Christianity: A Global History

Rating:
Summary: Not so historical
Review: Chidester markets his book as "A Global History" of Christianity but it feels more like a mosaic of stories told over the centuries that illustrate the religious activities of Christians. Christianity is not depicted as a growing institution or community but rather as an example of religous development among religions. This is probably due to the fact that Chidester teaches comparative religion, not in order to become relevant to one's life, but, as he puts it, "[to engage] in developing resources for understanding religion in all its global variety and local specificity that can in principle be applied to the study of any form of religion." In other words, comparative religion is applied to Christianity in a global sense so we can understand religion better. A bit circular I think.

The whole scope of his work, therefore, lacks a coherent development. Chapters skip from place to place as well as from time period to time period creating a frustrating read. Not only so, but even within chapters the bulk of material is designed to tell stories that span a third of the chapter rather than making generalizations about Christianity in a region or time period. I knew much about one individual at one place in one time but practically nothing about the rest of Christendom outside the one person's story. While this has the effect of personalizing the practice of Christian religion it avoids presenting any thorough history of that religion.

Another red flag that gave me pause was Chidester's extremely flippant portrayal of historical events. When recalling the story of the life of St. Paul, for example (who even he admits is foundational in the development of Christianity), he recalls his conversion from Pharisaic Judaism by claiming that, "At some point, however, Paul decided that the Christ congregations might have discovered a novel way of expanding the scope of the people of Israel by embracing both the circumcised and the uncircumcised within one spiritual family under the same God." A far cry from Luke's depiction of Paul encountering the risen Christ on the road to Damascus or even from Paul's own description of being "apprehended by Christ Jesus." Such liberty in altering Paul's conversion story - whether believed by the author or not - does not inspire confidence in Chidester's historical accuracy elsewhere.

The book is good for providing stories (even if they're highly colored or fabricated) that are entertaining and insightful to religious activity of some Christians (not necessarily representative of the whole population) and, indeed, Chidester himself admits that his intent is to write with the pen of a novelist. But as far as providing a history is concerned, his work is seriously lacking. Many reviewers have noted the extreme difficulty of writing a one-volume history of all Christianity - which cannot be negated - but this does not relieve the author of the charge of taking seriously the attempt to write a "history." If Chidester had just named his work other than history it would not be so misleading.

For a good one-volume history of Christianity that is also global in aspect (and actually gives a history), I highly recommend David L. Edward's "Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years."

Rating:
Summary: Decent survey
Review: It is extremely difficult to write a one-volume history of Chrisitianity -- even if you are not pursuing it around the globe. Chidester has done and excellent job in keeping his focus broad, and not getting bogged down in the details. If, however, you are looking for a comprehensive work, one that explains everything about every major denomination, this is not it. But, even if that is what you are looking for, you may want to start here anyway. Chidester has provided a decent survey that can provide the unfamiliar reader with a good introduction.

Rating:
Summary: A reasonable introduction
Review: What is Christianity, is it the history of an idea or a series of institutions? Chidester the writer of this book is more concerned with Christianity as an idea. This contrasts a bit with other books on the topic of Christianity. Hans Kunne for instance has written a short history of the Catholic Church which is very much an institutional history.

One of the weaknesses of Chidesters book is that it is mainly doctrinal. It looks at the establishment of Christianity, its acceptance by the Romans and its revival after the collapse of the Western Empire. One thing which is missing is the history of the development of things such as the Cannon and the development of church structures. We know little about early Christian Communities and about the development of the Western and Eastern Churches as institutions.

Never the less this is something of a minor quibble. The history of Christianity is so vast that it is hard to discuss it in any detail even in a 600 page book. To make things more difficulty this is a global history with chapters on the development of Christianity in places as diverse as India and New Guinea.

The strength of the book is the development of the belief systeml. Thus he is able to chart the development of the interest in relics and icons. The development of Marianism and the intellectual tensions which led to the Reformation.

Although the book does not gloss over the shortcomings of Christianity, the persecution of heretics, ant-Semitism and the failure of the churches in Nazi Germany are all discussed the book is written from a Christian viewpoint. Thus there is no discussion about whether Christ existed as a historical figure or the controversy over the accuracy of the Gospels and New Testament.

The reality however is that the scope of the book is so wide ranging it is difficult to cover much of the material in depth. What could be seen as some as a little superficial would be seen by others as the compromise that has to be made in presenting what is an immense topic.