Reddit reviews Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

This is the ultimate book of church history. I highly recommend it, it's lengthy but well worth the time investment.

Personal research, mostly. I'm a big history nerd with a slant toward religion and other macabre subject matter. I'm actually not as well read as I'd like to be on these subjects, and I basically blend different sources into a knowledge smoothie and pour it out onto a page and see what works for me and what doesn't.

I'll list a few books I've read that I enjoyed. There are certainly more here and there, but these are the "big ones" I was citing when writing all the comments in this thread. I typically know more about Christianity than the other major faiths because of the culture around me.

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years - Diarmaid MacCulloch

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - Karen Armstrong

The next two balance each other out quite well. Hardline anti-theism contrasted with "You know, maybe we can make this work".

The Case for God - Karen Armstrong

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins



Lately, I have been reading the Stoics, which like Buddhism, I find to be one of the more personally palatable philosophies of mind I have come across, although I find rational contemplation a bit more accessible to my Westernized nature.

Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters - Translated by Moses Hadas

Discourses and Selected Writings (of Epictetus) - Translated by Robert Dobbin

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - Translated by George Long

I'm still waiting on Fed Ex to deliver this one:

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine

Also, if you're into history in general, a nice primer for what sorts of things to dive into when poking around history is this fun series on YouTube. I usually watch a video then spend a while reading more in depth about whatever subject is covered that week in order to fill the gaps. Plus, John and Hank are super awesome. The writing is superb and I think, most importantly, he presents an overall argument for why studying history is so important because of its relevance to current events.

Crash Course: World History - John Green

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch is a pretty good read (so far, about 1/3 of the way through). It's a recent work, covers a lot of aspects of church history, seems pretty balanced, and is giving me plenty of questions for further reflection and study.

Christianity: I've heard that Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch is fantastic. I haven't read it. It's called "Christianity", not "Catholicism", but it might work for you given that Catholicism pretty much was Christianity until (relatively) recently.

French Revolution: Citizens by Simon Schama.

Can't help you with Zoroastrianism.

Yes, the humans that are Christians have a long history of fighting with each other over various intertwined religious and political points of view. Teasing apart the political from the religious is by no means a small task.

Many of the above and many more throughout history were in fact connected to church teachings. Well, I suppose that depends on how your tradition defines "church teachings", but it's often found in official church policy and the writings of many so called heroes of the faith. Remember, both the Catholics and the protestants in the 1600s were burning heretics at the stake. John Calvin, himself a reformer, wrote in favor of the death of Michael Servetus for taking reform too far, and embracing damnable heresies.

The platonic ideal of Christianity (if existent, no two groups of Christians can seem to agree on what that is) is of course not responsible for these behaviors of it's followers, but it's hard to deny that the history of Christianity from the first holy war, rise of orthodoxy and expulsions for heresy under Constantine until now is not littered with conflict. If you think I'm pulling your leg, go read "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years". It's over a thousand pages of the history of Christianity. A large amount of those are about the many conflicts that have occurred, and their origins.


Sometimes the conflict is cerebral, sometimes political, occasionally descending into violence and very seldom even torture. It's true the conflicts have been varied, but denying the conflicts exist is simply untenable.

This is a very good book on the history of christianity. It's long (just like it needs to, but good).

A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch (who is not himself Catholic, or even Christian)

Look into the Council of Nicea. I'm sure you can find some great books at the library as well. Not only did it lay down a lot of foundational doctrine and canon law that you say you're interested in, it was the first of several church councils that continued to occur largely under the auspices of the Byzantine government.

Also, this is a really good book on church history, which I think covers that period fairly well for a book so broad in scope.