A New History of Early Christianity [Paperback]

Here's another boy, like Hitchens and Dawkins, who is heading straight to Hell in a handcart, and who will die roaring.

Mr Freeman seems to be allowing for the possibility that some at least of the early Church Fathers and Bishops were sociopaths, bullies, brawlers, graspers, corner boys, crap artists, flimflam men, carpet baggers, potential participants on The Jeremy Kyle Show, or any combination thereof. Pick of the crop from these bruisers would seem to be Saints Paul, Jerome and Augustine - a formidable triumvirate of head-the-balls with whom you would not like to have a drink, and to whom you (most emphatically) would not want to introduce your girlfriend.

Fair enough, one or two of the nascent Church's leaders might have been a bit dodgy in terms of the stuff Jesus is supposed to have banged on about: love, good deeds and giving up riches or whatever - sure didn't his brother James try to keep that stuff going after the Crucifixion but there was no market for it even in those days, in fact he bought the farm because he wouldn't catch himself on. And maybe when Constantine turned the tide in their favour they were a tiny bit unsympathetic to the opposition, lost the rag a couple of times and instigated a few persecutions, massacres and whatnots, defiled and/or wrecked a shrine or two, destroyed the odd magnificent library collection, stifled curiosity and intellectual progress for a wee while, even encouraged and exploited a cult of credulity, but this is all part of life's rich pageant surely, and, anyway, worse things happen at sea, get over it. That was then and this is now, and if the secularists who hold sway so abusively today can't grant believers the tolerance and right to live that believers never granted them ... well, it's a quare conundrum and a terrible hard pancake.

Mr Freeman fails to recognise the true genius of such divinely inspired heavyweights: when it came to clarifying doctrine they knew how to dig a hole and keep digging. (And this tradition still flourishes, as a quick look at the other reviews and comments here will attest.) The Virgin Birth, Three Persons in one Godhead, Christ 100% divine/100% human, 'begotten not made', 'of one substance with the Father' - no, they weren't just having a laugh, these lads were deep. The Classical philosophers (always stupidly asking how) couldn't hack it, but our men (asking why and what's in it for me) sweated and fretted themselves grievously until the Emperor lost the bap and told them to shape up or ship out. With their minds thus focused, and the Emperor clearing their desks and collecting the empties, they got the big questions down hunky-dory and well understood, sometimes, such was their acuity, without having to refer at all to Scripture!

So, all in all a top read. Written in an engaging, accessible style; short, easily digested chapters; well researched; good maps, very useful glossaries (for when you get a bit confused as to who is and isn't a heretic - like treason, it's a matter of dates!) and a great further reading section. Paperback well made, nicely presented, bound a little too tightly so if you insist on opening it flat you will break the spine completely, but no matter. Highly recommended and a worthy successor to Chadwick.

In memoriam Christopher Hitchens (1949 - 2011)

A Bright Lantern in a Murky Night

Not since I read Theology at Cambridge some years ago have I experienced such an intellectually and spiritually refreshing approach to the origins of Christianity. How many authors are prepared to face the challenge of taking a genuinely historical view of the tangled beginnings of Christianity? Charles Freeman patiently and lucidly uncovers the complex and contentious upheavals of the first five centuries when isolated groups of Christians were both struggling with their own understanding and competing with the different emerging beliefs of other groups, while intermittently facing political persecution and the insidious dangers of political patronage.

Freeman's enquiry takes as a starting-point the historian's observation that the emergence of Christianity has been probably the most important influence on western civilisation in the last two millennia; his account also accepts that this transforming movement undoubtedly had its origin in historical events in the first century AD. The crucial question, however, is "How much can we know about those events and how much do their details matter in evaluating the subsequent development of a theology and church structure?" He does not set out to undermine Christianity in this book, rather, to shine a light on its foundations and, given that Christianity makes unique claims about its historical founder, to offer the historian's tools for uncovering the evidence about him. Some readers may be disturbed to encounter for the first time the confusion and conflict which characterised the early centuries of Christianity, but more will be reassured by being led through a dispassionate survey of the evidence, which pays due attention to the doubts and queries shared by so many Christian enquirers, which are too often obscured by conventional religious language, or suppressed as irrelevant or irreverent by orthodox authorities.

Scriptural evidence is fundamental to this enquiry, as other types of evidence are conspicuously absent for the first two centuries, and Freeman has quarried deeply into recent scholarly research to illuminate the saga of the compilation of the New Testament and the difficult issues of the authenticity of its constituent documents. His account maps the documents within their original geographical communities wherever possible, and sets out the many linguistic difficulties arising from their origins and subsequent processes of edition and translation. He is particularly insightful about the enigmatic figure of Paul, whose focus on crucifixion and resurrection, sin, sacrifice and redemption provided much of the raw material of the later creedal controversies. During the first four centuries Christians grappled with an emerging theology ranging from Jesus the Aramaic-speaking friend of fishermen to the cosmic Son-of-God figure responsible for the creation of the universe. They tried to disentangle his original teachings and figure out the morality of daily life while simultaneously attempting to close off routes into heresy, involving contortions such as the self-contradictory abstractions of the Trinity. Add to all this the political calculations of Roman emperors desperate to maintain cohesion in their empire and ruthless in the exercise of their authority, and you have the raw materials of a sort of primeval soup, so rich that subsequent generations of Christians have selected from it all kinds of flavours, so dense that perhaps no one can see the through the murk. Through relentless concentration on the evidence, Freeman shows in a measured and lively account how the different ingredients of Christianity evolved. This is not a condemnatory book; rather, an enlightening liberal critique of the problems which arise when people seek to resolve diversity of individual perception by imposing exclusive orthodoxy. For any reader prepared to seek his own way, rather than looking for someone to tell him what to believe, this book is certain to be a lantern to his feet; it may even be a guiding light.

Anthony Stanton, MA Theol. Cantab, Dip. Ed. Oxon

In this book Freeman simply treats Christianity as a professional historian would any other subject. Which means using the latest and best research possible, and filling the gaps in that research where necessary with clearly indicated reasoning and best guesses. It would take a very small mind indeed for even a committed Christian to object to this book simply because it isn't based on the assumption that his own faith is correct. Thoughtful Christians will find this book just as interesting as those atheists and agnostics who appreciate Christianity's historical importance.