Includes bibliographical references (p. [405]-416) and index.

Thomas Aquinas and "the triumph of faith" -- The quest for certainty -- The quest for virtue -- Changing political contexts: Alexander and the coming of the Hellenistic monarchies -- Absorbing the East, Rome and the integration of Greek culture -- "All nations look to the majesty of Rome" : the Roman Empire at its height -- The empire in crisis, the empire in recovery: political transformations in the third century -- Jesus -- Paul, "the founder of Christianity"? -- "A crowd that lurks in corners, shunning the light": the first Christian communities -- Constantine and the coming of the Christian state -- "But what I wish, that must be canon": emperors and the making of Christian doctrine -- "Enriched by the gifts of matrons" : bishops and society in the fourth century -- Six emperors and a bishop: Ambrose of Milan -- Interlude: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus and the defence of paganism -- The ascetic odyssey -- Eastern Christianity and the emergence of the Byzantine Empire, 395-600 -- The emergence of Catholic Christianity in the West, 395-640 -- "We honour the privilege of silence which is without peril": the death of the Greek empirical tradition -- Thomas Aquinas and the restoration of reason.

Describes the first alliance of church and state in the fourth century, marked by the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity, and how this decision irrevocably compromised the Roman Empire's intellectual tradition of rationalism.