"The Dream of Scipio" by Iain Pears

"The Dream of Scipio" recounts three major crises in Western culture. This is a novel of ideas, and not of fully-realized characters with a unifying plot.

This book deals with how a Roman nobleman in Gaul plans to deal with the threat of Euric the Visigoth in 475 AD. The second crisis occurs during the Avignon papacy in the fourteenth century, and the third major threat afflicts France and Europe during World War II. The principal premise here is the often-forgotten value of beliefs from the East and Asia. The Christian Church too often compels its adherents to act as nothing more than benighted, superstitious fools.