Customer Reviews

Introducing Christianity

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This is Christianity presented as philosophy without much theology. It is a snapshot for the historical record of Christ and his teachings using illustrations (cartoons) and notes on a timeline. This is a brilliant presentation. It can be very helpful for remembering the big picture when concentrating for long periods of time on something specific in Christianity (such as some doctrine). It is a very high achievement in liberal Christian thinking because its presentation is as philosophy not as theology. The book's presentation qualities can even be appreciated by conservative theologians.

However, being very liberal and a philosophy, it contains criticisms such as Christ not being God and the possibility of failed prophecies. It does not leave out the critics, nor does it make much of an attempt to list all the arguments and counterarguments in Christological apologetics. This means that it needs to be read with care and should not be taken as the final word on the subject but it does cover the whole range of issues in a snapshot and that is what makes it worthwhile. Imagine a collection of theology books from every aspect of thought captured in cartoons in the space of about 174 pages. It is the complete range of thought from Christ is God to Christ was just a human liberator.


Core material:

Creed
Constantine
Evidence
Pauline Epistles
Historical Jesus
Judaism
Jewish occupation by Assyria in 721 BC, Persians in 538 BC, Alexander 333 BC, Romans in 64 BC, Herod, half Arab. alf Jewish Idumean.
Old Testament
Jewish apocalyptic
Pharisees open minded
Sadducees traditional
Essenes apocalyptic (Qumram)
Man as masterpiece of creation by Greek Antigone in 5th century BC
Logos 20 BC to 50 AD by Philo of Alexandria
Plato was believed to have had a miraculous birth
Pythagoras (580 BC - 500 BC), son of God Hermes
Alexander (350 BC - 323 BC), the Great, son of Zeus
Augustus (30 BC) God mercury
Moses, Enoch and Elijah raptured
Preaching foolishness, death on cross humiliating
Life of Jesus
Miracles and science
Jesus Un-Jewish?
Imminent Apocalypse
What did Jesus meant
Kingdom of God
Imminent return?
Jesus converts gentiles, crumbs from master's table mat 15:21-28 and mar 7:24-30. joh 10:16 is about laying his life down for those who are not of his fold.
Jesus anointed in luk 7:37-50
Kingdom of poor
The cross
The resurrection
Martyrs
Acts
Pauline Christology
Jesus and divinity
Heresy
Anti-sex?
Arianism
The Anthropic principle
Pantokrator Jesus is all
Imperial religion
Persecutions
Christendom
Poverty
Meditation and devotion
Revolutions and Crusades
Luther
Calvin
Contemporary Jesus
Jesuits
Catholic Mystics
Sacred heart
Liberation theology and political
Assent
Redemption

I bought this book as a sort-of refresher on the basic concepts of Christianity. In the past I read the Introducing Buddha, Islam, and Marxism books and found them easy to read, entertaining, and fairly clear. Unfortunately this is not really the case for Introducing Christianity. I expected a more chronological and basic concept for the book.

Logically (I thought), a book like this would be written for someone without a knowledge of Christianity or a Christian background. In this purpose, it doesn't work well. I have some knowledge, but this book often uses confusing terminology that may be familiar to persons who have studied the bible or are religious Christians. To others, it just makes the text too dense at times. The book does not start with what would be considered the basis of Christianity, the Old Testament. Rather, it jumps right in to the concept of Jesus being the basis of Christianity, without the necessary background of the Old Testament. There is a fair amount of material on the changing perception of Jesus throughout time, the middle ages to recent South American history. There is some brief material on the Reformation, that I believe, is unsubstantially presented to facilitate understanding the present form of Christianity, especially in the West. (Interestingly, information about the persecution of Protestants in England and elsewhere is not in here). The sections on the relationship to politics is relevent, but I'm not certain that manner of the treatment is warranted in an "introducing" book about the religion itself.

This book strikes me as having a very thick middle, with little beginning or end. It does not discuss much about early Christians (pre-Jesus) nor does it connect to the present day substantively. Also, I found the illustrations less engaging than the previous books from the series that I have read. This book was published in 2000, with the text and images copyrighted in 1993. The edition notes that it was originally published in 1993 in the UK under the title "Jesus for Beginners." Certainly that is a more accurate title for the work and renaming it as encompassing Christianity is a disservice to the work and misleads purchasers as to its content.
As mentioned by an earlier reviewer, this is not a theology book. However, I would not consider it to be an unbiased work either. Though the author attempts to balance (believer and non-believer) with the addition of philosophical material, the book ultimately leans towards the believer. (My opinion). It is not, therefore, simply a book of historical facts, bible stories, or analysis.

This book might be of interest to someone with some knowledge of Christianity, but it would be unlikely to be helpful to someone with no background in the subject already.