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A History of Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500 (Revised)

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This work is generally known as a modern classic of Church History. If you are looking for a basic, comprehensive survey of Christian Church history, this is it. If you want something easier and faster than LaTourette, I would recommend Bruce Shelley's "Church History in Plain Language". However, LaTourette is superior. If you want something more comprehensive than LaTourette, I would recommend the 5 volume set by Jarslov Pelikan.

Latourette does a masterful job of presenting a comprehensive history of the Christian religion in a readable form. This is an overview of the subject from the time of Christ to just before the Reformation (Vol. 2 picks up after 1500). Latourette doesn't just focus on the Western world or on institutional religion, but on Christianity in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, some of the personalities behind the history, and on popular movements within Christianity (some of which - such as monasticism - became institutions in their own right). This is an excellent scholarly overview on an enormous topic that makes it interesting for the average reader.

Readers should be aware that this study was first published in 1953, and despite light revision reflects the state of scholarship half a century ago. We've learned a LOT about the history of Christianity since then, and many of the sweeping assumptions of this book (e.g., in the ghastly section entitled "The Darkest Hours: The Great Recession, A.D. 500-950") have been thoroughly discredited. The bibliographies for each section don't include works published in the past half century (despite the so-called revision). Even the very language is dated, with its grandiose, sweeping style, capitalization of popes, etc. This book perpetuates a great many old myths, making the job of historians of religion just that much harder. There are now much better books on the market.

Anyone attempting to research the early history of Christianity soon wanders into a historical black hole, and it seems that two powerful institutions determined to create it. The reason is not clear; however, it may be that the Christian Church and the Roman Empire had entered into a conspiracy of mutual support. First, because they needed each other to control the populace, and, second, because they both were determined to eliminate Platonism: Justinian I, a dedicated Christian, because he had no further use for paganism and condemned it, and Christianity because an element of its leadership, particularly Church Father Tertullian, had always detested any connection with the philosophy of the pagan Plato (and, incidentally, Church officials surely respected their alliance with the newly-Christianized Empire but just as surely feared its power).
How did Plato figure so prominently in the development of Christianity? Here again, we almost have to reconstruct history. Strangely, Jesus had said almost nothing about either the Father, the spiritual realm, or their relationship with humanity. Plato, on the other hand, felt that "What matters most is our knowledge of God," and, using logic and his fertile imagination, he determined what God's attributes must be, and he incorporated these ideas into his philosophy. As Benedictine monk, Bede Griffiths said, ". . . we sometimes forget that our theology was originally formed in the school of Plato." The combination of Jesus' fragmentary and undeveloped spiritual mysteries and Plato's logically-based philosophy produced a faith-reason presentation that captured the imagination of the civilized world, converting the hostile Roman Empire in five centuries.
While Latourette admits to the paucity of information regarding the history of early Christianity, he similarly "reads between the lines" of history and reconstructs that which reasonably must have happened and the reasons therefor. However, being a prominent advocate of Christianity, as it has evolved, he minimizes the Platonism problem, as Christianity itself has done for the past 1500 years. Nevertheless, Latourette's effort represents the best, by far, that I have so far found. Hopefully, others and perhaps even Christian leadersthip, will make an effort to determine why this particular black hole exists and add intelligent contributions to eliminate it, thereby reconstructing this missing Christian history.
Curiously, the problems that came with "revised Christianity" are beginning to be noticed. In his recent book, The Doors of the Sea, theologian David Bentley Hart, in commenting on the suffering and death of innocent people, states "It is a strange thing indeed to seek peace in a universe rendered morally intelligible at the cost of a God rendered morally loathsome." That astonishing claim, for those willing to realize and accept it (and not many Christian leaders will), is the result of Platonic Christianity having been expunged, with this resulting and obviously unintended blasphemy existing disguised within Christianity's own doctrine. Accordingly, any attempt to shed light on the "Black Hole of Christianity" is going to be difficult, as Dr. Hart undoubtedly is finding out. Hopefully, however, more objective and qualified people will join the effort, and if Platonic Christianity never again sees "light of day," we can hope that revisions of Christianity in the future may resemble the lucidity and rationality that Plato contributed to its initial formulation. As Latourette has so masterfully reconstructed that history, Christianity met with disaster after it formed its alliance with Justinian similar to that which the Empire itself faced as it distintegrated. Might Platonism be resurrected and once again come to Christianity's rescue?

Amazingly, even though this two-volume history has over 1500 pages, it still is way too shallow. Latourette is an expert historian who wrote a different, 7 volume church history, but condensing it into these two volumes didn't work.

Reading this history gives a feeling like a museum tour which started very late, with the guide only having time to point to objects as the tour runs through the museum: "And over there is such-and-such, while over here is this-and-that". Terms are not explained, doctrines are not even summarized, and details of events are not included, so that all in all this just seems like an outline. Also, the Author seems to favor certain areas which he is expert in, while neglecting others. Making all this worse, the index is inadequate even though it is almost 40 pages in small print.

One example is that the Pentecostal / Charismatic movement is almost totally skipped, which is inexcusable even considering that these books were written back in 1953 with an appendix added in 1979. Methodism is covered in several pages, but one still can't even begin to grasp what it meant to be a Methodist and what the doctrines are.

In summary then, these books are really just an outline of Christian history. It seems best to read this history while connected to the internet, ready to look up all the unexplained doctrines and movements. Additional history and doctrine books are required to get details in any area.

I picked up a copy of Kenneth Scott Latourette's A History of Christianity, Volume I: Beginnings to 1500 at a used bookstore a year or two ago, and its place has finally come up in my queue. I have to say it was quite a chore to read and extremely disappointing. There's a lot I don't like about the book, so I'm not sure where to begin. First, Latourette has such a pro-Christian bias that it is hard to separate out his judgments based on an objective analysis of the facts from his judgments based on his own personal religious beliefs. This is tied into a second major problem: there's no footnotes or other citations, which means that the reader has no idea whether any given assertion is well-grounded in historical fact or scholarship. Third, Latourette likes to make extremely broad generalizations and has no tolerance for conflicting evidence or interpretations of history. He accepts, uncritically, that everything in the four gospels are historical fact, has little interest in discussing why certain texts were canonized in what today we consider the Bible and others weren't, spends just a handful of pages on the Crusades, writes barely a single page on the Inquisitions, and makes a pathetic attempt to explain away Christian support of slavery as having offered "dignity" to the working man (p. 246). For what it's worth, I can say the book has a thorough (if boring) discussion of monasticism and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Still, suffice it to say, I have no interest in picking up Volume II.

Got here in a timely fashion. Book was wrapped in cling wrap, but it worked. Everything worked out great. Thank you.