With the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, the multitude of sects claiming Jesus gives way to a state religion, imposed by the sword and unified by the doctrine. For the young Judeo-Christian civilization, time is a conquest. Philosophy places itself at the service of faith to explain, justify and transmit the divine mysteries. In this second volume of Decadence, Michel Onfray allows us to navigate a period often known by the unique prism of church art, and to discover the mechanisms of subjection of bodies and minds implemented by a civilization then expanding. Following Cosmos, philosophy of nature, Decadence proposes a philosophy of history and is part of the great cycle 'Brief encyclopedia of the world' that stops with this latest release. "Decadence is neither a history book nor a manifesto. It's an inner novel."