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colorlessgreenideasA History of Christianity in the World: From Persecution to Uncertainty by Dr. Clyde Manschreck
This was another book given to me by my minister back in June, just before the surgery. It was one of her seminary text books, and it reads like one. I'd asked her not to give me anything motivational, but interesting, and mentioned Christian history as a possible topic. This book, published in 1974, is 360 pages of every movement, theological discussion, and prominent personality in all of Western Christendom, with a chapter set aside for Eastern (mostly Russian) Orthodoxy. I could only get through a page or two at a time, which is one reason it took me six months to finish, but it's a fascinating history. The corruption! The massacres! The hypocrisy! The scandals! For a religion that holds itself in such high esteem, and presumes to condemn the behavior of others, Christianity has a lot of explaining to do. I don't know the detailed history of other large religions, but I'd be willing to bet that Christianity has the bloodiest. The numbers of people murdered in the name of Christianity or of Jesus must reach into the billions, if not higher, and far too often the "reason" was something so trivial as believing that only adults should be baptized, or that the bible should be written in the vernacular.
It is fascinating, also, that the book ends with the "common" feeling that "God is dead." In 1974, Dr. Manschreck had seen the rise and early fall of the drug culture, domestic and international violence, at least once world war, and the apparent failure of Vatican II. He predicted that Russian Orthodoxy would forever be a pawn of communist tyranny, and that Americans would drift farther and farther away from religion. It would be interesting to read his take on the subject today, if he's still around and writing.
This was another book given to me by my minister back in June, just before the surgery. It was one of her seminary text books, and it reads like one. I'd asked her not to give me anything motivational, but interesting, and mentioned Christian history as a possible topic. This book, published in 1974, is 360 pages of every movement, theological discussion, and prominent personality in all of Western Christendom, with a chapter set aside for Eastern (mostly Russian) Orthodoxy. I could only get through a page or two at a time, which is one reason it took me six months to finish, but it's a fascinating history. The corruption! The massacres! The hypocrisy! The scandals! For a religion that holds itself in such high esteem, and presumes to condemn the behavior of others, Christianity has a lot of explaining to do. I don't know the detailed history of other large religions, but I'd be willing to bet that Christianity has the bloodiest. The numbers of people murdered in the name of Christianity or of Jesus must reach into the billions, if not higher, and far too often the "reason" was something so trivial as believing that only adults should be baptized, or that the bible should be written in the vernacular.
It is fascinating, also, that the book ends with the "common" feeling that "God is dead." In 1974, Dr. Manschreck had seen the rise and early fall of the drug culture, domestic and international violence, at least once world war, and the apparent failure of Vatican II. He predicted that Russian Orthodoxy would forever be a pawn of communist tyranny, and that Americans would drift farther and farther away from religion. It would be interesting to read his take on the subject today, if he's still around and writing.
