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Video Review: From the Ancient Near East to the Modern World

June 19th, 2010 at 05:00am Albert McIlhenny

History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years – Diarmaid MacCullough Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc (March 2010) Topic: Church History Summary: Six-part video series on the history of Christianity and its role in modern society Rating:

A look at Christianity’s history from someone who readily admits he does not hold the Christian faith might be approached with some trepidation. Many times it descends quickly into an anti-Christian tirade about sins real and merely allged with no attempt at perspective. This is often even more the case when supported by a major television network.

Diarmaid MacCullough’s A History of Christianity, a six episode series produced by the BBC, clearly demonstrates there can be exceptions to this rule. While not himself a Christian believer, MacCullough sees himself as a friend and admirer of the Christian faith who also is a historian of religion. He uses his expertise together with keen insight as he travels the world in search for the roots of the Christian faith and its growth to a world religion.

Episode 1 begins with a forgotten part of Christian history: its roots in the ancient Near East. Christianity did not begin with Europeans but in Asia and its early success in the continent is an oft forgotten part of the Church’s history. The great lost churches of Asia and North Africa are now either extinct or a fraction of their former size but once this area seemed destined to be Christian. MacCullough examines this ignored part of the Church’s lineage and appreciatively reflects on its mystic traditions as it continues to worship – often under severe persecution – in a variant of the very language Jesus spoke.

From the persecuted to the powerful, the focus then switches to the development of Roman Catholicism. This begins the tale of what happens to Christianity when it shed its former status as an oppressed minority and became alligned with the rich and powerful. The results, as discussed, were not always pretty or very Christian. The overall result was a combination of grandeur and savagery as the collapse of civilization in the West, the rise of feudalism, and waves of barbarian invasions and plagues took its toll. The result was a church that filled the void left by a diminished secular authority and alligned itself with regional powers througout Europe. It also built a theological system that would be challenged as the West crept back from the abyss.

MacCullough’s attention next turns to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. He recounts the glory of Byzantium and its grand Church of St. Sophia and the theological controversies that gripped the Eastern Church during the patristic period and later. Unlike the West, the Christian East never suffered from the “Dark Ages” as Christian literature and culture continued for centuries until the combination of invading Islamic forces and the shameful sacking of Constantinople by its supposed allies in the Christian West left Byzantium a shell until it was finally extinguised in 1453. Now under Muslim domination in Greece and elsewhere, the Church still held sway in Russia and found itself in a symbiotic relationship with the Tsarist regimes until their overthrow by the Communists in 1917. MacCullough notes how the Eastern Church continued to affect the cultures where it existed its new challenges in the post-Communist era.

The turning to Protestantism, the series splits the development into two parts. The first covers the period of the Reformation and the development of the beliefs of Lutheran and Reformed theology. Particular attention is given to the latter as it would come to exert a great influence on the establishment of the British colonies in the New World and eventually the history of the United States. This is further brought out in the next installment that covers the growing emphaisis on a personal religious experience that has played such a huge role in Evangelicalism as it has spread its message to the world. Even now, as the hold of Christianity falters in much of the West, it is growing by leaps and bounds in places where it once had little influence.

The final installment, largely MacCullough’s personal reflections on Christianity in today’s world, is perhaps the most problemmatic for Christians. While sympathetic to the role of Christianity in culture, he is thoroughly modern in his outlook. Thus it is to be expected that he would like to see the Church stick to the “love and tolerance” part of the faith and play down the “dogma” end of things. In this, he fails to notice that it is precisely that strategy that has landed the “modern Church” in its current predicament. Without a proclamation of the Gospel in its fullness, there is no Church and there is no calling of the lost. Those churches that have acclimated themselves to mere moralism quickly become irrelevant. Despite the unsatisfactory nature of his analysis, it is still important to be reminded this is how much of the world outside the Church sees the Church.

Overall, the series is infomative, entertaining, and visually stunning in its presentation. While having a bit of a “secular” outlook, it nonetheless is very evenhanded in its presentation. Unlike much of what we have seen from television presentations of Christianity’s past, this is one that genuinely attempts to be fair and not merely fall into various stereotypical presentations. This may be the best overview of Christianity from outside the Church you may see in your lifetime.

Entry Filed under: Church History, Miscellaneous