Home :: Books :: Religion & Spirituality  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality

Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Christianity: A Global History

Christianity: A Global History

List Price: $21.95
Your Price: $14.93
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 2 stars
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: 2 stars
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: 5 stars
Summary: A lively global survey of events and beliefs
Review: From the dark days of the Inquisition to widespread missionary conversion efforts around the world, and the manifold conflicts between the Christian Church and other world religions and movements, David Childester's Christianity: A Global History surveys the rich historical pagent of Christianity, including its changing foundations, and the actions of those who operated within and outside the Church. A lively global survey of events and beliefs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An unbiased historical review of Christianity
Review: Historically revealing and presented in an unbiased, non-confrontational style, this book takes a look at Christianity from a historical perspective. This book covers Christianity from its beginnings to the current age of Internet surfing. The author disects Christianity by focusing on geographical regions to start with and then chronologically within those regions. Although it covers the entire span of Christian history, I thought the author should have given the origins of Christianity much more attention. The other portion that I found somewhat lacking was the development of the various Protestant denominations. However, this book was well rounded in its approach overall and worth the time and effort to read. If you're looking for a book to discuss the general development of Christianity, this book will do nicely. If you are looking for a book to describe the differences between denominations and their roots, I suggest looking elsewhere.

Rating: 4 stars
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: 4 stars
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: 4 stars
Summary: Misnomer
Review: This is a very complete review of Christianity the world over and the author has done much research. For this he deserves a near excellent rating. However the title is misleading. It should be "AntiChristianity". It's obvious that the author has a 180 degree bias. He mostly makes worship and devotion look ridiculous without giving any compensating factors. It should be pointed out to the author that "Faith - Belief" does not require scientific proof. In fact I doubt that these things can be proved scientifically. Furthermore if something can be proved, it does not require faith. It is a fact. Scientists are forever stating facts - or are they? Maybe next year it will be changed.

Let's take a look at Chapter 2 on Jesus. "Jesus was born in the Galilean village of Nazareth sometime between 6 and 4 B.C.E., shortly before the end of the reign of King Herod the Great. He was raised in a pious Jewish family, the eldest of five brothers and several sisters."

This, to a faithful Christian, requires some proof. None is given. The birthplace is not traditionally correct and the Virgin Birth is obviously deep-sixed. Why bother saying "between 6 and 4 B.C.E? Why not on August 22, 5 B.C.E. at 6:05AM. The author might as well go "all the way" without any proof.

If you have a strong Christian faith, it might be fun to read this book - like you would a humorous fiction. It should not disturb your faith. However, if you are weak in faith or are "looking for a way out", you could not read better.

Rating: 3 stars
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.


<< 1 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates