand unified theory of world history and religion". The claim betrays an egotism that is the primary desideratum for the sad failure of the book.

Hagger begins his lofty, and failed, exercise with his own rather unique interpretation of the relationship between metaphysics and religion. It is noteworthy that Hagger, whom we greatly admire as a historian, seems to have lept into this analysis with little meaningful training in the fields of philosophy or religion. And because of this lack of foundation, his mission was failed even before it began.

The grand theory here described essentially holds that there have been something on the order of twenty-five civilizations throughout human history, all of which were characterized by their conception of God. Hagger then absurdly links groupings such as the civilization of Holy Russia with that of the Soviet Union, and the previously unified Christian Europe with both the newly secularized emerging European super state, and the emerging North American Empire. To equate Orthodoxy with communism is as silly as equating traditional Catholicsim with today's secular Western culture. This is what happens when skilled expositors venture outside of their field of expertise, with daring, but sadly without prudence.

We have greatly enjoyed Hagger's other works, "The Secret History of the West", "The Syndicate", and his excellent work on the freemasonic origins of the United States. And we dearly hope that he will return to such imporant work, leaving philosophical exposition to those well trained to do it.