Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

I don't know why I've been so reluctant to post on Diarmaid MacCulloch's brilliant history Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (#600).  It may have something to do with my reluctance to give it up as a close companion during the third year of EfM.  Weighing in at over a thousand pages, with an additional seventy-seven pages of footnotes (and yes, there's plenty of additional information in them!)  this is not a casually-undertaken read.  What it does do is lay out the thinking and beliefs that prepared the world for the impact of what at first was an obscure Jewish sect, and trace how that sect grew and spread to become a major world-wide religious movement. 


Ever wonder why there are so many kinds of Christianity out there, or why we don't all believe the same things?  This book explores the time lines, places and people involved.  It explained so many things for me, being raised Roman Catholic.  It is the kind of reading that could make your head explode if you have a very narrow vision of what Christianity is, or should be.  Again, this is not a book which espouses a single dogma; it is a history, and as such chronicles to the best of the author's ability what has happened in the tumultuous growth of Christian beliefs.  You will meet many characters here whom you will recognize, but equally as many that you probably will not, but may wish to learn more about.


That's what I appreciated most about this book: it made me think.  Over the course of the nine months I spent reading and discussing this book, some questions were answered for me.  Many more were raised.  I am usually extremely reluctant to mark up or write notes in any book of mine.  For Christianity, I made an exception, and added several pounds' worth of additional ink to the pages as I commented on the many items that struck me.  Diarmaid MacCulloch is the perfect person to lead you on this journey, if you're willing to go.  He was concise, insightful, snarky, and never, ever dull for me.  What better gift can an author give than to open a whole new world of thought for the reader?