Part of my commitment with theooze is to review books they send. I don't technically have to blog about them but I figure they're willing to send the books then I'll return the favour and review them. This time around I opted to peruse the latest attempt at summarizing Christian history from a Western perspective taking in Diana Butler Bass', "A People's History of Christianity. The Other side of the Story". (You can browse inside the book online here.)
How compelling....The 'Other' side of the Story. So why is there an 'other' and what would be the apparent 'current' side of the story?
To understand more about the premise of the book, it's important to understand the context of both the author and Western (American) Christianity. Generally the primary voice for Christians in America is the right-wing conservative perspective. That poses huge problems if generation upon generation of Christians believe that right-wring Protestantism is the only form of Christianity yesterday, today, and forever.
Most of that paradigm can be attributed to ignorance--people are simply unaware of rich forms of Christian traditions apart from their own.
Bass looks to combat what she labels as, "Big C Christianity," that tells a historical story that follows this seemingly exclusive progression:
Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Crusades, Calvin, Christian America
As a Canadian focused missional blog the ideas in this book aren't directed to Canada, but definitely the conservative brand of Christianity which relies so heavily on American conservatism in this country will benefit from her historical analysis. Americans will undoubtedly, assuming they bother to pick up the book, develop new questions about their history after reading.
Essentially Bass sees an issue that pegs Protestanism as the only form of Christianity and source of history worth looking into. It seems self-explanatory, even common sense, that Protestantism is one of many traditions in our faith. But since I don't live in her context I'm going to assume (not hard to agree) there are people who exclusively believe in 'Big C Christianity'.
The book itself is outlined in Five primary sections: The Way (100-500); The Cathedral (500-1450); The Word (1450-1650); The Quest (1650-1945); The River (1945-Present).
This isn't a traditional history book on Christianity, and as the title suggests, it is a 'people's history', meaning the stories of select individuals, who are largely forgotten in many historical summaries, are included. These individuals stretch across traditional boundaries and include mystics, desert fathers and mothers, aesthetics, monks, martyrs, and more.
Despite the attempt to stretch beyond Protestantism, which was accomplished, I still felt a blank when it came to Eastern expressions of Christianity. Perhaps the book was solely a reflection of the diversity in Western Christian history, but I still noted the vast forms of Eastern expressions and people that were mostly neglected. Since it's a history of Christianity it would make sense to include those connected into Christendom and not just Western Christendom....then again that would have extended the book into a two volume expression. I digress.
Dare I say it, the primary method of communicating her ideas was quite post-modern. Being a 'People's history' there are stories of people. Each section and chapter were introduced with narratives of people past and present. This form changed what could have been a boring account of systematic dates and events (as many previous history books have been), into an interesting conversation with characters and stories.
That in itself makes the book far more accessible offering the reader to, as mentioned, in the very least, ask different questions about the different impressions and contributions that make up North American Christianity what it is today. If I had a system the book would get 3.5 starts out of 5. But since I don't, try to browse its chapters when you have a chance, especially if you're searching for a more open perspective of Western Christianity.
For more on Diana Bass check out this video interview on her book.
[tags]theooze, diana butler bass, Christianity, history[/tags]