Rating: 
Summary: Too much information
Review: The late Paul Johnson liked to write thick books that are difficult to read, but quite complete on each subject. If you need one reference on the history of Christianity, this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: The best accessable popular history of Christianity
Review: This is an excellent effort in detailing the history of Christianity for non-historians. The author has the credentials and passion for giving the reader the facts in
a well written and entertainig way.
The struggle for the creation of a faith is very well detailed with the early councils and synods of the Church. What Christians believe today and why they believe it is clearly spelt out.
The index could be more thorough and in-text references to
the extensive bibliography would be welcome additions.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but too opinionated
Review: To be entertaining sometimes you have to be provocative and simplistic and this book is rarely boring. To those who like their history to be balanced, however, this book will disappoint. In his History of America, Johnson tries to stir the pot with his lavish praise of Nixon and utter condemnation of Kennedy. Here, Johnson will again condemn a movement based on a couple of stupid if entertaining, letters written by some of the less intelligent adherents but rarely takes a serious, balanced look. I've always believed that to defeat an opposing argument you have to put it in the strongest possible form. Otherwise you are just preaching to the choir. However, to entertain you make the other view look foolish and poke fun. Johnson is an entertainer.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent history with a huge blind spot
Review: Trusting a committed Catholic to write the history of his religion is a bit like leaving the fox to guard the chickens.This book is an excellent overview, and it includes some of the darkest episodes of Christian history, but the author actually imagines that "all implementations of freedom in the world spring from Christian origins" (or words to that effect). Athenian democracy, for example? Give us a break! It is much more accurate to say that modern democracy began to arise during the Renaissance, as educated men inspired by Greek philosophy rebelled against the tyranny of the benighted priests. But Paul Johnson would never say that! Read with caution.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately Dissapointing
Review: When reading Paul Johnson, one expects a top-notch product. Despite his impressive intellectual scholarship, Johnson fails to adequately describe to laymen how a religion whose leader was crucified nearly 2000 years ago, a despised religion with scant support and whose leadership fell to a small group of non-intellectuals, survived persecution. The religion of Jesus should have collapsed- why didn't it. Johnson doesn't really tell us. Johnson seems to want to preen his superior scholarship at the expense of explaining why and how Christianity grew in popularity with actual people. With regards to more recent events in Christianity, Johnson shows some great weaknesses. He spends more time explaining the failed attempts to Christianize east Asia than he does in explaining the various Christian movements in the United States. In fact, he largely ignores the fact that fundamentalist Protestant denominations in the United States are easily the most vibrant sects in what is historic European and American Christendom. As a Roman Catholic who supports the liberal takeover of the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican 2, Johnson fails to acknowledge the steep decline in the Catholic Church since Vatican 2.
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