Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

Let me say at the outset that I try to be a rationalist and am an atheist. I came to this book looking to understand Christianity, which like any other religion inspires in me a quiet unease, given its reliance on faith in the supernatural rather than seeking a rational understanding of our world. I have found that although called a religion 'of the Book', Christianity cannot be understood by reading the Bible alone (as I have), because that tells you nothing about its evolution or how it is actually practiced in the world today... or about the concerns and issues that face its adherents.To say I'm happy I read it is an understatement. It is a slog, being of a size normally reserved for the door-blocks belted out by authors of high fantasy. It took me (a reasonably fast reader) over three months to read properly. I took plenty of breaks for long trawls on Wikipedia, when persons or subjects explored in the book caught my fancy though.The style of the book is lucid yet academical. While it reads more like a story than a textbook of history, there are copious footnotes that make up nearly half the volume of the Kindle edition I read. There is also a well curated selection of photographs/ plates that add to the reading experience. I mean it as a compliment when I say that while reading it I wasn't sure if the author was himself a believer or not because he's found the right mix of passionate story-telling, dispassionate description, and at a times, tongue in cheek jibing.As the sub-title suggests, this covers about 3000 years of history from the pre-Christian era to the final chapter that looks at the period from the 1960s to the George W Bush presidency in the US. That is a vast span, which the book nimbly covers.It starts in the pre-Christian era, and describes the Greek (and Roman) influences alongside the Jewish heritage that went into the melting pot of ideas that was the early Christian Church. Without dwelling too much on the historicity of the life of Jesus, it covers what few facts of his life are known, and moves on swiftly to matters of doctrine and creed and dogma. It lays before you an array of beliefs - sects, prophets, heresies, ideas come and go and Christianity swiftly evolves into several branches - the 'Catholic', the Orthodox, and eventually the smorgasbord of Protestant faiths.To my delight as a etymology fan, along the way it shows the origin of such words as "Presbyterian" (from the Greek presbytoros or elder) "Episcopal" (from the Greek episkopos or overseer). It also delighted me as a trivia fan by revealing quirky things like the "Jesus Messiah Sutra", authored in the local sutra style by some of the first missionaries in China.There were a lot of surprises for me as I read through the book, the sutra being just an oddity. The presentation of Rome, Istanbul, and Moscow as the three centers of Christianity one after the other was a surprise, as was the overall history of the Orthodox Churches of the East, and of such other lesser known (to me) churches such as the Bulgarian. Each variant (from the earliest schisms at the Council of Chalcedon to the modern phenomenon that is Mormonism) finds mention and some explication in this book; no mean feat in itself.My only complaint was that this book did not spend more time discussing the 20th and 21st century. Although it mentions or name-drops every 'hot topic' I had expected to find mentioned - be it the abuse of children by priests, or the Evangelical interest in the Israel/ Palestine issue - I found myself wanting more discussion and elaboration on some of the points. That said, I do understand that in a work that covers 3000 years of history, such a focus might be puzzling, even off-putting to some.I think this is a must read for anyone interested in history or religion. It is one of those books that informs and changes your world-view. I have more respect for some aspects of Christianity after reading it, but reading the long and blood-soaked history, when so much of the blood was shed on what seem to me inane questions, was depressing. My exhilaration at learning so much was therefore tempered. So what if the author closes on a hopeful note?

I read this book over the course of two years from cover to cover and have learned an immense amount about Christianity that has really helped me understand the worldy influences that brought Christianity to where it is and was while I was being raised in my non denominational church in Detroit Michigan. Tracing Christianity in its various forms throughout the ages has both strengthened my belief that God lives and uses people to glorify Himself on a grand scale, and at the same time deeply saddened me to learn of the great departures from His will that the Church has taken constantly throughout history.In terms of its effect on my own personal faith journey I feel paradoxically that this book driven me further from both Catholicism and all established Protestant variations as well while never making making me actually question God Himself. (Save for acquiring the sad knowledge that Darwin was a Christian until the age of 40 and never tried to dissuade others from the faith, only admitting to atheism as the result of persistent questioning. The quiet, older flights from Christianity are the most heartbreaking to me) Away from Catholicism because of the growing elevation of the words of men over the word of God - Mary living a sinless life when Jesus was the only truly sinless human, the continuing sacrifice of Jesus in the Eucharist when Jesus said himself that it is finished, the atoning for one’s own sins through works of penance when Christ sacrifice is the only atonement needed for our salvation. And away from Protestantism because of its inherent lack of authority to establish a single-minded church to the point that it has become so fractured that many churches today in fact have their own denomination with their own creeds and statements of faith. This lack of ability to exclude heretical practices has lead to the creation of countless denominations that have jettisoned all historical practices and knowledge of the Church and in their place have create their own unprecedented ways of going about following in the footsteps of Jesus.Yet every good thing in society, even further everything in Western society has been greatly impacted by Christianity and it’s adherents. Hospitals, the care of orphans and widows, education, morality in general, the prevention of the atrocity of abortion, marriage, our calendar, our expressions, our conception and definition of right and wrong have all been dictated and created by the Church which was created by God. And nowhere else can someone find comfort and purpose in times of trouble or abundance than in the guidance of the Bible. It is an unavoidable fact that the well intentioned scholar who creates their own universalist and vague explanation of the meaning of life does not understand the meaning of life half as well as the farmer who has simply committed to doing their job on earth with all their might, loving the wife of their youth, and loving the Lord with all the heart, mind, and strength.In the end I’ll probably create my own version of practicing Christianity based on the Bible and the writing of the ante-nicene church fathers or join Catholicism and consequently accept their seemingly absurd interpretations of scripture that are ever evolving on the basis that whatever understanding I can come up with on my own is probably no better than system that has served God’s faithful (arguably) since its founding at Pentecost.

Strongly recommended for family viewing by all faiths and creeds.

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I think if you write 1000 pages on anything, it’s going to do the job, therefore, being 1016 pages long, this book is an amazing and staggering odyssey of the history of who we are, particularly for us Western Asians, Europeans and westerners etc, however, a lot of the book also deals with Eastern Christianity, mainly centred around Asia Minor and Constantinople (the Eastern Roman Empire). The book is about the spread of Christianity from humble beginnings to world domination, to that end absolutely every country and continent that has been touched by Christianity is mentioned in this book. From small beginnings in ancient Israel to Asia Minor (Turkey), Greece, Rome, Egypt, Ethiopia, Spain, the British Isles, Germany, Poland-Lithuania (a country of religious tolerance and pluralism) Russia (from Greek Orthodox I think), China, India, Japan, Korea, America, Mexico, Latin America, Australia etc (the list goes on and on), practically the whole of planet Earth is covered. The eastern and western churches are a major theme throughout the book, namely Orthodox and Catholic Christianity and how they became separated, also obviously the Reformation and Protestantism are major themes. All the myriad different schisms of the eastern and western churches, such as miaphysite and dyophysite, which basically mean the belief in either the oneness or dual (human and divine) aspects of Jesus Christ respectively. Also the chalcedonian and non-chalcedonian confessions are a major theme. Also obviously, the myriad of sub-confessions of Protestantism and the Reformation are also a major theme throughout much of the book, too many to recount here. It’s crazy because most of the chapters of this book, excepting the last two are a successful and all together pleasing, forward, happy and ‘good news’ kind of a story of Christianity. The only negative or slightly depressing bits in all but the last two chapters are the Islamic surges in and conquests of Christendom, mostly depressingly of all Byzantium (the eastern Roman Empire), parts of south Eastern Europe and Spain. The Muslims even reached into France and were defeated at Battle of Tours, also called Battle of Poitiers in October 732 AD. So that is the only depressing bit in 90% of the book. Then come the last two chapters which deal with the twentieth and twenty first centuries, and GHEEZE what a sad and weird story the ‘history of Christianity’ is! I don’t mean this book, the book is absolutely amazing, but the actual and inescapable ‘history of Christianity’ is a sad and lunatic story. Obviously, after the world wars, the Holocaust and the scourges of both Nazism and Communism, Christianity (or is it just Europe?) completely just bottoms out. After the Holocaust, the westerners (mostly Protestants) can’t control a thing, I mean such as the 1960s cultural revolution and its sexual liberations etc. They can’t even control, contraceptives, abortions, same-sex marriages and women ordinations etc. The last two chapters send shivers down your spine and make you gulp! Out of the doom and gloom of the twentieth century you cannot help but think ‘GHEEZE this is not going to end good!’ Definitely nobody, post-Holocaust is listening to the Pope or the Catholic Church regarding such matters. It’s such a sad and depressing story. However, thankfully, Diarmaid MacCulloch kindly picks up and ends with a warm, friendly and positive note in the last few pages. This book is by far the largest and longest book that I have ever read, save the Bible, however, it is different to the Bible in that it’s so fascinating that I couldn’t read it fast, (I averaged 14.3 pages a day), and it has you hanging on every word, especially (and ironically) the last two demoralising chapters. If you take on this massive and amazing book, stick with it, it is an odyssey, it is an achievement and you will get rewarded.

Recommended by those who have read it.