2,000 Years of Christ's Power, Vol. 2

2000 Years of Christ's Power (Vol. 2) by Nick Needham

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This is a hard book for me to evaluate. It has a lot of virtues, but in a very subtle way it communicates an unfortunate undercurrent of anti-Catholicism, despite, I believe, making a heroic effort to avoid that vice. This assessment is not surprising. The book is written from an unapologetically Evangelical perspective and I am a Catholic with a deep interest in history.

The book is part of a longer series that surveys Christian history from the beginning to the present day. This book offers a broad survey of history beginning with the eruption of Islam into Christian lands outside of Europe to pre-Protestant anti-Catholic religious movements. This survey is broad and informative. It often takes a deep dive into particular subjects. The language of the book is extremely accessible and the subjects are invariably interesting. A very nice feature of this book is that at the end of each section, the author, Nick Needham, provides textual excerpts from some of the sources he's mentioned.

Much of this is very good. I particularly liked the section on St. Gregory Palamas and the dispute over Hesychasm. As an introduction to a very difficult and arcane topic, it was first-rate and well worth the price of the book. Likewise, the section on Scholasticism laid down the basic teachings of the centuries-long line of Schoolmen in a brief and intelligible way.

Although the recounting of this history takes a long and longed for step away from anti-Catholic tropes, it still manages to slip a few of the traditional tropes into the mix. For example, the presentation of the Crusades is premised on Catholic aggression against peaceful Muslims. The myth of peaceful Muslim Spain is promoted:

“The most tolerant and fruitful Christian-Muslim relationships were those of Muslim Spain (or the “emirate of Cordova”, as it was called in the Islamic Empire).

Needham, Nick. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (p. 29). Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

Given the fact that Christianity was virtually exterminated in Muslim Spain, it's not clear how tolerant these relationships were. A recommendation here is to read “The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise by Dario Fernandez- Morera to become acquainted with the dark side of this history.

Likewise, the Muslim conquest is explained by the nobility of its soldiers:

“Arabia. Within a hundred years, they had created a huge Islamic Empire, stretching from India to Spain. The world had rarely known armies like this before: brave, tough, completely sober (Islam did not allow Muslims to drink alcohol), and burning with a zeal for their faith which made them unafraid of death.

Needham, Nick. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (p. 20). Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

In none of this is the real desire for loot and wealth acknowledged. Arab warriors had a long tradition of raiding and much of the Muslim conquest was prefigured by years of raiding which destabilized the target prior to conquest.

The way this trope works is that Evangelicals tend to conflate peacefulness with being Christian and start tut-tutting about those war-like Catholics betraying Christian principles by being so beastly and war-like against noble and peaceful Muslims. What this trope leaves out is the fact that the Muslims were occupying lands that had been Christian for centuries and were gradually exterminating Christian populations through continuous pressure such as heavier taxes and social discrimination which could be alleviated through conversion. This pressure was periodically punctuated with bouts of violent persecutions, resulting in genocides.

This book doesn't mention the damage done to Christian Europe by the constant raiding which took millions of Christians as slaves and resulted in Muslim attacks on Rome itself. If Christianity had not learned to fight back, then Christian populations in Europe could easily have gone the same way as Christian populations in the Byzantine Empire. Since this book is about 2,000 years of Christ's power, some due interest in the legitimacy of Christian resistance, and the backstory that justified that resistance, ought to have been presented.

Another trope involves the Inquisition. The author writes:

“It developed into the most feared organisation of the later Middle Ages. Once the inquisition had accused a person of heresy, it was almost impossible for him to prove his innocence.

Needham, Nick. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (p. 319). Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

This is pure nonsense, according to modern scholars. In the Great Inquisition in Languedoc following the Albigensian Crusade, 5,500 men and women were questioned by the Inquisition. Out of this number, according to “The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245-1246 by Mark Gregory Pegg:

“In the two hundred and seven known sentences that the two friar-inquisitors pronounced in a series of general sermons given, largely at Saint-Sernin, between Sunday, 18 March, and Sunday, 22 July 1246, only twenty-three did not involve having to wear yellow crosses. Instead, these twenty-one men and two women who had “shamefully offended God and the Church” were all punished with perpetual incarceration in a “decent and humane prison.”

If you read other books on the cases that appeared before other Inquisitions, you learn that the Inquisition took due process very seriously and often released the accused where there was a lack of evidence. (See Kagan, Richard L.; Dyer, Abigail (2011-07-21). Inquisitorial Inquiries.) The Inquisition had a light footprint when it came to convictions.

To his credit, the author doesn't spend a lot of time on the Inquisition, but there are few references to it that are fresh meat for anti-Catholics.

Finally, a really unfortunate slip of anti-Catholicism occurs when the author writes:

“The more fervent worshippers of Mary declared that in heaven Bernard bore a blemish on his glorified breast to atone for what he had said against the Virgin.

Needham, Nick. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (pp. 201-202). Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

I really believe this is an unfortunate error on the author's part. The sense I get from the generally irenic tone of this book is that the author wouldn't intentionally intend to slander Catholics with the “Catholics worship Mary” lie, but, unfortunately, this sentence sets back a desirable ecumenism.

To his credit, the author encourages his readers to take an interest in medieval history, even the Catholic parts because, according to the author, the Reformers were born in the heart of the Catholic Church. He observes:

“As an heir of the Reformation and a Church historian, I often find myself telling people that the great spiritual and theological movement set rolling by Luther and Zwingli was in fact the best elements of Western medieval Christianity trying to correct the worst elements.

Needham, Nick. 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (p. 9). Christian Focus Publications. Kindle Edition.

In volume 1, the author explains his model of Christian history whereby Christian history can be thought of as a growing person: Birth>Child>Teenager>Adult, with the Middle Ages being the child and the Reformation being the teenager.

So, fine, we have explicitly stated something that many Protestants probably think. I know that I had a law partner tell me one evening his sincere belief that Catholicism was “transitional paganism.” I personally don't think this is a helpful or truthful way to model history.

So, I probably can't recommend this book to people who don't already know enough history to read it in an informed and critical way. On the other hand, I may refer to it as a quick source of names and dates. The textual excerpts are excellent and can be a useful springboard for further reading.