J's Pages

by Richard Fletcher

I've read a number of books on the history of Christianity in various parts of the world. One book I haven't sought out is the history of Christianity in Europe. I figure it will be essentially the generic church history I originally learned, growing up in a culture with western European roots. (and with a western European bias.) This book, however, caught my interest. It's not really a chronicle of the history of the Church in Europe as it is an attempt to try and discover how Christianity spread amongst the various peoples of Europe. It was a bit of a challenge, the author admits, as historical records in the early medieval period--especially those about the old pagan cultures--are scant. But Dr. Fletcher worked with what he had and put together a meaty book. It's a more scholarly tome, looking to piece together the evidence to illustrate general principals rather than a story. But it did a dimension to the historical tales I already knew. I could better envision how the new churches in a newly christened culture might work... or not work, as was sometimes the case. The principles Dr. Fletcher pieced together also pointed to similar things going on in our modern day, be it in the mission field or in those "Christian" cultures that aren't quite pure. 

Check it out.
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Labels: CheckItOut, HistoryOfChristianity

by John Garrett

My wife and I have picked up a number of books on the history of Christianity. We had just about all of the inhabited continents covered except for Australia. My wife sent out to rectify this  and found this book. It actually did not cover Australia, but instead told the history of Oceania--the islands of the southern Pacific. It was an interesting and somewhat surprising book. The recent centuries of the growth of the Church has been tainted with its involvement with Western imperialism. The introduction of Christianity into the South Seas likewise hitched a ride with the imperialists, but those Islanders who became Christian embraced the faith and ran with it. (Well, actually they used boats, but you know what I mean.) While To Live Among the Stars is somewhat terse in it's storytelling, it does give a good sense of what the times, people and places were like.

Check it out!
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Labels: CheckItOut, HistoryOfChristianity

by Ondina and Justo González

Among the history books on my shelf are works covering general church history (with a strong European focus), Christianity in Asia, Africa, the United States and Canada. Having read all of these, it was inevitable that I should try to read up on what happened in the church in South America.* The uncle and niece team of Justo and Ondina González have put together a wonderful little book which does a good job of covering the past 500+ years of Christianity in Latin America. After presenting the theological and social state of the church in the Iberian peninsula in the late 1400s, the doctors González show how the religion was planted and grew amongst the natives of and immigrants to those areas of the Americas conquered by Spain and Portugal. They also show how the church in turn was affected by the Christians of Latin America. At 310 pages, it's not an exhaustive study. But it does give an excellent overview that's written with a view and respect for believers amongst the rulers and oppressed alike. It's a book that I'll definitely try to add to my collection.
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* Of course, it took my wife to actually obtain such a volume in a timely manner, but we won't go there.

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Labels: HistoryOfChristianity, OnMyShelf

by Mark A. Noll

I wanted this book so I could improve my knowledge of the history of Christianity. While I did do that, I think I learned more about American history in the process. Professor Noll traces the history of Christians in what has become English North America and shows how their beliefs interacted with their behavior. The book starts out as your typical historical narrative. After the First World War, however, that story breaks down and the format shifts to look at different trends and people that impacted Christianity for the rest of the 20th Century.  

'Tis on my shelf.
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Labels: HistoryOfChristianity, MarkNoll, OnMyShelf

by Samuel Moffett

Finally! I've been "reading" this book since forever. It shouldn't have taken that long, but it was an easy book to put down. This one is the second part of Dr. Moffett's historical overview of Christianity in Asia. It picks up in the year 1500, where Volume I left off, and covers four centuries (more or less) of the church's activity. Professor Moffett cycles around the continent, covering a block of time in each region (with the exception of "Western" nations like Russia and the middle east) and then repeating the process for subsequent eras. That's what made it easy to put down. A chapter on, say, Japan in the 17th Century, wouldn't necessarily lead me to jump into the next chapter covering Korea. The flow of the story was broken. Of course, if I had been really fascinated by the happenings in Japan, I could have easily skipped ahead to the next Japanese chapter and continued the tale. Maybe I'll do that the next time I read the book. Yes, I will be keeping the book. It's a great resource, overflowing with information. I didn't enjoy Volume II as much as I did Volume I, but I don't know if that's necessarily a failing of Professor Moffett. Volume I covered times and places with which I was totally unfamiliar, hence I found the book fascinating. Volume II, in contrast, had a flavor that was less exotic. From the sixteenth century onward, the Christian churches in Asia were interacting with Europeans. The cultural and ecclesiastical conflicts were all too familiar. But don't let that prevent you from picking this up and giving it a read.  

Check it out!
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Labels: CheckItOut, HistoryOfChristianity

by Elizabeth Isichei

Most books I like or dislike from the get go--this one grew on me. I picked this up from the library after seeing it on the shelf at a bookstore. At first I was a bit skeptical of its quality -- I have a 500 page book called The History of Christianity in Asia that covers the first 1500 years and Isichei's book covers that same period in her 32 page first chapter. But the book certainly had more information than I had ever read, so I checked it out anyway. I was impressed. I felt a combination of pride and guilt when reading the accounts of my fellow Christians. The pride came when reading of the many who suffered for their Lord, enduring physical violence from enemies or prejudice and exploitation from supposed friends.  The guilt came in when identifying with those Christians who fell short, both the European missionaries who tried to bring in too much culture and the African leaders who tried to throw out too much truth when establishing their own identity as God's people. Professor Isichei tells of them all, pointing out their shortcomings without demonizing them. I still might wish for a more extensive history, but this book is a good overview and I could always stop being lazy and check out the books referenced in her notes. Anyway, it looks like that bookstore is going to be getting my money anyway, when I get around to putting this on my shelf.

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Labels: HistoryOfChristianity, OnMyShelf