History of Christianity

Haven’t read — was expecting something different!

My first introduction to Paul Johnson was his  Modern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics) . I really enjoyed his perspective on things and his prose was very easy to read and understand. I decided to follow up with this volume since I have always had a fascination with Christian History. Most of my previous experience with Christian history was gleaned out of Durant's "Story of Civilization" series and snippets of early Christian History from Josephus and Gibbon. This is really my first time reading a volume dedicated to Christian History.I found that this book met my expectations. As expected it is difficult to compress 2000 years of history into a 500 page volume, but Johnson did an excellent job picking out highlights of Christian history. He weaves these facts into a big picture and brings out several things that I had not noticed before. An example would be roles the different orders of Monks played in society. I hadn't realized how diverse the different societies were, and some actually did play an important role in society at various times.The book consists of eight parts looking at the beginnings, the transition to a state religion, the time as a state religion, the rise of opposition within the church, the reformation with focus on Erasmus, the time of warring between Protestantism and Catholicism, a look at missionary work and the expansion outside of Europe, and finally a look at Triumphalism. Beyond that division though, there were no subdivisions, so it is difficult to use this as a reference book. There is an index that helps, but this is mainly a good book to get the big picture of Christian history. I recommend this book for someone looking for a good overview of history, but not for someone looking for a good reference book.

Paul Johnson's "History of Christianity" is an in-depth history of the Christian church, from the first century through most of the 20th century. It is a deep, intellectual dive into church history.This is an institutional and ideological history of the Christian church. The chapters are long and aren't focused on the details but are focused on the evolution of the ideas. At times Johnson writes almost stream-of-conscious, with one thought and theme flowing into another. However, despite the breadth and depth of the book, it is not a comprehensive history full of every little detail of church history. For example, Johnson doesn't even mention the adoption of the Nicene Creed, and the papacy's move to Avignon is mentioned in passing. Thus, it would not serve as a good reference.Johnson focuses on the conflict in the church and doesn't shy away from its institutional faults. However, he is a believer and does not bring cynicism to the table, just honesty. He does ultimately conclude that the church has provided hope and civilization to the West, and maybe it is God's will that church is in turmoil.

Packed with lots of information without no clear trail of thoughts. The contents are presented as anecdotal events heavily influenced by the author's historical perspective. Each chapter is about 60 pages with small fonts without any picture or other visual aids. It makes my eyes strained at times even only after 10-15 minutes reading. I hope the each chapter is re-organized with subtitles and with bigger fonts for the future editions. Despite of those shortcomings, I still recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about history of Christianity. Paul Johnson is a great storyteller with his unique perspective. As a layperson who doesn't have much background knowledge of the field, I had to frequently google the persons' names and historical events and theories presented in the book. It is painful to go through at times, but certainly it is rewarding and satisfactory learning opportunity at the end.

I’d like to read everything Paul Johnson has written, but I don’t think I could because he is 86 years old and still writing faster than I can read. All his histories are very readable and interesting, but academically respectable and copiously annotated. He sees the big picture as well as the small, has loads of interesting examples and details, and is even handed. He is Roman Catholic and a man of faith but details all the warts on all sides, so much so that it’s rather depressing at times but definitely disabuses one of any idea of a golden age of the Church. He is not really interested in theology and does not do much with the Councils. He gives the life of the church especially as reflected in civil society, but explains these effects in depth.Like most church histories written in the West, he mostly ignores the entire Eastern Church, where most Christians lived until modern times; to fill that void read also Kalistos (Timothy) Ware, The Orthodox Church. It is still the best one-volume work on the Eastern Church. The first half is church history, the second doctrine and worship.

I read this book with great detail and learned on the many mistakes made by the original church organisers. Particularly the editing of the gospels hit me hard. Words were edited and seems a copy and paste process went along or perhaps continues to move along in the church. The feeling of Jesus being left aside and replaced by a bureaucratic organisation is damaging as it is demonstrated here with historical information coming from respected sources. Things like eliminating limbo as if it was a department or adding prayers here do not enrich the Church but brings more doubts to reasoning. In summary I regret very much not having received in my catholic education at a catholic school a more veritable historic perspective of Jesus and its times before and after. I think the church needs to go through a self criticism process. Seems Pope Francisco aims to that. I hope he is allowed to do it. Christ deserves it.

This book along with his 'A History of the Jews' is a must read for us to remind ourselves of how the Christian religion grew and developed, of the immense struggles there have been to refind and value once again the 'rational' in our thinking, of how much more we have in common with both faiths than what divides us.

It is an outstanding book which along with A History of the Jews by the same author is a must read for us all to understand how we have come to where we are now.

Don't miss this history, by a great and honest writer.

Great book.

I bought this book because it had excellent reviews and I was looking for a treatment of the history of the Christian church that was not as liberal or post-modern as so many seem to be. This is a well written book with lots of detail but I couldn't make it out of the chapter "The Rise and Rescue of the Jesus Sect." My impression was that the author sees Jesus as fully human yet insufficiently divine; he also seems to think that Christianity would never have succeeded if not for the work of the Apostle Paul. The book is quite well written but after seeing how the author mis-represented the histories in the gospels and in Acts I could neither read nor trust its content and I quickly returned it.