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Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2009)

by Diarmaid MacCulloch(Favorite Author)

4.07 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0670021261 (ISBN13: 9780670021260)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking/Penguin Group (USA)

review 1: After reading this off and on over the course of 18 months, I first simply need to praise MacCulloch for the sheer achievement of synthesizing so much information and presenting it with good prose and intelligent analysis. But while the history is compelling and engaging, the book thoroughly depressed me. As a Christian, I was disheartened to read how consistently the church has been motivated by politics and power and not by love and grace, as its founder envisioned. It is very hard to argue that the Holy Spirit has been the main guide through most of our history--an important lesson, but a hard one.
review 2: I read this book because my Ancient/Medieval Philosophy Teacher recommended it and one of my favorite intellectual topics is Church History.This book is... more the comprehensive, one-volume history of Christianity. I was riveted by the title "Christianity: the First Three Thousand Years." I thought the book was going to make a point about the origins of Christianity, and how the ideas in Christianity were eclectically taken from other religions to incorporate into the gospel story (i.e. Buddha's temptation lasted 40 days, 40 nights; Jesus was tempted in the desert 40 days, 40 nights). However, the book only briefly mentioned Greco-Roman thought and the history of the Hebrews before diving into the story of Jesus and the early church.I am more inclined to interpret history from a protestant prospective because I have read some interesting books on Church history from a protestant perspective. Basically, their was the early church which was very underground up until about the time of Clement when there was an establishment of episcopal hierarchy, then eventually universalized by Constantine into the Roman Catholic Church. the Protestants are inclined to say that everything went bad when there was a church hierarchy established, and then Catholics say that they saved the church from the persecution of the 1st and 2nd centuries when Christianity was looked down on by the Romans. The book was non-biased and looked at things from a balanced perspective nonetheless. There were parts that less interested me than other parts, for instance, parts on the Byzantines, the Russian church, etc. (although I have not read many books on the theology of the eastern church). My main interests were the pre-christian beginnings, the early church, the reformation, the 17th century religious wars, enlightenment, and then the 19th-20th century church. I liked those parts especially because I am a fan of people like Martin Luther although I am an agnostic-atheist. I loved the quote MacCulloch put in the final paragraph of the book: "One great encouragement to sin is an absence of wonder." I thought that this hinted at a profound insight. The remedy to the sense of sin, discontent, and frustration in the world is to find curiosity and wonderment at the world. To question, to read, to be fascinated. These help change our mindset from being perpetually cross with the world at its apparent pettiness and conflict, but delighting in knowledge and being fascinated cures us of that rotten existential condition that is often termed "original sin."The book is a great and exciting read. I read MacCulloch's book on the Reformation when i studied the Reformation for a bit. He is supremely knowledgeable on Church History, and his book on Church History was thoroughly interesting. less

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