"Most scholars would have been content to let a book as fine as the first edition of The Rise of Western Christendom rest on its laurels. Not so Peter Brown. He has taken note of the recent outburst of scholarship in this field, and has produced a yet richer work, which, with its extended notes and bibliography, will prove to be a mine for scholars and students for years to come." Ian Wood, University of Leeds"This outstanding revision of The Rise of Western Christendom will make this the book for the next generation and will stimulate countless revisions of long-accepted interpretations of the period 400-1000." Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame"[The first edition] was a historical masterpiece before. But the author's mind has moved on: The second edition contains further development, has filled out a great deal of detail, revised much in the light of more recent work, and, especially, has made it very much more useful for serious students by providing references and notes." Robert Markus, University of Nottingham"A new book by Peter Brown always makes my heart beat faster...The addition of a dazzling range of new scholarly material makes the book a far more thorough treatment...My students will be reading it." James O'Donnell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"In the second edition of his The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, AD 200-1000, Brown sets shimmering fragments of historical insight into a mosaic that is all the more splendid for its well-judged architecture, resulting in what may come to stand as the most satisfying contribution of an unusually distinguished career. With time, The Rise of Western Christendom may emerge as a milestone in the search for an account of the fall of Rome that genuinely breaks free of Gibbon's spell." Kate Cooper, Times Literary Supplement."With its dexterous and confident handling of an array of subjects and disciplines, and its exhaustive and detailed endnotes and bibliography, this book has encapsulated and synthesized a burgeoning field of scholarship at the point of perhaps its greatest creativity and imagination" The Atlantic Monthly"The Rise of Western Christendom is a work of uncommon originality, prodigious learning, and literary grace." Robert Louis Wilken, National Review"It is an ashtonishing story, told in a way that keeps general themes clearly in sight while lovingly attending to the particularities of people, pracises and beliefs" First Choice