Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

Despite the intimidating page count, this is a fantastic introduction to the whole history of Christianity. It begins well before Jesus, placing the formation of Christianity into its broader world context, and continues right up to Benedict XVI.

For such a huge undertaking the book is thoroughly researched (and referenced!), easy to read, and wryly humorous. It is entirely non-judgemental on what we might now today call mistakes made by the Church (by the same token there was no crowing about successes, either), but MacCulloch doesn't shy away from tackling those hard topics with the same even-handedness he shows the whole topic.

For an academic student of the Church, without a religious affiliation, it has been an invaluable addition to my collection and my brain.

Short comments: This is a long book that attempts to take the whole of Christian history and its religious pre-history and document it all. I think it was a great attempt to use the tools of a historian to look at a religious history. I think most people will learn a lot and be much better for it. There will be a few that are put off by the author's secular (but respectful) take on the Christianity. The parts when people will likely be most offended are the first chapters and the last couple modern chapters. On the whole this is an impressive book.

Final take on my blog post http://bookwi.se/christianity-macculloch/

The rest of the posts I did earlier.

My first blog post is at http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch/ This takes me basically up to the end of the apostles and the beginning of the generation of Christians after Christ. So far this is a fascinating book.

Part two takes me through the early centuries of the Christian church up until soon after the time of Constantine. You can get this post at http://wp.me/pE5zo-Mf

Part three is about the early Eastern church from Ethiopia to China. http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch-part-3/

Part four is about Augustine the the rise of Western thought. http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch-part-4/

Part five is about the influence of the monasteries in the West and the crusades. http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch-part-5-crusades-and-monasteries/

Part six is about the differences in how the Eastern and Western churches approached theology and how one can talk about God. http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch-part-6-theology-and-understanding-of-god/

Part seven is about the rise of the Orthodox church until 1800 http://www.mrshields.com/christianity-the-first-three-thousand-years-by-diarmaid-macculloch-part-7-eastern-orthodox-to-1800/