Rating: 
Summary: biased
Review: Ms Ellerbe has, I feel, reminded us of the "black side" of what so many people did in the name of Christianity. I question some of the information the author used for her writing. I also could see a strong slant toward the Wicca religion. I feel one should read the book with an open mind and, not take what one book says, as the complete truth. There are several gaps in quotations that I would like to do more research on. Especially on bible quotations, so I question some of the other "complete quotes". Lots of "finger jabbing" toward Orthodox Christianity. However, with this all said, from my point of view, I did enjoy the hard work Helen Ellerbe has put in to the book to let us all know that we need to spread the love of Christ, not hate, to brother and sister, whatever race or background. One cannot come to Christ, driven by fear, but in love. I think every Christian who follows Christ, loves the things that he has created. I think reading the book has opened my eyes for more research on what history has neglected to bring out about the Church. For that I thankyou, Ms Ellerbe.
Rating: 
Summary: Detail Drones Committed to Christ?
Review: I found several reviews--such as J.Esparolini's review--of this book downright laughable. You should worry LESS about dotting i's & crossing t's & concern yourselves MORE with how oppressive the Christian movement was & still is! Let's face it. Modern day Christianity is no different a "Boys Club" now than it was back during the Burning Times. We need to take notice of this. Otherwise "The Boys" will continue to face a backlash from the Feminist Movement as well as lead lonely existences w/ empty beds.
Rating: 
Summary: A good, quick read on church history
Review: I'm certainly no scholar on church history, so I don't know what Ellerbe has left out or misrepresented. I will say that this book was easy to read and offered an overview of the most heinous acts of the "Christian" church. She portrays the church's maneuvering and grasping after control, power, property, and money, its devaluing of the earth and its cycles, women, sexuality, freedom of thought, enjoyment in life and its celebration, etc. It's a sad book and a sad history. I had difficulty with the second-to-last chapter. It attempted to show the current mechanistic world view as having evolved from the hierarchical church structure. It was far too brief. In summary she wrote: "Unity and oneness within an orthodox Christian belief system are perceived to come from sameness and conformity, not from the synergy and harmony of difference." As a Christian of 25 years I can attest to the truth of this statement (and so also can the thousands of sects and denominations under the Christian umbrella) and it is in conflict with the teachings of the man it hopes to emulate. The man Jesus taught that the greatest shall be the least and serve others, that no man should judge another, that God's message was Peace on earth, good will toward men, and that the kingdom of heaven is within us. That the "Christian" religion as depicted in this book should represent itself as based upon Christ's teachings is inconceivable. There truly is evil in this world. I imagine if you're already versed in church history that this book won't add anything, because it is very brief, but if you've never read anything about it you can get a good overview.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't meet my expectations
Review: I am a big fan of religious critique and Humanistic texts, however in my library this book is one never touched. When I read such works much of the trust lies upon the research of the author. However this work is literally the sum of other peoples works! There are no direct references to anything more than hearsay. No historical doccumentation. Although I know quite a bit of her demonstrations are accurate, I like my personal opinions to be based on the facts rather than possible rumors. If you really want it, I suggest you go through the bibliography and look through all the books she coppied to put in her own.
Rating: 
Summary: A poorly researched, badly written rant and rave
Review: Ms. Ellerbe alleges to give us an unbiased look at the evils of the christian church, yet from the very start, she is biased, for no accurate history focuses just on the negative, you have to take the positive into account and when you do you'll notice how far the positive outweighs the negative..yet let's leave that aside for the moment. What Ms. Ellerbe gives us is a poorly researched (if you look at her sources, the vast majority are second hand accounts)and badly written rant as to the errors the church has commited. Yes, the church has commited errors, but she is mistaken when she says that nothing has been written about them, had she strolled to her local library or bookstore, or come here to amazon.com, she would have found at least 2 dozen different titles, on this subject. Even if she couldn't find them, what sort of an authority is she to write such a book? She has no theological foundation, she is not a historian, in fact her only tie to religion is her wiccan practice. and ummm....how does that apply to expertise on Christian history exactly?? Ms. Ellerbe would have written a good book had she researched well, stated only the facts, and left her agenda out of it, when i picked it up I didn't want to know how natural spirituality was at odds with Christianity, I wanted to read about mistakes the Church had made. thanks Ms. Ellerbe, but next time advertise your book as what it is, a hogwash of semi-facts, liberal distortion. One thing I can say for the book.....It was mercifully short!! I love the quote on the back of the book "by denying evil we do harm. by denying darkness we obscure light" Ms. Ellerbe doesnt realize that not everyon has denied the mistakes of the church, and she also doesn't realize that you can obscure things by shining the wrong light upon them. Yes I admit there are many books out there that portray innacurate histories of the church, but by writing her book, Ms. Ellerbe didn't clarify them, she added to them.
Rating: 
Summary: fairly well-done
Review: Often enough, simplistic and tendentious, though not offensively so. Moreover, naive with regard to the scientific enterprise. In any case, I believe Ms. Ellerbe's intentions are good and many of the horrors she documents are, to my knowledge, verace. Probably not the best book of its kind, but still interesting.
Rating:
Summary: It's about time
Review: This is a wonderful book. I'm glad it is finally out. All of the religious intolerance of the early church is brought to light. The facts should not be used as a reason to hate the church; but, they help us all understand that claims of a divine right to speak for God are all false. If you liked this book , I would also recommend the book An Encounter With A Prophet. The author of An Encounter With A Prophet would no doubt be burned at the stake if organized religion still had the power it had in the middle ages.
Rating:
Summary: Good overview from outside the academy
Review: Ellerbe's book is a good antidote to establishment scholarship on the issue of Christianity's past. As with Christianity and many other areas of established power, exposing the underbelly will almost always come from outside the citadel. As one reviewer noted, if anybody knows of another book on the subject more worthy, please name it. Similarly, books on the Inquisition are not easy to find. As is typical, attacks on Ellerbe's work will focus on her lack of credentials, her lack of primary sources (while ironically making their own unfounded claims, like that an Islamic army burned the Alexandria library, a notion more suspect and unfounded than what Ellerbe presented). While not having as many primary sources that more formidable scholarship would require, the bias of the scholar sifting through the documents is often more important than how primary they are. Very unfortunately, works like Ellerbe's are all too few, which is predictable, as the powerful have numerous ways to minimize critiques and exposures of their crimes. Ellerbe's book is a fine introduction to topics long off limits in Western scholarship. If the reader wants more scholarly attention given to some of the dark aspects of Christianity, I can recommend Michael Parenti's History as Mystery, chapters 2 and 3, where he deals with the elitist aspects of the early Church, and you will see him echoe themes from Ellerbe's book.
Rating:
Summary: Some Truth Stuffed Into A Big Distortion
Review: This book, cleverly written by Helen Ellerbe for the simple minded is extremely well crafted with style. She is a good writer and the editors did a good job in regards to pictures within the text. With that said, my compliaments end. She has written a book that uses "Straw Men" like a fish drinks water. The problems with Christendom have been plenty; however, so have the successes. As a matter of fact, the successes far outweigh the failures. She fails to understand the dynamics of serious scholarship and treats the early and middle aged church as evil bishops and popes who suppresses evidences for power. These broad brushing assertions are just intellectually silly. Her non squiturs are many and logical fallacies often. For example, she writes on page 22, "Two popes would ban the seventeenth century Spanish unu Maria d'Ahreda's book, The Mystical City of God, for implying a trinity between God, Mary and Jesus. All allusions to the value of difference were lost." If the difference is in error, is it of any value? Of course not. There is in no way can anyone can induce or deduce a trinity from New Testament documents and early church writings. The matter is truth, not difference! I'm not Catholic, but this is why they banned the book. She further has a chapter asserting the churches role in the Inquisition and slavery. Yet, most of the people punished in the inquisition were other Christians and it was the illogical out working of "Orthodox Christian" teaching, which is what she disdains - othordox Christianity. Further, slavery receives very little mention at all. The entire chapter is devoted to the inquisition. Finally, she disregards important social structures of the time that led to many problems in the church such as the Investiture Controversy that led to kings having much of the say in church affairs and the appointment of bishops. She further fails to mention that it was the church that rid of slavery, educated the poor, and cared for the sick. The subject needed more diligence and intelelctual honesty. There were and still are problems in Christendom, but lets please keep our intellectual faculties in place and not allow our agendas, whatever they may be, scew the pursuit of thruth.
Rating:
Summary: negative reviews show there is still a problem
Review: I have read this book many times, and each times it shocks and horrifies me more than any Steven King book ever could. It horrifies me because it is true. It tells the true story of christianity, how it has been the tool and servant of tryants for two thousand years. This book documents in great detail christianities crimes against humanity. Lastly reading peoples comments on this book leaves me frightened again, when will christians ever stop critizing that which they do not understand. The kind of christians who critizied this book are the exact kind of christians who sodomized, raped and burned women for there lord and savior Jesus. As for her having a pro-feminist agenda, how dare she demanded to be treated as an equal when Paul "err I mean God" says women are inferior. Heck why is she upset over witches being burned when the wonderful word of God says to kill them. Of course she should sit down and except her loot right christians. She should be grateful that in these barbaric times we treat women as equals and dontburn them. Right all my jesus freaks
|
