 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Paul Johnson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | History of Christianity |
| Published | 1976 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | viii, 556 p. (1995 Touchstone edition) |
| ISBN | 0-684-81503-6 |
| 270-9002 | |
A History of Christianity is a 1976 study of the history of Christianity by the British historian Paul Johnson. [1] It has since been reissued and updated. The author aims to present a comprehensive factual history of the Christian religion.
In the Prologue, Johnson writes:
The narrative begins with Paul of Tarsus making his way from Antioch to Jerusalem, probably in 49 AD, to meet with the remaining followers of Jesus. [3]
Chapters include:
Part 8 closes by discussing the possible ending of the millennial-long East-West Schism. How far the ending of schisms within Christianity will go is to be seen. "[T]he argument about the control of the Christian Church is almost as old as Christianity itself; and it may be that it will continue so long as there are men and women who assert that Christ was God, and who await the parousia . Perhaps it is part of the providential plan that the organization of Christianity should be a perpetual source of discord. Who can say? We should remember the words of Saint Paul, towards the end of his letter to the Romans, the key document of the faith: 'O depth of wealth, wisdom, and knowledge in God. How unsearchable his judgments, how untraceable his ways. Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counsellor?'"(p. 514)
The Epilogue focuses on the papacy of John Paul II, his role in the fall of Communism, the Post-Soviet recovery of the Russian Orthodox Church; and describes the history of Christianity as a matrix for "a constant process of struggle and rebirth – a succession of crises, often accompanied by horror, bloodshed, bigotry and unreason but [with] evidence too of growth, vitality and increased understanding." The book "has necessarily stressed [Christianity's] failures and shortcomings, and its institutional distortions" [5] but in the context of "its stupendous claims and its unprecedented idealism."(p. 515–16) Johnson argues that Christianity is self-correcting, with an "outstanding moral merit to invest the individual with a conscience, and bid him to follow it." "[I]t is thus no accident that all the implantations of freedom throughout the world have ultimately a Christian origin."(p. 516) Indeed, "Europe was a Christian creation not only in essence but in minute detail."(p. 515) The apotheosis that Christianity has provided, Johnson writes, "has reflected an effort to rise above our frailties... [and, to] that extent, the chronicle of Christianity is an edifying one."(p. 517) [6]
Malcolm Muggeridge, writing in the New Statesman , describes the book as "masterly... [combining] great wealth of scholarship... with a vigorous, confident style." [7]
Alan Brien in The Sunday Times called it "vivid, colourful, clear and often at once impassioned and witty", a history "not be left to students and scholars" and "a treat for the general reader."
Richard Marius in The Christian Century writes that "Paul Johnson, an English Roman Catholic, has given us the best one-volume history of Christianity ever done." [7]
A Kirkus Reviews review characterizes Johnson as avoiding "all special theological pleading and abid[ing] by professional canons of evidence and objectivity." In fact, "he accents the conflicts, shortcomings, and institutional distortions and thereby effectively counters the homogenized interpretations of much orthodox church history." The book is termed "a bold achievement of compression and analysis." [5]
W.H.C. Frend's New York Review of Books review "Christians vs. Christians" described it as "brilliantly, if somberly and sometimes even wrongheadedly, told" and "a tour de force, one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity ever attempted and perhaps the most radical." [8]
Martin E. Marty's New York Times review of the book in October 1976 asserts that "whether one can represent Christianity in only 556 pages becomes pedantic and frivolous in the face of the fact that Paul Johnson has successfully done so." After Johnson's brief description of Jesus preaching the coming Kingdom of God, his death, and his followers' belief in Jesus's resurrection, Marty writes "along comes Paul,... the fanatic fool for Christ," and, for Johnson, "the greatest Christian," who "rescued Jesusism from its place among the more crabby Jewish sects of the day, picked up its hints of universal intent and then wrenched the faith and himself into a context where the 'salvation mechanism' is available for all people." Near the end, the review describes the book as "a reliable if hard-edged story of the public church." [9]
Donald Cantuar in Churchman (1977) expresses deep appreciation to Johnson's "tour de force", as for example in his estimation of Paul's impact: "The truth is that Paul did not invent Christianity. Or pervert it; he rescued it from extinction. Paul was the first pure Christian: the first to comprehend Jesus’s system of theology, to grasp the magnitude of the changes it embodied, and the completeness of the break with Judaic law." (p. 35) [10]
Colin Gunton's review in Religious Studies describes the book as "long and enthralling", though it recounts reasons of state "encompass[ing] in the name of religion the subversion of the truth" for much of Christian history. He characterizes Johnson's view of Augustine of Hippo "as the villain of the story" and Paul and Erasmus as its heroes. This follows from the Augustinian account as a "total Christian society," necessarily implying a "compulsory society." (p. 242) Johnson contrasts that account with the Pauline theology of truth and human rebirth and the Erasmian view of Christianity as in "full alliance with the Renaissance," including a distaste for persecution and oppression. The review cites Johnson's argument for Erasmus and Paul as providing pedigree of principles for the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers when "for the first time since the Dark Ages a society came into existence in which institutional Christianity was associated with progress and freedom rather than against them."(p. 428) [6]
Christendom refers to Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The history of Christianity follows the Christian religion as it developed from its earliest beliefs and practices in the first-century, spread geographically in the Roman Empire and beyond, and became a global religion in the twenty-first century.
The Great Apostasy is a concept within Christianity to describe a perception that mainstream Christian Churches have fallen away from the original faith founded by Jesus and promulgated through his Twelve Apostles.
Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in the long-established Christian community of the Roman province Africa Proconsularis and Mauretania Tingitana, in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus, Donatism flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries. Donatism mainly spread among the indigenous Berber population, and Donatists were able to blend Christianity with many of the Berber local customs.
The Edict of Milan was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire, which occurred in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica.
"Jesus is Lord" is the shortest credal affirmation found in the New Testament, one of several slightly more elaborate variations. It serves as a statement of faith for the majority of Christians who regard Jesus as both fully man and God. It is the motto of the World Council of Churches.
In Christianity, a martyr is a person who was killed for their testimony for Jesus or faith in Jesus. In the years of the early church, stories depict this often occurring through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake, or other forms of torture and capital punishment. The word martyr comes from the Koine word μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness" or "testimony".
Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia, bigotry, pontification, abuses of women's rights and sectarianism.
The doctrine of the Trinity, considered the core of Christian theology by Trinitarians, is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings. The most widely recognized Biblical foundations for the doctrine's formulation are in the Gospel of John, which possess ideas reflected in Platonism and Greek philosophy.
Christians were persecuted throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the 1st century AD and ending in the 4th century. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of Roman paganism and the Hellenistic religion, as Christianity spread through the empire, it came into ideological conflict with the imperial cult of ancient Rome. Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy. The first, localized Neronian persecution occurred under Emperor Nero in Rome. A more general persecution occurred during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. After a lull, persecution resumed under Emperors Decius and Trebonianus Gallus. The Decian persecution was particularly extensive. The persecution of Emperor Valerian ceased with his notable capture by the Sasanian Empire's Shapur I at the Battle of Edessa during the Roman–Persian Wars. His successor, Gallienus, halted the persecutions.
The persecution of Christians in the New Testament is an important part of the Early Christian narrative which depicts the early Church as being persecuted for their heterodox beliefs by a Jewish establishment in what was then the Roman province of Judea.
Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea, from where it spread throughout and beyond the Roman Empire.
The history of the Catholic Church is the formation, events, and historical development of the Catholic Church through time.
Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity developed out of the eschatological ministry of Jesus. Subsequent to Jesus' death, his earliest followers formed an apocalyptic messianic Jewish sect during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. Initially believing that Jesus' resurrection was the start of the end time, their beliefs soon changed in the expected Second Coming of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom at a later point in time.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christianity:
Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The first followers of Christianity were Jews who had converted to the faith, i.e. Jewish Christians, as well as Phoenicians, i.e. Lebanese Christians. Early Christianity contains the Apostolic Age and is followed by, and substantially overlaps with, the Patristic era.
Christianity in late antiquity traces Christianity during the Christian Roman Empire — the period from the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The end-date of this period varies because the transition to the sub-Roman period occurred gradually and at different times in different areas. One may generally date late ancient Christianity as lasting to the late 6th century and the re-conquests under Justinian of the Byzantine Empire, though a more traditional end-date is 476, the year in which Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, traditionally considered the last western emperor.
The "Little Peace of the Church" was a roughly 40-year period in the latter 3rd century in the history of the Roman Empire during which Christianity flourished without official suppression from the central government. It is particularly associated with the reign of Gallienus (253–268), who issued the first official declaration of tolerance regarding Christians. Among the series of imperial edicts that halted acts of persecution against Christians, one addressed to the bishops of Egypt has survived, recognizing places of worship and cemeteries as ecclesiastical property and restoring them to Christian ownership. The Church for the first time even asked a Roman emperor to arbitrate an internal dispute. In 272, after Paul of Samosata was accused of heresy but refused to be deposed as bishop of Antioch, Aurelian ruled in favour of his successor, who was in good standing with the church hierarchy.
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years is a 2009 book written by the English ecclesiastical historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford. It is a survey of the historical development of the Christian religion since its inception in the 1st century to the contemporary era. The first American edition was titled Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, published in 2010 by Viking Press, imprint of Penguin Books.